Health In The Wild IELTS Reading Academic

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Health In The Wild IELTS Reading Academic

Reading Passage 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Real IELTS Exam Question, Reported On:

India	10th November 2022
India	11th June 2022

Health In The Wild

Many animals seem able to treat their illnesses themselves. Humans way have a thing or two to learn from them.

For the past decade Dr Engel, a lecturer m environmental sciences at Britain’s Open University, has been collating examples of self-medicating behavior in wild animals. She recently published a book on the subject. In a talk at the Edinburgh Science Festival earlier this month, she explained that the idea that animals can treat themselves has been regarded with some skepticism by her colleagues in the past. But a growing number of animal behaviourists now think that wild animals can and do deal with their own medical needs.

One example of self-medication was discovered in 1987. Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu, working in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, noticed that local chimpanzees suffering from intestinal worms would dose themselves with the pith of a plant called Veronia. This plant produces poisonous chemicals called terpenes. Its pith contains a strong enough concentration to kill gut parasites, but not so strong as to kill chimps (nor people, for that matter; locals use the pith for the same purpose). Given that the plant is known locally as “goat-killer”, however, it seems that not all animals are as smart as chimps and humans. Some consume it indiscriminately, and succumb. ieltsxpress

Since the Veronia-eating chimps were discovered, more evidence has emerged suggesting that animals often eat things for medical rather than nutritional reasons. Many species, for example, consume dirt-a behaviour known as geophagy ( 食土癖 ). Historically, the preferred explanation was that soil supplies minerals such as salt. But geophagy occurs in areas where the earth is not a useful source of minerals, and also in places where minerals can be more easily obtained from certain plants that are known to be rich in them. Clearly, the animals must be getting something else out of eating earth.

The current belief is that soil-and particularly the clay in it-helps to detoxify the defensive poisons that some plants produce in an attempt to prevent themselves from being eaten. Evidence for the detoxifying nature of clay came in 1999, from an experiment carried out on macaws by James Gilardi and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis. Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members, such as strychnine. In the wild, the birds are frequently seen perched on eroding riverbanks eating clay. Dr Gilardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their bloodstreams than those that had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct.

Other observations also support the idea that clay is detoxifying. Towards the tropics the amount of toxic compounds in plants increases-and so does the amount of earth eaten by herbivores. Elephants lick clay from mud holes all year round, except in September when they are bingeing on fruit which, because it has evolved to be eaten, is not toxic. And the addition of clay to the diets of domestic cattle increases the amount of nutrients that they can absorb from their food by 10-20%. ielts xpress

A third instance of animal self-medication is the use of mechanical scours to get rid of gut parasites. In 1972 Richard Wrangham, a researcher at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania, noticed that chimpanzees were eating the leaves of a tree called Aspilia. The chimps chose the leaves carefully by testing them in their mouths. Having chosen a leaf, a chimp would fold it into a fan and swallow it. Some of the chimps were noticed wrinkling their noses as they swallowed these leaves, suggesting the experience was unpleasant. Later, undigested leaves were found on the forest floor.

Dr Wrangham rightly guessed that the leaves had a medicinal purposethis was, indeed, one of the earliest interpretations of a behaviour pattern as self-medication. However, he guessed wrong about what the mechanism was. His (and everybody else’s) assumption was that Aspilia contained a drug, and this sparked more than two decades of phytochemical research to try to find out what chemical the chimps were after. But by the 1990s, chimps across Africa had been seen swallowing the leaves of 19 different species that seemed to have few suitable chemicals in common. The drug hypothesis was looking more and more dubious.

It was Dr Huffman who got to the bottom of the problem. He did so by watching what came out of the chimps, rather than concentrating on what went in. He found that the egested leaves were full of intestinal worms. The factor common to all 19 species of leaves swallowed by the chimps was that they were covered with microscopic hooks. These caught the worms and dragged them from their lodgings.

