Cambridge IELTS 12: Bring Back the Big Cats with explanation 

Cùng IKES luyện tập đề IELTS Reading với passage Bring Back the Big Cats từ sách Cambridge IELTS 12 – Test 8 – Passage 2 và giải đáp chi tiết!

1. Bài đọc Bring Back the Big Cats

1.1 Bring Back the Big Cats

It’s time to start returning vanished native animals to Britain, says John Vesty There is a poem, written around 598 AD, which describes hunting a mystery animal called a llewyn. But what was it? Nothing seemed to fit, until 2006, when an animal bone, dating from around the same period, was found in the Kinsey Cave in northern England. Until this discovery, the lynx – a large spotted cat with tasselled ears – was presumed to have died out in Britain at least 6,000 years ago, before the inhabitants of these islands took up farming. But the 2006 find, together with three others in Yorkshire and Scotland, is compelling evidence that the lynx and the mysterious llewyn were in fact one and the same animal. If this is so, it would bring forward the tassel-eared cat’s estimated extinction date by roughly 5,000 years.

However, this is not quite the last glimpse of the animal in British culture. A 9th-century stone cross from the Isle of Eigg shows, alongside the deer, boar and aurochs pursued by a mounted hunter, a speckled cat with tasselled ears. Were it not for the animal’s backside having worn away with time, we could have been certain, as the lynx’s stubby tail is unmistakable. But even without this key feature, it’s hard to see what else the creature could have been. The lynx is now becoming the totemic animal of a movement that is transforming British environmentalism: rewilding.

Rewilding means the mass restoration of damaged ecosystems. It involves letting trees return to places that have been denuded, allowing parts of the seabed to recover from trawling and dredging, permitting rivers to flow freely again. Above all, it means bringing back missing species. One of the most striking findings of modern ecology is that ecosystems without large predators behave in completely different ways from those that retain them. Some of them drive dynamic processes that resonate through the whole food chain, creating niches for hundreds of species that might otherwise struggle to survive. The killers turn out to be bringers of life.

Such findings present a big challenge to British conservation, which has often selected arbitrary assemblages of plants and animals and sought, at great effort and expense, to prevent them from changing. It has tried to preserve the living world as if it were a jar of pickles, letting nothing in and nothing out, keeping nature in a state of arrested development. But ecosystems are not merely collections of species; they are also the dynamic and ever-shifting relationships between them. And this dynamism often depends on large predators.

 At sea the potential is even greater: by protecting large areas from commercial fishing, we could once more see what 18th-century literature describes: vast shoals of fish being chased by fin and sperm whales, within sight of the English shore. This policy would also greatly boost catches in the surrounding seas; the fishing industry’s insistence on scouring every inch of seabed, leaving no breeding reserves, could not be more damaging to its own interests.

Rewilding is a rare example of an environmental movement in which campaigners articulate what they are for rather than only what they are against. One of the reasons why the enthusiasm for rewilding is spreading so quickly in Britain is that it helps to create a more inspiring vision than the green movement’s usual promise of ‘Follow us and the world will be slightly less awful than it would otherwise have been.

The lynx presents no threat to human beings: there is no known instance of one preying on people. It is a specialist predator of roe deer, a species that has exploded in Britain in recent decades, holding back, by intensive browsing, attempts to re-establish forests. It will also winkle out sika deer: an exotic species that is almost impossible for human beings to control, as it hides in impenetrable plantations of young trees. The attempt to reintroduce this predator marries well with the aim of bringing forests back to parts of our bare and barren uplands. The lynx requires deep cover, and as such presents little risk to sheep and other livestock, which are supposed, as a condition of farm subsidies, to be kept out of the woods.

On a recent trip to the Cairngorm Mountains, I heard several conservationists suggest that the lynx could be reintroduced there within 20 years. If trees return to the bare hills elsewhere in Britain, the big cats could soon follow. There is nothing extraordinary about these proposals, seen from the perspective of anywhere else in Europe. The lynx has now been reintroduced to the Jura Mountains, the Alps, the Vosges in eastern France and the Harz mountains in Germany, and has re-established itself in many more places. The European population has tripled since 1970 to roughly 10,000. As with wolves, bears, beavers, boar, bison, moose and many other species, the lynx has been able to spread as farming has left the hills, and people discover that it is more lucrative to protect charismatic wildlife than to hunt it, as tourists will pay for the chance to see it. Large-scale rewilding is happening almost everywhere – except Britain.

Here, attitudes are just beginning to change. Conservationists are starting to accept that the old preservation-jar model is failing, even on its own terms. Already, projects such as Trees for Life in the Highlands provide a hint of what might be coming. An organisation is being set up that will seek to catalyse the rewilding of land and sea across Britain, its aim being to reintroduce that rarest of species to British ecosystems: hope.

