II. Cloze Test:    
       Antarctica is melting at an astonishing pace, losing three trillion tons of ice since 1992, a global team of scientists ___14___ in a new assessment of the effects of global warming on Earth's southernmost continent. Lead author Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds in England said it is possible that Antarctica's melting alone could add 16 centimeters to sea level rise across the globe by the end of this century. "Under natural conditions, we don't expect the ice sheet to lose ice at all," Shepherd said. "There are no other plausible signals to be driving this ___15__ climate change." Shepherd said the melting is mostly caused by warmer waters. He said the southern ocean is affected by shifting winds, which __16___ global warming from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.    
        Co-author Ian Joughin of the University of Washington said, “part of West Antarctica, ___17___ 70 percent of the recent melt has occurred, is in a state of collapse." A U.S. space agency scientist, co-lead author Eric Rignot, said, "We now have an unequivocal picture of___18___. We view these results as another ringing alarm for action to slow the warming of our planet." The scientists drew their conclusions from two decades of satellite data, 24 separate space-based surveys to track the loss of Antarctica's ice.

        Rajni Devi liked school and had big dreams. She was not going to end up like so many other girls in India: ___28___ as a child bride. Rajni was 14 years old when her mother told her she must get married, but she refused. She was determined to stay in school, and she wasn't ready to be a mother yet. ___29___, for a girl in rural India, it wasn't as simple as just saying no. She fought hard. She spent weeks fighting, reasoning with and coaxing her parents. Every day, she told them she didn't want to get married. She'd rather die ___30___ get married, she said. She reminded her mother of her own struggles as a teenager spent married and bearing children. Eventually, Rajni's parents ___31___. 

        But their daughter had only just begun. She was determined to change things, not just for herself, but for other girls too. In the months that followed, she stopped five other child marriages in her community. She coached the girls in her small village, in Uttar Pradesh, on ___32___ to intervene and talk to their parents. She told them that they could get an education and achieve dreams beyond marriage.

        Rajni, now 18, has used her courage to help a generation of girls in her village stay in school and avoid marriage. She has won honors and acclaim for her efforts and now leads a self-help and empowerment group of twenty girls in her village.