​Vultures’ Job: Multiple Choice Grammar Test

In India, some farmers give ibuprofen - a drug (1) __________ pain relief and reducing swelling - to their cattle and other animals for pain relief.

Giving ibuprofen to cattle may (2) __________poison vultures - giant, flying scavengers that eat the carcasses of dead animals, including cattle. Vultures act like (3) __________janitors, eating fast: (4) __________of birds could take care of a dead animal in 20 minutes.

The (5) __________mean that farmers (6) __________figure out how to dispose of the bodies of dead animals. When a vulture eats a dead animal, however, it may also end up (7) __________medications that were given to the animal. In the case of ibuprofen, this is a big problem, as even small amounts of the drug can kill a vulture.

In the experiment it was found that vultures died after (8) __________ibuprofen (9) __________, or after eating the body of an animal that recently (10) __________the pain medication. It didn’t take much: vultures died after consuming less than (11) __________of their body weight in ibuprofen. That amount shows that even veterinarians should be very careful about giving ibuprofen (12) __________a medicine to birds. Even though vultures may be rather repulsive with their heads in a carcass, they do important work for the planet — and they are connected to other species.