Flying Tortoises IELTS Reading Passage With Answers

Ielts Reading Flying Tortoises Answers

1. v
2. iii
3. viii
4. i
5. iv
6. vi
7. ii
8. pirates
9. food
10. oil
11. settlers
12. species
13. eggs

Locate Answers With Explanation of Flying Tortoises IELTS Reading Passage

A

Forests of spiny cacti ***************** Pacific Ocean. With its******** terrain below.

Q1 This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. …….from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises …… Island life agreed with them. ….., weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1,8 metres in length and living for more than a century.

B 

Before human arrival, the archipelago’s tortoises ………….. thousands.  Q2 From the 17th century onwards, Q8 pirates took a few on board for Q9 food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and ………….. during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high- grade Q10 oil.

In total, an estimated 200,000 ********* 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when Q11 settlers came to the islands. They ***************  for agriculture. They also introduced alien Q12 species – ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats and dogs to plants and ants – that either prey on the Q13 eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.

C

Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered.
Q3 In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations. The centre’s ************** problem.

D

The problem ******************* least 4,5 kilograms, at ****************** predators. Q4 But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.

E

For years, *******************  November 2010, Q5 the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small cafe in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim*************  to Sierra Negra.

F

This unprecedented ********************* crew. Originally ************** up to 33 tortoises ******150 kilograms. This weight,**************** capabilities. Q6 During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, ************** rocks.

G

Upon their release, the juvenile *************** vegetation. Q7 Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.

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