Listen to Smokey the Bear

Words in Use (Lesson 37)

• heir
• majestic
• dwindle
• surplus
• traitor
• deliberate
• vandal
• drought
• abide
• unify
• summit
• heed

Read the following passage to see how the new words are used in it.
  
Listen to Smokey the Bear
At one time, the United States was heir to great riches, for more than half of our country was covered with forests. Now the majestic woodlands have dwindled to the point where we have no surplus of trees. Of course, only a traitor to the beauties of nature would deliberately set a forest fire, but careless citizens are the vandals who are responsible for much of the destruction. In time of drought especially, scorching* fires started by careless smokers can reduce a beautiful forest to acres of blackened stumps. Theodore Roosevelt understood that we cannot abide the continual loss of our precious forests but we must learn to live in harmony* with nature. In 1905 he appointed* Gifford Pinchot to head the Forest Service which promptly* began to unify efforts in caring for our national forests. The modern forest rangers, from the "lookouts" stationed on mountain summits to the "smokejumpers" who parachute from airplanes to fight fires, ask us to heed the advice of Smokey the Bear, who has become their symbol.* Smokey says, “Only you can prevent forest fires.”