Revised Cambridge 2019 GP P2 Insert

Raffles Institution 2024 Year 6 Comprehension Practice Revised 2019 Cambridge Paper General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Higher 1 GENERAL PAPER 8881/02 Paper 2 INSERT 1 hour 30 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST This Insert contains the passages for comprehension. This document consists of 4 printed pages

Passage 1. Anne walford argues that it is time to close zoos. 1 Whilst Eastern thinkers have often advocated equal reverence for all life, some Western philosophers have seen man as inherently superior to animals. Aristotle, for instance, thought that because animals lacked emotions, reason and souls, they were clearly inferior to humans and so could be guiltlessly exploited (significantly, he also thought men innately superior to women, and some humans fit only to be slaves). Thankfully, public attitudes evolve, and the issue of animal rights (a concept Aristotle would not have recognised) has moved more centre stage. One manifestation of this increasing concern for animal welfare is how the practice of cap turing, incarcerating and displaying animals in zoos is being called into ever more serious question. 5 2 Egyptian pharaohs, European kings and Eastern potentates all amassed collections of beasts - usually the most charismatic, aggressive or exotic ones - as a means for these vain rulers to bolster their prestige and show their dominance not only over their own subjects but also over non-human creatures. The worst expression of this was probably when Roman emperors demanded the c apture of thousands of animals to provide gruesome spectacles in their arenas. One would have hoped such cruelty -as- entertainment was a thing of the very distant past, but not so: visitors to some Chinese zoos can pay extra to witness live goats being fed to tigers, as others find 'entertainment' in watching bulls tormented to death in Spanish arenas. 10 15 3 Whilst, admittedly, the best of today's zoos are accredited and subject to rigorous inspection, all zoos, great and small, inhibit the exercising of animals' natural behaviours. Forcibly removed from their fellows, destroying their social groupings, the animals are uprooted from their chosen habitats - often remote spaces uninhabited by man - and subject to arduous transportation. They become confined in unwanted and unnatural proximity to man. Other instincts are thwarted too. They will not select a mate but have one selected for them. The size of their world has shrunk almost to nothing; their freedom to roam it at will has been snatched from them or, if they were bred in the zoo, withheld from birth. Whereas wild elephants walk freely over twenty miles a day, in some zoos their equivalents trace and re -trace the few steps their enclosure allows them. Furthermore, the innate urge many species feel to migrate is denied them. Is it any wonder many become depressed and stressed, their life span shorter than that of their counterparts in the wild? 20 25 30 4 Zoos incarcerate animals for the amusement of our species. Their animals are exhibits, expected to perform in the fake authenticity of their enclosures, a stage of synthetic trees and pre-recorded soundtracks. And some customers, on whose money zoos depend, have not paid to see an apparently listless lion at rest, as he would be in the wild for twenty hours a day, roaring only early in the morning and at sunset. Hence some spectator cajole or taunt, hoping for some reaction, to enjoy the sensation of a powerful animal being aggressive at no risk to themselves. 35 5 The reintroduction of endangered species into the wild is a much -vaunted and self- justificatory action zoos take. But this is rarely successful, as life in a zoo dulls some of the instincts necessary for survival and besides, the root cause of the original decline has often not been addressed. How much better it would be to curtail the wanton destruction of habitats and to ensure more robust prosecution of poaching. The Cost a Rican government has talked of disbanding its zoos. Perhaps where they lead, others might follow. 40 45

Passage 2. Ray Morgan argues that zoos have never been more essential. 1 Zoos, with their devoted staff, are increasingly vital. (A) Their animals are free from the spectre of predation both by other species and by humans, in the form of hunters and poachers. (B) There is no risk of a sudden dearth of food or water; (C) nor are they vulnerable to the vagaries of climate changes. (D) Socially, these animals will not experience the ostracism, even infanticide, which can occur in the wild. (E) Housed in ever -improving mini -habitats, they enjoy convincingly naturalistic approximations of their natural environment. And with the larger mammals long since rehoused in the wider and f reer spaces of wildlife parks, animal welfare concerns for some have been clearly addressed. But other species have not been so fortunate. 5 2 The West African black rhinoceros, Brazil's Spix's macaw, China's baiji dolphin (F) These are just three of the species declared extinct in recent years, with an accelerating number of others teetering on the brink of extinction. Some species now exist only in zoos and some in the wild owe their very survival to captive breeding programmes. To give just one telling example, in the 1980s there were fewer than two dozen Californian condors left but, thanks to chicks reared in San Diego Zoo, that number today is 400 and counting. Such success does not happen in isolation: it is the result of (G) sharing research findings, just one aspect of the worldwide collaborative nature of today's zoos, along with their (H) funding of global projects from the bleak melting polar regions to the shrinking tropical fecundity that is Borneo. 10 15 20 3 More and more of us are city -dwellers, far removed in time and space from the interaction with wild animals our ancestors would have known. Zoos offer us the chance of face-to-face encounters, an opportunity taken up last year by 700 million people worldwide. Visits, by local families or by tourists, are (I) recreational and (J) instructive, given the wealth of information zoos offer us. Yes, television documentaries also instruct and astound us, delving deeper and deeper into hitherto unreachable locations to bring us compelling images of all manner of species. But watching such programmes cannot equal (K) seeing such animals in the flesh, where one can fully absorb their otherness, and experience that sense of awe and respect such nearness engenders. Children, particularly, respond with (L) empathy to this closeness. Who knows? They may be galvanised to take action to benefit the world they are growing up in. 25 30

Passage 3. Reasons why zoos matter. 1 What goes through your head when you hear the word ‘zoos’? Do you think of modern-day conservation powerhouses? If not, you should. 2 With over 700 million visitors a year, zoos and aquariums are the third biggest contributor to field conservation worldwide. Zoos are true social enterprises, contributing to our understanding of animals and integral to connecting people with animals – particularly in our increasingly urbanised world. 5 3 I can understand the sentiments of detractors. But those who state ‘let animals be free to live in the wild’ misunderstand the situation in wild habitats. There is no environment on earth left untouched by humans. Just look to footage of plastic rubbish patches in our oceans to see how our actions are a