Breaking News English

A [herd / heard] of 15 wild elephants is approaching a city of 6.6 million people in China. The group of Asian elephants has [tracked / trekked] nearly 500km from their [habits / habitat] in a nature reserve in the south of Yunnan province, near the [bordering / borders] with Myanmar and Laos. China's official news agency, Xinhua, reports that there are three calves in the [nerd / herd] . The giant beasts are [facing / heading] north to the outskirts of the provincial capital, Kunming. They have travelled along highways and through fields of [crops / clops] over the past few months. A Chinese TV station said that over the past week, the animals [guzzled / gazumped] down the water in a water tank and [feasted / fasted] on kilos of corn in farmers' fields. Their journey has been [capturing / captivating] the Chinese public.

Authorities are now attempting to [insure / ensure] the herd does not enter Kunming city. Experts are [coaxing / hoaxing] the animals into taking detours that will get them to [head / skull] back towards their nature reserve. It is unclear [as / has] to why the animals have migrated so far away from their [originally / original] habitat. One reason could be a decline in the amount of edible [plans / plants] in their reserve. Naturally growing supplies of the elephants' favorite foods, such as plume grass, have [felled / fallen] . Another factor could be a rise [in / on] elephant numbers. Xinhua reports that the wild elephant population in Yunnan Province is [around / round] 300, up from 193 in the 1980s. A further explanation offered is that the leader of the herd could have simply led it [astray / ashtray] .