Bring back the big cats Reading Ielts Answers and Questions

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Bring back the big cats reading passage

Bring back the big cats

John Vesty says that the time for returning vanished native animals to Britain has arrived. Around 598 AD, there is a poem that describes the hunting of a mystery animal called llewyn. What is it? Nothing got fitted until 2006, an animal bone was found in the Kinsey Cave in northern England, dating from around the same period. Until this discovery, the lynx which is a large spotted cat with tassel led ears was assumed to have died in Britain at least 6000 years ago. It happens before the inhabitants of these islands do farming. But in 2006, in Yorkshire and Scotland it is evident that the lynx and mysterious llewyn both are the same. If so, the estimated extinction date of tassel-eared cats is 5000 years.

However, in British culture this is not the last glimpse of the animal. A 9th century stone cross from the Isle of Eigg shows along the deer, pig, aurochs, a speckled cat with tasselled ears is pursued by a mounted hunter. We are sure that the animal’s backside hasn’t been damaged over time as the lynx’s stubby tail is unmistakable. It’s difficult to know about the creature even without this feature. Now, lynx has become the totemic animal of a movement that transforms British environmentalism – rewilding. 

Rewilding is the huge restoration of damaged ecosystems. It involves replacing the trees to areas that have been stripped, making seabed parts to recover from trawling and dredging and making rivers to freely flow. These things are to bring back the missing species. In modern ecology, one of the top findings is ecosystems without large predators which behave differently than those that retain them. Some drive dynamic processes that resonate the complete food chain and provide niches for hundreds of species that might struggle to survive. The killers will turn as life bringers.

For British conservation, these findings give a great challenge, which is often selected as arbitrary assemblages of plants and animals by putting huge effort and investment to prevent them from changing. As the jar of pickles, it has preserved the living world by not letting anything in and out and keeping nature in an arrested state. But ecosystems are not only based on the collection of species, it also depends on the dynamic and changing relationship between them. The dynamism often varies based on the large predators.

When it comes to sea, it is even greater, the larger areas of commercial fishing need to be protected. 18th century literature describes that the vast shoals of fish are chased by fin and sperm whales within sight of the English shore. This method will greatly increase catches in the surrounding seas; the fishing industry’s insistence on clearing every seabed without leaving any breeding reserves couldn’t be damaging to its own interests.

Rewilding is one of the rare examples of environmental movement where campaigners communicate what they are for rather than what they are against. The reason for enthusiasm for rewilding is spreading fastly in Britain, is to create a more inspiring vision than the green movements’ promise of Follow us and the world will be less awful than it would be.

There will be no threat to human beings by the lynx: there is no instance of a lynx preying on people. It is a specialist predator of roe deer that has exploded in Britain in recent decades which holds back the intensive browsing and planning to re-establish forests. It will also winkle out sika deer, an exotic species that is impossible for human beings to control as it hides in impenetrable plantations of young trees. Reintroducing this predator comes with the aim of bringing back the forests to the parts of our bare and barren uplands. The lynx needs deep cover thus giving little risk to sheep and other livestock which need to be in a condition of farm subsidies that are kept out of the woods.

Several conservationists suggested that the lynx can be reintroduced within 20 years in the recent trip of the Cairngorm Mountains. If trees return to the bare hills anywhere in Britain, the big cats will follow. If it is seen from the perspective of anywhere else in Europe, there will be nothing extraordinary about the proposals. Now, the lynx has been reintroduced to the Mountains, Alps in eastern France and mountains in Germany and re-established in many places. Since 1970, the European population has tripled to nearly 10, 000. Like wolves, bears, pigs, bison, moose and other species, the lynx will spread as farming, left the hills and then people discover that it is much needed to protect wildlife than to hunt it as tourists will pay to see it. Large scale rewilding will happen everywhere except Britain.

Here, there are many changes in attitudes. Conservationists started to accept the jar model is failing even on its own terms. Projects like Trees for life in the Highlands give hints of what is expected to come. There is an organisation set up that seeks to catalyse the rewilding of land and sea across Britain, its aim is to reintroduce the rarest species to British ecosystems: hope.

Bring back the big cats IELTS reading questions

Questions (1-5)

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. What did the discovery of animal bone say about the lynx?

  1. It has distinctive physical appearance
  2. The spread of farming is linked to its extinction
  3. It survived in Britain longer than the prediction
  4. Thousand years ago it disappeared from Britain

2. What does the writer point out about the large predators?

  1. Biodiversity will increase by its presence
  2. It will create damage to the ecosystems
  3. Based on the environment, their behaviour might change
  4. Only in their native places they should be reintroduced.

3. What is suggested by the writer about British conservation?

  1. The target was missed to achieve
  2. The path has begin to change
  3. The misguided approach was held
  4. It targeted only the most widespread species.

4. Protecting the large are of sea from commercial fishing will end up in

  1. Loss for the fishing industry
  2. Benefits for the fishing industry
  3. Opposition from the fishing industry
  4. Changes in techniques in fishing industry

5. What is the difference between rewilding from other campaigns according to the writer?

  1. The message is appealing and positive.
  2. The objective is achievable
  3. Supporters are more involved
  4. It is based on the scientific principles

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Questions (6-9)

Complete the summary below

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

The advantages of reintroducing the lynx to Britain are many. There is no such evidence that lynx put ______________ 6 in danger which would reduce the population of ____________7 which increased rapidly in the recent decades. It gives only minimum threat to ___________ 8, if it were kept away from the lynx habitats. Further, the reintroduction concept has been linked with initiatives to return native ____________ 9 to certain places of the country.

Questions (10-14)

Do the following statements match the information with the passage?

Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

FALSE if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

10. Reintroducing the lynx is done by the Britain which is the first European country

11. The conservationists’ expectations have increased due to the huge population growth of European lynx since 1970.

12. The habitat of lynx in Europe extended based on the changes in agricultural practices.

13. Reintroduction of species has commercial advantage

14. The jar of pickle models has come into acceptance by the conservationists.

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Bring back the big cats IELTS reading answers

1. C – It survived in Britain longer than the prediction

2. A – Biodiversity will increase by its presence

3. C – The misguided approach was held

4. B – Benefits for the fishing industry

5. C – Supporters are more involved

6. People

7. Wild animals 

8. Farm animals

9. Trees

10. False

11. Not Given

12. True

13. True 

14.  False

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