Following that observation, Dr Engel is now particularly excited about how knowledge of the way that animals look after themselves could be used to improve the health of livestock. People might also be able to learn a thing or two-and may, indeed, already have done so. Geophagy, for example, is a common behaviour in many parts of the world. The medical stalls in African markets frequently sell tablets made of different sorts of clays, appropriate to different medical conditions. IELTSXpress

Health In The Wild IELTS Reading Academic

Africans brought to the Americas as slaves continued this tradition, which gave their owners one more excuse to affect to despise them. Yet, as Dr Engel points out, Rwandan mountain gorillas eat a type of clay rather similar to kaolinitethe main ingredient of many patent medicines sold over the counter in the West for digestive complaints. Dirt can sometimes be good for you, and to be “as sick as a parrot” may, after all, be a state to be desired.

Question 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the sataement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this. ieltsxpress

1. It is for 10 years that Dr Engel has been working on animal self-medication.
2. In order to find plants for medication, animals usually need to walk a long distance.
3. Birds such as Macaw, are seen eating clay because it is a part of their natural diet.
4. According to Dr Engel., it is exciting that research into animal self-medication can be helpful in the invention of new painkillers.

Question 5-9
Complete the notes below using NO MORE THAN ONE WORDS from the passage.
Write your answers in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet

Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below using words from the box.
Write your answers, A-H, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet. ieltsxpress

A. mineral
B. plants
C. unpleasant
D. toxic
E. clay tablets
F. nutritional
G. geophagy
H. harmless

Animal self-medication has been supported by an increasing amount of evidences. One of them is called 10 ________ , a soil-consuming behavior commonly found across animals species. Because earth, especially clay, can neutralize the 11 ________ content of their diet. Similar behavior can also be found among humans in Africa, where patients will buy 12 ________ at medical stalls to heal them. Another one is related to chimps who eat leaves with 13 ________ taste probably, but with medicinal value due to their special structure.

Health In The Wild IELTS Reading Answers

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1. TRUE

2. NOT GIVEN

3. FALSE

4. FALSE

5. pith

6. terpenes

7. alkaloids

8. detoxify

9. hooks

10. G

11. D

12. E

13. C

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Health In The Wild IELTS Reading Answers Explanation

Question 1: It is for 10 years that Dr Engel has been working on animal self-medication.

Answer: True

Supporting sentence: For the past decade Dr Engel, a lecturer in environmental sciences at Britain’s Open University, has been collating examples of self-medicating behaviour in wild animals.
Keywords: past decade, environmental sciences, self-medicating behavior
Keyword location: para A; Lines 1-2
Explanation: Dr Engel has been working as a lecturer on self-medication of wild animals for the last ten years implying for the past decade in the sentence.

Question 2: In order to find plants for medication, animals usually need to walk a long distance.

Answer: Not Given ieltsxpress

Question 3: Birds such as Macaw, are seen eating clay because it is a part of their natural diet

Answer: False

Supporting sentence: Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members, such as strychnine.
Keywords: alkaloids, group of chemicals, toxic members
Keyword location: Para D; lines 4-6
Explanation: when Dr Gilardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their bloodstreams than those that had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct. This implies that the Macaws eat alkaloids and not clay.

Question 4: According to Dr Engel., it is exciting that research into animal self-medication can be helpful in the invention of new painkillers.

Answer: False
Supporting sentence: Dr Engel is now particularly excited about how knowledge of the way that animals look after themselves could be used to improve the health of livestock
Keywords: knowledge, the health of livestock ieltsx press
Keyword location: Para I; lines 1-2
Explanation: Dr Engel’s excitement on research is based on how self-medication would be beneficial in terms of improving the health of livestock

Question 5:

Answer: Pith of Veronia

Supporting sentence: Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu, working in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, noticed that local chimpanzees suffering from intestinal worms would dose themselves with the pitch of a plant called Veronia.
Keywords: working, local chimpanzees, intestinal worms
Keyword location: para B; lines 1-3
Explanation: the research of Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania identified the chimpanzees who were suffering from intestinal worms cured or took doses of the pith of a plant which is named Veronia.

