IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14, which are based on the IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger below.
Tasmanian Tiger
{A} Although it was called a tiger, it looked like a clog with black stripes on its back and it was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. yet, despite its fame for being one of the most fabled animals in the world, it is one of the least understood of Tasmania’s native animals. The scientific name for the Tasmanian tiger is Thylacine and it is believed that they have become extinct in the 20th century.
{B} Fossils of thylacines dating from about almost 12 million years ago have been dug up at various places in Victoria, South Australia 7,000 years ago, but have probably been extinct on the continent for 2,000 years. This is believed to be because of the introduction of dingoes around 8,000 years ago. Because of the disease, thylacine numbers may have been declined and were certainly accelerated by the new arrivals. The last known Titsmanijin Tiger died in I Lobar! The zoo in 193fi and the animal is officially classified as extinct. Technically, this means that it has not been officially sighted in the wild or captivity for 50 years. However, there are still unsubstantiated sightings.
{C} Hans Naarding, whose study of animals had taken him around the world, was conducting a survey of a species of endangered migratory bird. the hat he saw that night is now regarded as the most credible sighting recorded of thylacine that many believe has been extinct for more than 70 years.
{D} “I had to work at night.” Naarding takes up the story.”I was in the habit of intermittently shining aspotlight around. The beam fell on an animal in front of the vehicle, less than 10m away. Instead of risking movement by grabbing for a camera, I decided to register very carefully what I was seeing. The animal was about the size of a small shepherd dog, though, was a slightly sloping hindquarter, with a fairly thick tail being a straight continuation of the backline of the animal. It had 12 distinct stripes on its back, continuing onto its butt.\ knew perfectly well what I was seeing. As soon as I reached for the camera it disappeared into the tea-tree undergrowth and scrub.”
{E} The director of Tasmania’s National Parks at the time, Peter Morrow, decided in his wisdom to keep Naarding’s sighting of the thylacine secret for two years. When the news finally broke, it was accompanied by pandemonium.” I was besieged by television crews, including four to five from Japan and others from the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, and SouthAmerica, “said Naarding.
{F} Government and private search parties combed the region, but no further sightings were made. The tiger, as always, had escaped to its lair, a place many insist exists only in our imagination. But since then, the thylacine has staged something of a comeback, becoming part of Australian mythology.
{G} There have been more than 4000 claimed sightings of the beast since it supposedly died out, and the average claims each year reported to authorities now number 150. Associate professor of zoology at the University of Tasmania, Randolph Rose, has said he dreams of seeing a thylacine. But Rose, who in his 35 years in Tasmania academia has fielded countless reports of thylacine sightings, is now convinced that his dream will go unfulfilled.
{H} “The consensus among conservationists is that usually; any animal with a population base of less than 1000 is headed for extinction within 60 years,” says Rose. “Sixty years ago, there was only one thylacine that we know of, and that was in Hobart Zoo,” he says.
{I} Dr. David Pemberton, curator of zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, whose Ph.D. thesis was on the thylacine, says that despite scientific thinking that 500 animals are required to sustain a population, the Florida panther is down to a dozen or so animals and, while it does have some inbreeding problems is still ticking along. ” I’ll take punt sand to say that, if we manage to find a thylacine in the scrub, it means that there are 50-plus animals out there.”
{J} After all, animals can be notoriously elusive. The strange fish is known as the coelacanth’ with their “proto-legs”, was thought to have died out along with the dinosaurs 700 million years ago until a specimen was dragged to the surface in a shark net off the south-east coast of South Africa in 1938.
{K} Wildlife biologist Nick Mooney has the unenviable task of investigating all “sightings” of the tiger totaling 4000 claimed sightings of the beast since it supposedly died out, and the average claims each year reported to authorities now number 150. It was Mooney who was first consulted late last month about the authenticity of digital photographic images purportedly taken by a German tourist while on a recent bushwalk in the state. At face value, Mooney says, the account of the sighting, and the two photographs submitted as the proof amount to one of the most convincing cases for the species survival he has seen.