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1.2 Questions

Questions 14-18

Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

1. What did the 2006 discovery of the animal bone reveal about the lynx?

1. Its physical appearance was very distinctive.
2. Its extinction was linked to the spread of farming.
3. It vanished from Britain several thousand years ago.
4. It survived in Britain longer than was previously thought.

1. What point does the writer make about large predators in the third paragraph?

1. Their presence can increase biodiversity.
2. They may cause damage to local ecosystems.
3. Their behaviour can alter according to the environment.
4. They should be reintroduced only to areas where they were native.

1. What does the writer suggest about British conservation in the fourth paragraph?

1. It has failed to achieve its aims.
2. It is beginning to change direction.
3. It has taken a misguided approach.
4. It has focused on the most widespread species.

1. Protecting large areas of the sea from commercial fishing would result in

1. practical benefits for the fishing industry.
2. some short-term losses to the fishing industry.
3. widespread opposition from the fishing industry.
4. certain changes to techniques within the fishing industry.

1. According to the author, what distinguishes rewilding from other environmental campaigns?

1. Its objective is more achievable.
2. Its supporters are more articulate.
3. Its positive message is more appealing.
4. It is based on sounder scientific principles.

Questions 19-22

Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases A-F below.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

Reintroducing the Lynx to Britain

There would be many advantages to reintroducing the lynx to Britain. While there is no evidence that the lynx has ever put 19 ________________ in danger, it would reduce the numbers of certain 20 ________________ whose populations have increased enormously in recent decades. It would present only a minimal threat to 21 ________________, provided these were kept away from lynx habitats. Furthermore, the reintroduction programme would also link efficiently with initiatives to return native 22 ________________ to certain areas of the country.

1. trees
2. endangered species
3. hillsides
4. wild animals
5. humans
6. farm animals

Questions 23-26

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

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

23. Britain could become the first European country to reintroduce the lynx.
24. The large growth in the European lynx population since 1970 has exceeded conservationists’ expectations.
25. Changes in agricultural practices have extended the habitat of the lynx in Europe.
26. It has become apparent that species reintroduction has commercial advantages.

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2. Đáp án bài đọc Bring Back the Big Cats

Questions	Answer keys
14	D
15	A
16	C
17	A
18	C
19	E
20	D
21	F
22	A
23	No
24	Not Given
25	Yes
26	Yes

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3. Giải thích chi tiết Bring Back the Big Cats Reading answers

Câu 14:

Đáp án: D

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 1, Dòng 3-12

Giải thích: “Nothing seemed to fit, until 2006, when an animal bone, dating from around the same period, was found in the Kinsey Cave in northern England. Until this discovery, the lynx – a large spotted cat with tasselled ears – was presumed to have died out in Britain at least 6,000 years ago, before the inhabitants of these islands took up farming. But the 2006 find, together with three others in Yorkshire and Scotland, is compelling evidence that the lynx and the mysterious llewyn were in fact one and the same animal. If this is so, it would bring forward the tassel-eared cat’s estimated extinction date by roughly 5,000 years.” Các dòng này cho thấy rằng loài Lynx đã tồn tại lâu hơn ở Anh so với những gì được cho là trước đó và chúng đã tuyệt chủng  gần đây hơn, tức là khoảng 5000 năm, thay vì 6000 năm.

Câu 15:

Đáp án: A

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 3, Dòng 4-9
Giải thích: “One of the most striking findings of modern ecology is that ecosystems without large predators behave in completely different ways from those that retain them. Some of them drive dynamic processes that resonate through the whole food chain, creating niches for hundreds of species that might otherwise struggle to survive. The killers turn out to be bringers of life.” Câu này cho thấy sự hiện diện của các loài thú săn mồi rất quan trọng đối với sự đa dạng sinh học vì chúng đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc duy trì các quá trình sinh thái động, tạo ra các ngách khác nhau cho hàng trăm loài động vật, từ đó duy trì sự đa dạng của hệ sinh thái.

Câu 16:

Đáp án: C

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 4, Dòng 1-5
Giải thích: “Such findings present a big challenge to British conservation, which has often selected arbitrary assemblages of plants and animals and sought, at great effort and expense, to prevent them from changing. It has tried to preserve the living world as if it were a jar of pickles, letting nothing in and nothing out, keeping nature in a state of arrested development.” Câu này cho thấy hệ thống bảo tồn ở Anh dựa trên việc tập trung có sự độc đoán các loài thực vật và động vật, không dựa theo tự nhiên, như đặt trong một chiếc hộp đóng kín, không cho phép sự trao đổi, giữ thiên nhiên trong sự phát triển bị kìm hãm. -> đây là một phương pháp sai..

