Reading Challenge 8

MIDDLE EAST

roughly: in a rough manner, with harshness or violence

farmers: a person who pays a fixed sum for some privilege or source of income

bullets: a round or elongated missile to be fired from a firearm

encircled: to form a circle around

Reading Challenge 7

GREEN SAHARA

Swallowed: pass food down throat

Drop into: enter less active state of consciousness

Beneath: underneath

Treasure: jewels and precious objects

Axis: line around which object rotates

Wobble: move side to side

Blast: explosion

Reading Challenge 6

ANIMALS THINKING

orless: a quality of something that stimulates the olfactory
surreptitiously: done, made, or acquired by stealth out
conceited: having or showing an excessively high opinion of oneself

ape: one of the larger tailless or short-tailed Old World formsod

Reading Challenge 5

VOLCANOLOGY

Scary : frightening
Ejected: push something out with force
Ash: remains of fire
Scatter: throw things around
Lungs: respiratory organ
Obsidian: jet black volcanic glass
Shrouded: to cut off from view
Roughly: in a rough manner
Heartwarming: inspiring sympathetic feeling

Reading Challenge 4

MEDICINE

relief: a payment made by a male feudal tenant to his lord on succeeding to an inherited estate
distress: seizure and detention of the goods of another as pledge or to obtain satisfaction of a claim by the sale of the goods seized
placebo: prescription without physical effect / something prescribed for a patient that contains no medicine.
drop: the quantity of fluid that falls in one spherical mass

Reading Challenge 3

THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Afraid: filled with concern or regret over an unwanted situation
Struggled: to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition
Blemish: to spoil by a flaw
Sponsor: one who assumes responsibility for some other person or thing
Peer: one that is of equal standing with another

Reading Challenge 2

ENVIRONMENT: AFFECTED?


Prey: animal hunted by other animals
Thriving: grow well
Instead: in place of something
Prowl: act of roaming
Wolves: any of several large predatory canids
Elk: soft tanned rugged leather
Beavers: either of two large semiaquatic herbivorous rodents comprising a family
Suddenly: happening or coming unexpectedly