Australia

1.

Inside Out
Australia
WORKSHEET A
Exercise 1
Fill the gaps by choosing the correct word from the box below. There are 15 words
but only 12 gaps.
champion
emigrated
celebrities
century
scenery
capital
things
visited
talented
wildlife
biggest
rainforest
table
older
coast
Australia is the sixth (1) ____________ country in the world after Russia, Canada,
China, the United States and Brazil.
The population grew very quickly during the 20th (2) ____________, mainly because
millions of people (3) ____________ to Australia from other countries. The
population of Australia is now around 21 million.
The most famous Australian city is probably Sydney, which is on the country’s
southeast (4) ____________ and has a population of around 4 million. The country’s
(5) ____________, however, is the smaller city of Canberra, about 300 kilometres
from Sydney.
Australia is well known for its spectacular (6) ____________, which includes deserts
in the interior, (7) ____________ in the far north, and the Great Barrier Reef (the
longest coral reef in the world) near the northeast coast.
Australia is also well known for its unusual (8) ____________, including kangaroos
and koala bears. A very high percentage of Australia’s animals do not live in any
other part of the world.
Australia produces lots of (9) ____________ sportsmen and women. It has the world
(10) ____________ cricket team, one of the best rugby teams and a strong national
football team, even though football is not particularly popular in Australia. In the
Olympic Games Australia always does well in lots of different events and finishes
near the top of the medals (11) ____________.
Famous Australian (12) ____________ include the actor Mel Gibson, the actress Cate
Blanchett, and the pop singer Kylie Minogue.
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008.

2.

Inside Out
Australia
WORKSHEET B
Exercise 2
Can you match the numbers in the first column of the table with the items in the
second column? (Note that some of the numbers are approximate rather than exact.)
25
4
7,700,000
130,000
0
2,000
4
350,000
1956
52
2
80
(A) The number of Australian cities with a population of more than 3
million.
(B) The year Mel Gibson was born.
(C) The length of the Great Barrier Reef, in kilometres.
(D) The number of countries with populations bigger than that of
Australia.
(E) The percentage of Australia’s mammals that do not live in any
other part of the world.
(F) The number of people who emigrated to Australia in 2005-6.
(G) The population of Canberra.
(H) The percentage of Australians who were born in another country.
(I) Australia’s position in the medals table in both of the last two
Olympic Games.
(J) The size of Australia, in square kilometres.
(K) The number of times Australia has won the football World Cup.
(L) The population of Australia in 1900, in millions.
Exercise 3
Decide if the following statements about Australia are true (T) or false (F), then bet a
minimum of 10 points up to a maximum of 50 on your choice.
T/F
1
2
3
4
5
6
Points Points Points
bet
lost
won
There are more kangaroos than people in
Australia.
At the last Olympic Games in Athens in 2004,
Australia won more gold medals than China.
Australia’s internet domain suffix (the two
letters representing the name of the country at
the end of email and website addresses) is ‘au’.
Australia is more than 50 times bigger than
England.
Around 50 different types of bird live in
Australia.
There are no snakes in Australia.
Total points lost and won
Final total (subtract total points lost from total points won)
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008.