Tigers, the biggest of all big cats, have always fascinated poets and
writers, and many of us remember Shere-Khan, the tiger in the novel The
Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Also, societies that live near these cats
have many legends about them. For instance, according to an old Sumatran
legend, tigers are very intelligent and a long time ago humans made an
agreement with them: people would leave the tiger alone in his territory
and the tiger would stay far from the villages.
In Sumatra today, villages still have rituals to commemorate this agreement.
A buffalo is sacrificed from time to time and is left outside the villages
for the tiger as a sign of respect. Also, people say that, when a tiger
is near a village, it is a sign that someone has broken a law. Then, the
villagers punish the suspect and bring meat to the forest to show the
tiger that the crime has been punished.
Tigers are solitary creatures who live in big territories and they usually
eat small animals. The truth is that there are very few man-eating tigers.
However, some years ago, surprisingly, tigers started going near the villages
and killing people in India and Bangladesh. Tigers usually attack from
behind, so people started wearing a mask of a human face on the backs
of their heads. The method worked for several years, but the tigers have
started attacking again.
Why are tigers attacking more and more people? Is it simply because they
are hungry ? Or is it that they have gotten angry? The tropical forests
are getting smaller, many wild animals are being hunted in big numbers
and tigers themselves are in danger of becoming extinct. Maybe the tiger
is just punishing us: we humans have broken the agreement of mutual respect
that we made with the wild beasts a long time ago.
PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION
1. Answer the following questions according to the information in
the text.
1. What famous fictional character is mentioned in the text and from
which literary work?
2. What method was developed in India and Bangladesh to prevent tiger
attacks on humans?
3. The text gives us three reasons why tigers may be angry. Which ones?
4. Which of the following sentences (a, b or c) summarises the text best?
a) The great majority of tigers are big, solitary, dangerous animals
that usually attack men from behind when they are in the Indian and Sumatran
forests.
b) According to an old legend, tigers may be attacking more humans now
because human beings have lost respect for them and are making their lives
difficult.
c) Tiger attacks on people are more frequent because tigers are hungry
and people do not leave buffaloes for them outside the villages.
PART TWO: WRITING
Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.
Option A: Imagine you arrive at a small village in Sumatra and
you meet Konish, an old man who starts telling you stories about tigers
and the legends that he believes in. Write down your conversation with
him.
Option B: In all cultures and countries people have legends and
tell their children fairy tales about animals. Write down one of the legends
or fairy tales with animals that you know, as if you were telling it to
a young child.
3. Vocabulary
Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example:
to claim, to tend, research.
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