Câu 17:

Đáp án: A

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 5, Toàn bộ

Giải thích: “At sea the potential is even greater: by protecting large areas from commercial fishing, we could once more see what 18th-century literature describes: vast shoals of fish being chased by fin and sperm whales, within sight of the English shore. This policy would also greatly boost catches in the surrounding seas; the fishing industry’s insistence on scouring every inch of seabed, leaving no breeding reserves, could not be more damaging to its own interests.” Đoạn này đề cập đến lợi ích của việc bảo vệ cá và các khu vực mà chúng sinh sống khỏi sự khai thác thương mại.

Câu 18:

Đáp án: C

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 6, Dòng 3-6

Giải thích: “One of the reasons why the enthusiasm for rewilding is spreading so quickly in Britain is that it helps to create a more inspiring vision than the green movement’s usual promise of ‘Follow us and the world will be slightly less awful than it would otherwise have been.’” Câu này cho thấy sự quan trọng của việc tái hoang dã và cách nó mang đến một tầm nhìn tích cực và hấp dẫn hơn so với các chiến dịch khác.

Câu 19:

Đáp án: E

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 7, Dòng 1-2
Giải thích: “The lynx presents no threat to human beings: there is no known instance of one preying on people.” Câu này cho thấy rằng loài lynx không gây hại cho con người và là loài vật an toàn với con người.

Câu 20:

Đáp án: D

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 7, Dòng 2-6

Giải thích: “It is a specialist predator of roe deer, a species that has exploded in Britain in recent decades, holding back, by intensive browsing, attempts to re-establish forests. It will also winkle out sika deer: an exotic species that is almost impossible for human beings to control, as it hides in impenetrable plantations of young trees.” Câu này cho thấy cách lynx giúp duy trì hệ thực vật và cây cối bằng cách săn những động vật hoang dã như hươu roe và hươu sika (=wild animals), là mối đe dọa đối với các cánh đồng cây trồng.

Câu 21:

Đáp án: F

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 7, Dòng 8-10
Giải thích: “The lynx requires deep cover, and as such presents little risk to sheep and other livestock, which are supposed, as a condition of farm subsidies, to be kept out of the woods.” Câu này cho thấy rằng lynx không phải là mối nguy hiểm (ít nguy hiểm) đối với gia súc như cừu (=farm animals), nếu chúng ở xa rừng, vì lynx cần những khu vực rừng rậm để ẩn náu.

Câu 22:

Đáp án: A

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 7, Dòng 6-8

Giải thích: “The attempt to reintroduce this predator marries well with the aim of bringing forests back to parts of our bare and barren uplands.” Câu này cho thấy việc tái giới thiệu các loài thú săn mồi này sẽ giúp phục hồi lại rừng và cây cối (=native trees) bằng cách kiểm soát sự phát triển của những loài động vật ăn cỏ.

Câu 23:

Đáp án: No

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 8, Dòng 5-8

Giải thích: “The lynx has now been reintroduced to the Jura Mountains, the Alps, the Vosges in eastern France and the Harz mountains in Germany, and has re-established itself in many more places.” Điều này cho thấy rằng lynx đã được tái giới thiệu ở nhiều nơi khác và Anh không phải là quốc gia duy nhất hay đầu tiên làm điều này.

Câu 24:

Đáp án: Not Given

Vị trí đáp án: Không có thông tin

Giải thích: Mặc dù có đề cập rằng số lượng lynx ở châu Âu đã gấp ba lần kể từ năm 1970 lên khoảng 10.000, nhưng không có thông tin nào trong bài đọc cho thấy sự tăng trưởng này vượt quá mong đợi của các nhà bảo tồn.

Câu 25:

Đáp án: Yes

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 8, Dòng 9-12

Giải thích: “As with wolves, bears, beavers, boar, bison, moose and many other species, the lynx has been able to spread as farming has left the hills and people discover that it is more lucrative to protect charismatic wildlife than to hunt it, as tourists will pay for the chance to see it.” Điều này cho thấy rằng khi nông nghiệp không còn hoạt động trên các sườn đồi, các loài thú săn mồi như lynx đã mở rộng môi trường sống của chúng.

Câu 26:

Đáp án: Yes

Vị trí đáp án: Đoạn 8, Dòng 9-13

Giải thích: “As with wolves, bears, beavers, boar, bison, moose and many other species, the lynx has been able to spread as farming has left the hills and people discover that it is more lucrative to protect charismatic wildlife than to hunt it, as tourists will pay for the chance to see it. Large-scale rewilding is happening almost everywhere – except Britain.” Điều này cho thấy việc tái giới thiệu các loài động vật là có lợi về mặt thương mại (có lợi nhuận) vì khách du lịch muốn chi trả để được thấy chúng.

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