(PUC Minas- 1999)Six months ago, when federal agen

(PUC Minas - 1999)

Six months ago, when federal agents identified Eric Robert Rudolph as the man they believe responsible for the Jan. 29 bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed an off-duty police officer and severely wounded a nurse, they were confident they would arrest the itinerant carpenter within a matter of days. But Rudolph, skilled at surviving in the wilderness, vanished in the mountainous woods of North Carolina. And despite being wanted for questioning in the Olympic bombing and two other Atlanta explosions, he is inexplicably becoming a local celebrity, an anti-hero evoking sympathy.

On July 11, George Nordmann, 71, owner of a store in downtown Andrews, confessed that Rudolph had come to his house asking for food four days before. Nordmann, who had known Rudolph from years ago, told authorities that the suspect's appearance had changed considerably: he had a beard and was dressed in a camouflage outfit and gloves, and had lost weight. "I'm starving to death", he said then. Nordmann told police Rudolph also tried to convince him he was innocent. Police believe Rudolph returned to Nordmann's house late that night and took 20 to 35kg of food, including canned green beans, beets, corn, tuna fish, raisins and a large bag of wheat bran. He carried it away in Nordmann's 1977 Nissan pickup truck, which the store owner discovered missing when he returned home.

(From: Time, July 27, 1998 - abridged.)

Rudolph was ____________ surviving in the wilderness.