Vultures - nature's cleaners

Level: Upper-intermediate / B2

Vocabulary practice

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Here is another great video from the BBC's Power of Nature series. Called Vulture: Earth's clean up crew it looks at the effects of the loss of vultures in India

The video (four minutes long) and the text with it have some interesting vocabulary.
What do the following words mean:
1)  scavenger
2)  purify
3)  soaring
4)  undertaker
5)  carcass
6)  livestock
7)  feral dog
8)  rabies
9)  rotting
10) extinction


Answers below!




ANSWERS!
The answers are taken from the Oxford on-line dictionary.

1)  scavenger
an animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse
2)  purify
remove contaminants from
3)  soaring
flying or rising high in the air
4)  undertaker
a person whose business is preparing dead bodies for burial or cremation and making arrangements for funerals
5)  carcass
the dead body of an animal
6)  livestock
farm animals regarded as an asset
7)  feral dog
in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication
8)  rabies
a contagious and fatal viral disease of dogs and other mammals, transmissible through the saliva to humans and causing madness and convulsions. Also called hydrophobia.
9)  rotting
the process of decaying
10) extinction
the state or process of being or becoming extinct
(extinct: (of a species, family, or other larger group) having no living members).