{L} And Mooney has seen it all the mistakes, the hoaxes, the illusions, and the plausible accounts of sightings. hoaxers aside, most people who report sightings end up believing they have seen a thylacine, and are themselves believable to the point they could pass a lie-detector test, according to Mooney. Others, having tabled a credible report, then become utterly obsessed like the Tasmanian who has registered 99 thylacine sightings to date. Mooney has seen individuals bankrupted by the obsession and families destroyed. “It is a blind optimism that something is rather than a cynicism that something isn’t,” Mooney says. “If something crosses the road, it’s not a case of I wonder what that was?” Rather, it is a case of that’s a thylacine!’ It is a bit like a gold prospector’s blind faith, it has got to be there.”
{M} However, Mooney treats all reports at face value. “I never try to embarrass people or make fools of them. But the fact that I don’t pack the car immediately they ring can often be taken as ridicule. Obsessive characters get irate that someone in my position is not out there when they think the thylacine is there.”
{N} But Hans Naarding, whose sighting of a striped animal two decades ago was the highlight of “a life of animal spotting”, remains bemused by the time and money people waste on tiger searches. He says resources would be better applied to save the Tasmanian devil and help the migratory bird population, populations THAT ARE DECLINING AS A RESULT OF SHRINKING WETLANDS ACROSS Australia.
{O} Could the thylacine still be out there? “Sure,” Naarding says. But he also says any discovery of surviving thylacine would be “rather pointless.”. “How do you save a species from extinction? What could you do with it? If there are thylacine out there, they are better off right where they are.”
IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger Questions 1-5
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
The Tasmanian tiger, also called thylacine, resembles the look of a dog and has ……1………………………….. on its fur coat. many fossils have been found, showing that thylacines had existed as early as ……2…………….years ago. They lived throughout …….3…………………..before disappearing from the mainland. And soon after the ……..4…………………. settlers arrived the size of …..5…………………. population in Tasmania shrunk at a higher speed.
IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger Questions 6-11
Look at the following statements ( Questions 6-11) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C, or D
Write the correct letter, A, B, C, or D, in boxes 6-11 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
Question 6:- His report of seeing a live thylacine in the wild attracted international interest.
Question 7:- many eyes- witnesses’ reports are not trustworthy.
Question 8:- It doesn’t require q certain number of animals to ensure the survival of a species.
Question 9:- There is no hope of finding a surviving Tasmanian tiger.
Question 10:- Do not disturb them if there are any Tasmanian tigers still living today.
Question 11:- The interpretation of evidence can be affected by people’s beliefs.
List of people
A. Hans Naarding
B. Randolph Rose
C. David Pemberton
D. Nick Mooney
IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger Questions 12-14
Choose the correct letter. A B, C, or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 25-27 on your answer sheet.
Question 12:- Hans Naarding’s sighting has resulted in
A. Government and organizations’ cooperative efforts
B. extensive interests to find a living thylacine.
C. increase of the number of reports of thylacine worldwide.
D. growth of popularity of thylacine in literature.
Question 13:- The example of the coelacanth is to illustrate
A. it lived in the same period as dinosaurs.
B. how dinosaurs evolved legs.
C. some animals are difficult to catch in the wild.
D. extinction of certain species can be mistaken.
Question 14:- Mooney believes that all sighting reports should be
A. given some credit as they claim even if they are untrue.
B. acted upon it immediately.
C. viewed as equally untrustworthy.
D. questioned and carefully investigated.
IELTSData Reading Passage 116 – Tasmanian Tiger Answers
(1) BLACK STRIPES
(2) 12 MILLION
(3) AUSTRALIA
(4) EUROPEAN
(5) THYLACINE
(6) A
(7) D
(8) C
(9) B
(10) A
(11) D
(12) B
(13) D
(14) A