Question 6:

Answer: terpenes
Supporting sentence: This plant produces poisonous chemicals called terpenes. Its pith contains a strong enough concentration to kill gut parasites, but not so strong as to kill chimps (nor people, for that matter; locals use the pith for the same purpose).
Keywords: poisonous chemicals, gut parasites ielts xpress
Keyword location: Para B; lines 4-6
Explanation: the plant Veronia produces a poisonous chemical called terpenes which is used for killing the gut parasites or intestinal worms in chimpanzees which has been found to be strong enough to kill the parasites but not the chimps.

Question 7:

Answer: Alkaloids

Supporting sentence: Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members, such as strychnine.
Keywords: macaws, group of chemicals
Keyword location: para D; lines 4-6
Explanation: as per the research of James Gilardi and his colleague Davis, macaws eat seeds that contain alkaloids that are toxic members of chemicals like strychnine

Question 8:

Answer: Detoxify ielt sx pr es s

Supporting sentence: Other observations also support the idea that clay is detoxifying. Towards the tropics, the amount of toxic compounds in plants increases-and so does the amount of earth eaten by herbivores.
Keywords: clay, detoxifying, toxic compounds
Keyword location: para E, lines 1-3
Explanation: observations have explained that clay can be detoxifying considering the habits of herbivores feeding on plants having toxic compounds and further eating clay-like elephants to detoxify themselves.

Question 9:

Answer: Hooks

Supporting sentence: In 1972 Richard Wrangham, a researcher at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania, noticed that chimpanzees were eating the leaves of a tree called Aspilia. The chimps chose the leaves carefully by testing them in their mouths.
Keywords: chimpanzees, eating leaves, testing
Keyword location: para F; lines 2-4
Explanation: Richard Wrangham found that chimpanzees used to eat leaves with tiny hooks thereby choosing them carefully by testing them in their mouth. ielts xpress

Question 10:

Answer: G

Supporting sentence: Many species, for example, consume dirt-a behavior known as geophagy ( 食土癖 ). Historically, the preferred explanation was that soil supplies minerals such as salt.
Keywords: consume, dirt-a behavior, soil supplies minerals
Keyword location: Para C; lines 3-4
Explanation: certain evidence have been found which has supported that animals eat different things for medical reasons like geophagy, which is consumption of dirt-a behavior by animals for self-medication

Question 11:

Answer: D

Supporting sentence: In the wild, the birds are frequently seen perched on eroding riverbanks eating clay. Dr Gilardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their bloodstreams than those that had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct.
Keywords: current belief, clay, detoxify, defensive poisons ieltsxpress
Keyword location: Para D, lines 7-10
Explanation: soil has been identified to contain aspects that help in detoxifying the poisonous elements in plants implying that clay can neutralize the content of diet of animals like the macaws who even after eating alkaloids when feed on clay can neutralize the toxic elements within alkaloids

Question 12:

Answer: E

Supporting sentence: The medical stalls in African markets frequently sell tablets made of different sorts of clays, appropriate to different medical conditions.
Keywords: African markets, tablets, different medical conditions
Keyword location: para I; lines 5-6
Explanation: As part of detoxifying elements of curing the patients in Africa, clay tablets could be found as part of medication aspects for dealing with different medical issues.

Question 13:

Answer: C

Supporting sentence: Some of the chimps were noticed wrinkling their noses as they swallowed these leaves, suggesting the experience was unpleasant. ieltsxpress
Keywords: chimps, wrinkling their noses, experience
Keyword location: para F; lines 5-6
Explanation: chimpanzees have been found to be eating leaves as part of their diet while wrinkling their nose proving that their experiences were unpleasant.

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