Word Choice Practice Test

PASSAGE II: Defeat from Above

¹ In late 1932, the Australian government faced a unique crisis. Following the Great Depression, struggling wheat farmers in Western Australia were besieged by a migrating force of 20,000 emus. These flightless birds, standing up to six feet tall, (13) devastated crops and destroyed fences. Desperate for help, the farmers, many of (14) whom were veterans of World War I, petitioned the government for military aid. The Minister of Defence, Sir George Pearce, agreed to deploy troops. He believed the birds would be easy targets for modern weaponry. (22)

² (15) Commanded by Major G.P.W. Meredith, the plan was simple. Two soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition would cull the population. The media dubbed the operation "The Great Emu War." However, the emus proved to be (16) a formidable and surprisingly strategic adversary.

³ The first engagement took place on November 2. The soldiers spotted a group of fifty emus and opened fire from a distance. The birds, (17) however, scattered instantly. They ran in every direction, making it nearly impossible to aim. Meredith noted that the emus seemed to have a leader who kept watch while the others ate, warning the flock of approaching danger. Later, the soldiers attempted to ambush a larger group of 1,000 emus near a dam. They waited until the birds were at point-blank range before firing. The gun jammed after only a dozen shots, and the flock escaped.

⁴ Meredith was astounded by the birds' resilience. "If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds," he wrote, "it would face any army in the world." (18) The emus' speed and guerrilla tactics rendered the machine guns useless. By the time the operation was withdrawn, the military had expended thousands of rounds of ammunition (19) to take down only a fraction of the birds.

⁵ The "war" was a humiliation for the government. It highlighted the unpredictability of nature and the limits of military force. Ultimately, the farmers found a better solution: the bounty system. By 1934, over 57,000 bounties had been claimed, proving that local incentive was more effective than heavy artillery. The Great Emu War remains a curious footnote in history, a time when humans fought the (20) birds, it was the birds who won.