The La Brea Tar Pits (pp.3-4)

Daniel: 

1. eloquent : convincing, persuasive.

2. urban sprawl : a phenomenon that a city spreads out disorderly.   When a city spreads out, its direction is toward suburbs generally、but roads are not constructed systematically and therefore houses are built disorderly.  This kind of things happens in many places and there is no planning between developed cities.

3. testimony : evidence, proof

4. vertebrate : an animal who has a backbone.

5. fissure : a long deep crack especially in rock or in the earth.

Maria:

1. to exterminate - to kill massively (in our text it is said about wolves);

2. tar pits - a large natural pools with tar (tar is like an asphalt);

3. to depict - to give a picture (with word or with drawing);

4. assemblage - collection

5. crude - not purified, as it is in nature (about oil in the text).

Alex:
1. scavenger - Animals that feed on carrion or dead plant materials

2. preponderance - advantages

3. denizens - An inhabitant or occupant of a particular place

4. abundant - Existing or available in large quantities

5. dire wolf - A large extinct wolf of the Pleistocene epoch that preyed on large mammals.
    dire - usually used to describe a horrible situation

Guo
1.caulking - to fill the cracks or holes in (something) with a substance that keeps out water

2.fossil - something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) that is from a plant or animal which lived in ancient times and that you can see in some rocks

3.evaporate - to change from a liquid into a gas

4.herbivores - an animal that only eats plants

5.carnivores - an animal that eats meat