10.A. astonish B. fascinate C. amaze D. marvel
Part 7. Read the text and choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the
text. (5 points)
Life originated in the early seas less than a billion years after the Earth was formed. Yet another three
billion years were to pass before the first plants and animals appeared on the continents. Life's transition from
the sea to the land was perhaps as much of an evolutionary challenge as was the genesis of life.
5
What forms of life were able to make such a drastic change in lifestyle? The traditional view of the
first terrestrial organisms is based on mega fossils-relatively large specimens of essentially whole plants and
animal. Vascular plants, related to modern seed plants and ferns, left the first comprehensive mega fossil
record. Because of this, it has been commonly assumed that the sequence of terrestrialization reflected the
evolution of modern terrestrial ecosystems. In this view, primitive vascular plants first colonized the margins
of continental waters, followed by animals that fed on the plants, and lastly by animals that preyed on the
plant-eater. Moreover, the mega fossils suggest that terrestrial life appeared and diversified explosively near
the boundary between the Silurian and the Devonian periods, a little more than 400 million years ago.
Recently, however, paleontologists have been taking a closer look at the sediments below this
Silurian-Devonian geological boundary. It turns out that some fossils can be extracted from these sediments
by putting the rocks in an acid bath. The technique has uncovered new evidence from sediments that were
deposited near the shores of the ancient oceans-plant microfossils and microscopic pieces of small animals.
In many instances the specimens are less than one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter. Although they were
entombed in the rocks for hundreds of millions of years, many of the fossils consist of the organic remains of
the organism.
These newly discovered fossils have not only revealed the existence of previously unknown
organisms, but have also pushed back these dates for the invasion of land by multi-cellular organisms. Our
views about the nature of the early plant and animal communities are now being revised. And with those
revisions come new speculations about the first terrestrial life-forms.
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