A meeting with Jane Goodall - Practice Exam

C2 Proficiency · Gapped Text · Expert Proficiency Resource Book, Pearson Education

You are going to read a newspaper article about the naturalist Jane Goodall. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap (1–7). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

A meeting with Jane Goodall

The celebrated naturalist shares her views on the role of zoos and importance of dogs for human contentment

That's why a well-designed captive environment, with a good amount of space, safety and people around who care for them and look after them, is also good. 'Most people don't bother to put themselves in the position of a chimp,' she says. 'They assume they know best.'

So it was that she came to spot one doing something of tremendous significance – using a stem of grass as a tool to extract termites from a nest. It was an enormous discovery. Until that point, tool use was considered the defining characteristic of humanity, the thing that set us apart from the animals.

Jane has noted that, on the contrary, chimps seem to get along rather well with dogs. 'It's fascinating,' she says. 'I'd love to study it. I've seen many examples of dogs and chimps that form close bonds. I even wrote a children's book about one.'

It's a fundamental shift of perspective for which Jane can take much of the credit. 'People think that my favourite animals must be chimps, whereas actually it's dogs, because of the deep relationship they have with us. There's something about having a dog in a room full of people that just illustrates that so well. It opens the heart. And if it doesn't, they're not the sort of people I want to know.'

Indeed, an intelligent – 'quite opinionated' – mutt called Rusty was her childhood companion in fact, teaching her that animals other than humans do have emotions. When she emerged from the jungle, she reported that chimps, too, were emotional beings.

'I get so upset by the way people think that in order to train a dog you've got to have dominance and that you've got to have instant obedience,' she says. When I first thought of suggesting that we take Sam for a walk, I had been worried she'd be opposed to the whole idea of having pets, or keeping animals in zoos, but her views are more nuanced than that.

Delivering that message has turned her into a kind of Ancient Mariner of the environmental movement. She's never in the same place for more than three weeks. For years now, she's been on the road more than three-hundred days a year, working fifteen-hour days, seven days a week.

Any briskness is put aside, however, when I introduce her to our companion for the afternoon. 'Hello, boy,' she calls, and suggests I let him off the leash. Sam promptly sprints for the beach, where other dogs are running and swimming. 'That's better,' she says, and follows him down to the sand.

For more than fifty years, Jane's been famous as the woman who taught the world about chimpanzees. As a young woman with little more than secretarial training, she was chosen by the anthropologist Louis Leakey to live among a group of chimpanzees in the Gombe wildlife park in East Africa and study their behaviour. She found a vantage point, high up above a lake from which to do this unobserved.

Although she continues to be closely involved with chimpanzee research, since the 1980s Jane's focus has been on the wider issues of conservation, particularly through a youth programme called Roots & Shoots. This is now active in over a hundred countries and encourages young people to take on projects to help other animals and the environment. Jane's philosophy – that each of us can make a difference every day – clearly chimes with the growing numbers of people taking part.

Now nearing eighty, Jane is slight, but not frail, and seems to thrive on the hectic schedule. Her white hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and her unlined face exudes calm. There's also a mischievous twitch at the corner of her mouth, and a twinkle in her eye. As she and Sam wrestle with sticks, she tells me how important dogs were as an inspiration for her early work.

The then scientific establishment dismissed the idea out of hand. 'University professors told me that I was mistaken. But observing the animals themselves had taught me that it was true.' Things have come a long way, she notes. These days you can study the animal mind at universities, and even animal personality. Her lifestyle means that Jane is fortunate enough to meet plenty of folk she does warm to, however, from inner-city kids to heads of state. At a conference a couple of days earlier, she'd talked about how important dogs are for contentment. We clamber up from the beach and walk towards the house she's staying at. Sam trots between us, Jane keeping an eye on him with gentle but firm commands.

'We have this glorified idea of freedom,' she explains. 'For chimps, living somewhere like Gombe is certainly the ideal – but if you're a chimp in the wild elsewhere in Africa, there's always a tension from destruction of their habitats, poachers and so on. Or there's a risk of being captured for medical research or circuses or pets.'

Once we're at the house, we continue talking while Sam dashes around the garden. But after a few minutes, someone brings him back on the leash, explaining that he had nearly eaten one of the neighbour's pair of free-roaming rabbits. I start to give him a stern talking-to, but Jane quickly comes to Sam's defence. 'He's not naughty, he's just being a dog.' As we make our farewells – Jane has another appointment to get to – she gives Sam a final pat. 'He'll sleep well tonight,' she says. 'And he'll be dreaming of rabbits.'

It's a crisp winter's afternoon in Sydney. The sky is blue, and a frosty wind is blowing down Middle Harbour and across the grassy expanse of The Spit Reserve, a dog-friendly park, where I often take my shaggy, excitable four-legged friend Sam. Wrapped up in a long cream coat, Dame Jane Goodall emerges into the squall from a black four-by-four. 'Oh, it's cold here!' she gasps, perhaps hinting that she hopes our meeting won't go on too long. ___ For more than fifty years, Jane's been famous as the woman who taught the world about chimpanzees. As a young woman with little more than secretarial training, she was chosen by the anthropologist Louis Leakey to live among a group of chimpanzees in the Gombe wildlife park in East Africa and study their behaviour. She found a vantage point, high up above a lake from which to do this unobserved. ___ Although she continues to be closely involved with chimpanzee research, since the 1980s Jane's focus has been on the wider issues of conservation, particularly through a youth programme called Roots & Shoots. This is now active in over a hundred countries and encourages young people to take on projects to help other animals and the environment. Jane's philosophy – that each of us can make a difference every day – clearly chimes with the growing numbers of people taking part. ___ Now nearing eighty, Jane is slight, but not frail, and seems to thrive on the hectic schedule. Her white hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and her unlined face exudes calm. There's also a mischievous twitch at the corner of her mouth, and a twinkle in her eye. As she and Sam wrestle with sticks, she tells me how important dogs were as an inspiration for her early work. ___ The then scientific establishment dismissed the idea out of hand. 'University professors told me that I was mistaken. But observing the animals themselves had taught me that it was true.' Things have come a long way, she notes. These days you can study the animal mind at universities, and even animal personality. Her lifestyle means that Jane is fortunate enough to meet plenty of folk she does warm to, however, from inner-city kids to heads of state. At a conference a couple of days earlier, she'd talked about how important dogs are for contentment. We clamber up from the beach and walk towards the house she's staying at. Sam trots between us, Jane keeping an eye on him with gentle but firm commands. ___ 'We have this glorified idea of freedom,' she explains. 'For chimps, living somewhere like Gombe is certainly the ideal – but if you're a chimp in the wild elsewhere in Africa, there's always a tension from destruction of their habitats, poachers and so on. Or there's a risk of being captured for medical research or circuses or pets.' ___ Once we're at the house, we continue talking while Sam dashes around the garden. But after a few minutes, someone brings him back on the leash, explaining that he had nearly eaten one of the neighbour's pair of free-roaming rabbits. I start to give him a stern talking-to, but Jane quickly comes to Sam's defence. 'He's not naughty, he's just being a dog.' As we make our farewells – Jane has another appointment to get to – she gives Sam a final pat. 'He'll sleep well tonight,' she says. 'And he'll be dreaming of rabbits.'

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