The Dramatic Life – so far – of Birdgirl - Unit 12

C1 Advanced · Gapped Text · Complete Advanced, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about a young naturalist and environmentalist. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

The Dramatic Life – so far – of Birdgirl

This sums Mya up perfectly. She has always seemed like ‘an old head on young shoulders’, going about her business with a maturity and focus far beyond her years. It’s an impression that is only reinforced by the calmness with which she speaks.

Their success strengthened within her the firm belief that ‘an unequal world is not a sustainable one. We need to encourage everybody from every community to tackle the environmental crisis we find ourselves in.’ Mya began campaigning forcefully for environmental organisations to become more diverse.

She has never strayed from the belief that forming a strong connection with nature is a crucial aspect of a rewarding life. Ideally, everyone should find time each day to relax in outdoor green spaces, to ‘cope with anxiety and stay mentally and emotionally well.’

In 2020, at the age of 17 – three months before her final high school exams – she received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Bristol. In doing so, she broke another record and became the youngest UK-born person to be given such an award.

The additional realisation that this was hardly a rare occurrence, prompted her to investigate further. She began to wonder why, of all the people working in the UK as environmental professionals, less than 1% were from minority-ethnic families.

‘I used to think of it as a very competitive treasure hunt,’ she explains; ‘a mission to track down as many as possible.’ Since then, her determination has softened, and she has learnt to appreciate the ‘simple pleasure of being outdoors, surrounded by birds and by nature.’

It’s an idea she explores in her book, We Have A Dream. In it, Mya profiles 30 young environmental activists, all indigenous people or people of colour, giving accounts of the impact of environmental damage on their lives.

Yet, while this life of tranquillity undoubtedly has its appeal – as does seeing her name in the record books – Mya’s achievements elsewhere make her even more impressive. A defining moment came during a birdwatching trip at the age of 13, when she noticed that not only was she the youngest birder by far, but she was also the only person of colour in the group.

Opportunity plays its part, certainly – young people from these backgrounds are much less likely to live in rural areas, or have access to urban green spaces. In 2016, inspired by her British-Bangladeshi roots, Mya set up Black2Nature, a camp for less privileged, city-dwelling, Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) teenagers, her aim being to encourage them to become more engaged with the natural environment. She followed this with several other camps welcoming children from all ethnicities and backgrounds, all with the same goal in mind.

Thus, her journey – from record-breaker to equality champion and activist – was complete. She credits those early years of extensive travel for allowing her to see first-hand the impacts of climate change, deforestation, and discrimination; these experiences formed the basis of her mission to campaign for global climate justice, which, according to Mya, is ‘basically making sure that everyone’s voices are heard in the climate change conversation.’

Almost everyone interviewed was dealing with adverse effects of the climate crisis in their day-to-day routines, whether that meant having increasingly limited access to clean water, or fighting to protect their land from exploitation by super-rich companies. For Mya, this was the most affecting aspect of collecting their stories together and she readily admits that, coming from a country like the UK, because ‘we’re not immediately impacted by climate change, it can be more abstract.’

What better honour could there have been for someone who has taken their fascination with ornithology and the natural world and channelled that into working with such energy and passion, constantly pushing themselves to try to raise awareness about inequality for a more tolerant, more inclusive world?

But what about those without a garden or park within easy reach? Mya says that, even in the middle of a concrete jungle, you can ‘listen to the dawn chorus, watch the clouds, watch the sunset or the night sky, put a birdfeeder and some water somewhere you can see them outside, or just watch any wildlife you can see in trees or bushes.’ I say, listen to Mya. She talks a lot of sense.

Mya-Rose Craig was nine days old when her parents first took her on a birdwatching trip (not that she remembers it, of course). From an early age, her fascination with ornithology – the study of birds – grew to such a point that she would never be content with merely leafing through the pages of an ornithological encyclopaedia. In August 2019, after seventeen years’ travelling the globe, Mya became the youngest person in the world to have seen, in the flesh, half of the entire world’s known bird species – 5,369 birds – the pursuit of which she documented in her blog, Birdgirl. ___ Yet, while this life of tranquillity undoubtedly has its appeal – as does seeing her name in the record books – Mya’s achievements elsewhere make her even more impressive. A defining moment came during a birdwatching trip at the age of 13, when she noticed that not only was she the youngest birder by far, but she was also the only person of colour in the group. ___ Opportunity plays its part, certainly – young people from these backgrounds are much less likely to live in rural areas, or have access to urban green spaces. In 2016, inspired by her British-Bangladeshi roots, Mya set up Black2Nature, a camp for less privileged, city-dwelling, Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) teenagers, her aim being to encourage them to become more engaged with the natural environment. She followed this with several other camps welcoming children from all ethnicities and backgrounds, all with the same goal in mind. ___ Thus, her journey – from record-breaker to equality champion and activist – was complete. She credits those early years of extensive travel for allowing her to see first-hand the impacts of climate change, deforestation, and discrimination; these experiences formed the basis of her mission to campaign for global climate justice, which, according to Mya, is ‘basically making sure that everyone’s voices are heard in the climate change conversation.’ ___ Almost everyone interviewed was dealing with adverse effects of the climate crisis in their day-to-day routines, whether that meant having increasingly limited access to clean water, or fighting to protect their land from exploitation by super-rich companies. For Mya, this was the most affecting aspect of collecting their stories together and she readily admits that, coming from a country like the UK, because ‘we’re not immediately impacted by climate change, it can be more abstract.’ ___ What better honour could there have been for someone who has taken their fascination with ornithology and the natural world and channelled that into working with such energy and passion, constantly pushing themselves to try to raise awareness about inequality for a more tolerant, more inclusive world? ___ But what about those without a garden or park within easy reach? Mya says that, even in the middle of a concrete jungle, you can ‘listen to the dawn chorus, watch the clouds, watch the sunset or the night sky, put a birdfeeder and some water somewhere you can see them outside, or just watch any wildlife you can see in trees or bushes.’ I say, listen to Mya. She talks a lot of sense.

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