Task 1 Read the text Juan Cabello takes pride in not using amobile phone or the internet tocommunicate. Instead, he whistles. Cabellois a silbador. He knows 'Silbo Gomero', alanguage that is whistled, not spoken, andcan be heard more than two miles away.This unusual way of communicating is saidto have arrived with early African settlers2, 500 years ago. Now, educators areworking hard to save it from extinction bymaking schoolchildren study the languageup to the age of fourteen.Silbo features four'vowels' and four'consonants' that can be used to formmore than 4, 000 words. 'I use it foreverything. ' Cabello says. In fact, he makesa living from Silbo, performing dailyexhibitions at a restaurant on this island of220 square kilometres and 19, 000 people.People throughout La Gomera are knownto have used Silbo in the past as a way ofcommunicating over long distances.A strong whistle saved farmers fromtrekking over the hills to give messages ornews to neighbours. Then came thephone. In 1999, it was introduced as acompulsory subject in La Gomera'sprimary schools, in an effort to prevent thelanguage from becoming extinct. Now3, 000 students are studying it, but only afew people are believed to be able tocommunicate fully in the whistlinglanguage. 'Silbo is said to be the mostimportant cultural heritage we have, saidMoises Plasencia, the director of theCanary Islands' government's historicalheritage department.It might seem appropriate for a languagethat sounds like birdsong to exist in theCanary Islands, but there is thought to beno connection between the islands' nameand the birdsong-like way ofcommunicating.In fact, little is known about Silbo's origins.One study is looking for signs of Silbo inVenezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places towhich Gomerans have emigrated in thepast during hard economic times.Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to getUNESCO to declare it a 'cultural heritage'and to support efforts to save it. Cabelloalso explains, 'It's good for just aboutanything except for romance: everyone onthe island could hear what you're saying!"Task 2. Read the text again and markthe statements below as True or False.1. Only a few people can communicate inSilbo.2. Experts think that there is a closeconnection between Silbo and the name'Canary Islands'.3. Silbo was introduced in La Gomera'sschools in order to save it for O​