Australia/Convicts
The British are coming!
Participle Constructions (-ing or -ed participles?)
First discovered(discover) by the Dutch, Australia seemed too far away for everything.
But in 1770 Captain Cook declared (declare) the continent to be British after exploring (explore) the eastern coast.
When searching (search) for a place to transport convicts from London, Australia seemed perfect.
Britain soon began transporting prisoners to its new territory. Settlements were established, and the production of wool became the country's most important means of earning a living.
More settlers were attracted by the discovery of gold in 1851.
Consisting (consist) of six separate colonies, Australian felt as one nation and, in 1901, a federal constitution was accepted by the people, and Australia became more or less independent from Britain.
Since the mid 20th century there has been considerable industrial development, and oil and natural gas have been discovered.
The population lives largely in the south-east corner of the country, and most of the continent remains almost empty. Most people are of British origin, but there are minorities from other European countries.
Convict history
Put in the correct forms.
Peter: "The Brits emptied (empty) their prisons and sent them all to Australia.
John: "You really have no idea of history. The Brits only did that with the petty
criminals who were starving and stole a loaf of bread. The major criminals got the rope.
Derek: "As a good friend of mine from the East End likes to remind people, the colonies only got the East Enders stupid enough to get caught.
Colonization
Use words from the same word families as the ones in brackets to complete the sentences
1. About 200 years ago Britain started to colonize (colonist) Australia.
2. They regarded the native inhabitants as uncivilised (civil).
3. Some of the settlers died due to bites of poisonous (poison) animals.
4. The Aborigines valued(valuable) their traditions and holy places highly.
