Put the verbs in brackets into the appropriate active or passive form. Some negatives will be required.
Whales
Whales 1 (be) an important part of people’s lives for thousands of years. For
a long time whales 2 (hunt) and 3 (kill) on a large scale. Even
in the years to come, thousands of these marine mammals, which 4 (prove) to
have a high intelligence, 5 (kill).
Commercial whale hunting, which 6 (start) in 1700s, was a very big business
until about 60 years ago. Wales 7 (hunt) so that people could use the whale
fat for oil in lamps and to make candles and soap. The plates from baleen whales 8
(use) for making women’s clothing, umbrellas and other things.
Whaling 9 (go on) for centuries, taking tens of thousands of whales a year.
Technology 10 (allow) whalers to hunt faster whales and to carry on their hunts
throughout the world’s oceans. New technologies and the high demand for whale products 11
(decrease) many whale populations. The number of the whales that 12
(slaughter) was so high that many whale populations were incapable of
recovering.
Because females 13 (breed) until they are mature (over ten years of age), and
only one little whale 14 (bear) in two years, whales could not produce enough
young to replace the numbers that 15 (kill) by whalers.
When some whale populations 16 (decrease) in such a large number that they 17
(become) almost extinct, the whalers realized that some sort of resource
management 18 (need). In 1946 the International Convention for the
Regulation of Whaling 19 (introduce). The original purpose of the
Convention was to set the rules to help increase whale populations so that the whaling industry
20 (can continue).
Today, commercial whaling 21 (forbid) almost everywhere in the world. In
spite of the international ban, many whale populations 22 (recover) and 23
(consider) to be threatened or endangered. There are still some countries in
which whales 24 (hunt), but, hopefully, because of the pressure from concerned
people they 25 (force) to reconsider their actions and stop killing these magnificent
creatures.