Now that I ______ tidying the house, I'm going to clean it.

We ______ this TV for ages. I think it's time to buy a new one.

Bruce ______ tennis since he was a child. He ______  many trophies.

The last English wolf in England was (3) __________ killed and the population extinct by the 16th century, although in Wales it is thought to have lasted a few centuries ….. The great Auroch herds did not least nearly as long and were sadly gone as early as the 9th Century, although on the continent it lasted for many, many ..… centuries.

Native English Animals

Now England has hardly any predatory animals in the (1) ___________, but has it always been that way? Not according to ancient rhymes. England was once a country where predatory animals freely roamed and so danger lurked.

Land by the Thames was taken from the people in medieval times and given over to sheep farmers for the trading of wool, which by then had become an important industry that provided (8) __________ for the crown.

There was an even bigger size herding animal in Britain in the early centuries. The Giant deer species called Megaloceros, with an antler span of up to 3 meters; it was possibly (5) __________ by the time Neolithic man was making wooden stockades. But the antlers were often found, and perhaps used for digging with.

So by now most of the original predatory or herding wild animals had been ….. by non-native species. Thankfully there is now a program that is rereleasing our original, surviving animals back into their own natural habitat. We (10) __________ desperately that this is successful.

Lynx is thought to have gone by the 10th Century, in England at least. It is thought that the Neolithic settlers mingling with peoples already present or taking over, came from the continent and brought their own animals; cattle, (6) __________ dogs and cats, pigs and also goats with them and built the wooden stockades to protect them.

In Saxon England land was cleared from the forest and a large communal area was used for farming; this was divided into strips called furrows. However by Medieval times the rich landlords had claimed a lot of land and planted hedges (7) __________ their boundaries. This may have meant farming was easier, but for the poor it meant they were beggared and starving, ….. the loss of their land meant the loss of their livelihoods.