Jane Goodall: Chimpanzee Expert - Test 2

B2 First · Multiple Choice Reading · Cambridge B2 First 4, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an extract from the biography of a biologist called Jane Goodall. For questions 1–6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

A very young, idealistic Englishwoman arrived in Africa in early April 1957 and soon, quite possibly in her first letter home, wrote the astonishingly dramatic words 'I am living in the Africa I have always longed for, always felt stirring in my blood.' She was to spend most of the rest of her life in Africa and – as a citizen, journalist, scientist, activist and environmentalist – came to be associated with that continent. Her name was Jane Goodall. In 1965, Britain's National Geographic Society promoted Jane Goodall's fame by producing a series of glossy articles and television documentaries on her chimpanzee research. That early fame has since been reinforced by her own writing for a popular audience, including award-winning children's books and the 1971 bestseller In the Shadow of Man, which has been translated into 47 languages and is still in print. With the possible exception of Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Jane Goodall must be the most widely celebrated female scientist of the 20th century. Ironically, her celebrity may have obscured her actual achievements. Hundreds of articles, interviews and books have told her life story but they are often limited in scope and sentimental. She's been presented as an extraordinarily gifted little girl, a privileged woman who dreamed of a life with wild animals, a determined feminist in a man's world, and so on. Put together, these images diminish what she has actually achieved. Based on the number of references to her research by academics in her field, the number of her students who have subsequently reached influential positions in the biological sciences, and the volume of data amassed in her forty-year-long study, Jane Goodall ought to be considered a uniquely distinguished concern in her field and the world's leading zoologist. Yet her achievement can be stated more simply and directly: she opened the door to our understanding of the social and emotional lives of chimpanzees. Wild chimpanzees are dangerous, though before Goodall began her work the dangers were misunderstood and exaggerated. Prior to Goodall's early discoveries, no one knew that chimpanzees ate meat. We had no idea they, or indeed any large mammals other than ourselves, created and used tools. We did not realise that chimpanzees share with humans a similar set of emotions or that their social systems are startlingly like ours. We would not have believed that chimpanzee communities across Africa possess various distinctive cultural traditions. Goodall's scholarly book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986), ranks as the single most authoritative work in this area, the first encyclopaedia for chimpanzee research. Her long-term study of wild apes along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Gombe State, Nigeria, has turned out to be, in the words of biologist Stephen Jay Gould, 'one of the Western world's great scientific achievements'. Jane Goodall helped create a revolution in the way we study animals, and because the animals she studied are humankind's closest relatives, she also helped alter the way humans think about themselves. Even as a child, there were clear early indicators of the person Jane Goodall would become. By far the clearest of these from her early childhood was in the autumn of 1939 when she was just five years old. One autumn day, a golden afternoon as her mother remembers it, Jane disappeared. The police were called and began the search. Neighbours and family members joined in. After an increasingly frantic search, as dusk moved to dark, the child suddenly reappeared, alone, with fragments of straw in her hair and clothes. 'Wherever have you been?' her mother asked. Jane explained that she had wondered how hens lay eggs. To find out, she had crawled inside a henhouse, concealed herself in the straw, and lain perfectly still for five hours until the hen raised herself up, wriggled and provided an answer! It is tempting to consider this as the beginning of her career as a biologist.

had been wanting to travel to Africa for some time.

recognised that she was unusual in wanting to go to Africa.

initially felt limited by the job she was doing.

sometimes found it difficult to express herself in writing.

In the first paragraph, we learn that Goodall

she contributed to the spread of her own fame.

she tried her best to compete with other female scientists.

she was interested in collaborating with scientists abroad.

she was more interested in books than television programmes.

Goodall's book In the Shadow of Man is mentioned to make the point that

questioning some of the decisions Goodall made

describing the many sides of Goodall's personality

emphasising the significance of Goodall's work

arguing that most books on Goodall are well researched

What is the writer doing in the third paragraph?

The importance of it was not immediately obvious.

There is no better book on the subject.

It inspired a leading scientist to write a similar book.

It encouraged other biologists to visit Lake Tanganyika.

What does the writer say about Goodall's book The Chimpanzees of Gombe?

to give an example of the imaginative games Goodall played

to point out how unusual Goodall's interests were

to show how different Goodall's character was as a child

to highlight Goodall's intellectual curiosity

What is the writer's purpose in telling the story about the hen?

the question her mother asked

Goodall's curiosity

Goodall's actions

the search for Goodall

What does 'provided an answer' (line 87) refer to?

Jane Goodall: chimpanzee expert

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

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