Page 15 - Mission IELTS Leaflet

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2 IELTS Practice Test
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on the reading passage.
A Scientists have discovered that groups of
chimpanzees organise themselves to cross
the road safely, just like humans.
B Scientists from the University of Stirling,
Scotland carried out research on a small
chimp community in Guinea, West Africa.
They took video footage over a three month
period of groups of chimps trying to cross
two roads. The first was a smaller one that
was mostly used by pedestrians, but the
second was a larger road used by cars,
lorries and motorbikes. It had only recently
been widened to carry this amount of traffic.
C What they found was that the strongest and
most high-ranking male chimp moved to the
front of the group while the other adult males
moved to the back. The females and young
chimps gathered between them.
D In this way, the male chimps seemed to be
protecting the more vulnerable members of
the group. On some occasions they were
also seen to stand guard while the rest of
the group crossed the road, in much the
same way as lollipop people or the police in
some countries help groups of children
cross the road safely near schools.
E The scientists also measured how long the
chimps took before crossing the road, and
noted that they took least time on the smaller
road, more time on the bigger one and even
longer when the road was busy with traffic.
F This protective behaviour by stronger and
less fearful male chimps had been seen
previously when the group travelled to
waterholes or other potentially unsafe areas.
But this is the first time it has been
witnessed on roads.
G The footage is believed to show how chimps
are capable of adapting to new environments
created by humans, and that they are able to
react flexibly and play different roles to
improve their chances of survival when
facing different kinds of danger.
H According to a researcher on the project,
Kimberley Hockings, the findings also show
how ‘dominant individuals act cooperatively
with a high level of flexibility to maximise
group protection’. This finding helps
researchers understand how human social
behaviour has developed.
I This video footage comes shortly after footage
recently shown of chimps in the Congo using
tools to help them find food, and varying the
tools they use according to the task in hand.
This study was the first to make use of remote
video monitoring technology.
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