Part 2 You are going to read four extracts which are all concerned in some way with animals.

For questions 19-26, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Vervet monkeys
Cheney and Seyfarth describe how one day the dominant male in the group of vervet monkeys they were studying noticed a strange male hanging around in a neighbouring grove of trees. The strangers intentions were quite obvious: he was sizing up the group in order to join it. If he succeeded, it was more than likely that the incumbent male would be ousted from his position of privilege. With the vervet equivalent of a stroke of genius, the male hit on the ideal ploy to keep the stranger away from his group. As soon as the strange male descended from the grove of trees to try to cross the open ground that separated his grove from the one in which the group was feeding, he gave an alarm call that vervets use to signal the sighting of a leopard nearby. The stranger shot back into the safety of his trees. As the day wore on, this was repeated every time the stranger made a move in the groups direction. All was going swimmingly until the male made a crucial mistake: after successfully using the ploy several times, he gave the leopard alarm call while himself nonchalantly walking across open ground.
19 The writer describes the dominant males tactic as A B C D inspirational. ambitious. hazardous. impudent.

line 15

20 What aspect of the situation is emphasised by the use of the word swimmingly (line 15)? A B C D the tension the danger the humour the charm

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What Cats Catch

In a recent survey, people in the 173-household English village of Felmersham collected their cats prey. Over one year their seventy cats produced over 1,000 prey items. A professor in America saw these figures and worked out that on this basis the cat population of Britain must be killing 100 million birds and small mammals each year! The mesmeric effect of big numbers seems to have stultified reason. It is not realistic just to multiply the number of catches of these rural cats by the entire cat population of Britain. Most cats are town cats with small ranges, and catch fewer items of prey than the cats in this survey. The key question should have been this: are the numbers sustainable? The answer would seem to be yes. In winter many householders feed birds, while garden trees and buildings provide nesting sites, and in this way the bird population is kept at well above natural levels. The survey found that the cat is a significant predator, but not that it is devastating Britains bird population.

21 What is suggested about the American professor? A B C D He did not use his common sense. He did not understand English village life. He misunderstood the results of the survey. He asked the wrong questions.

22 What point is made about cats in Britain? A B C D They are no more dangerous than other predators. They have an effect on the numbers of birds. They are not increasing in numbers. They do less harm in rural areas.

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A Buffalos Day
The buffaloes are, as it were, the marshmans lifeline, and they are cherished accordingly. At each dawn the buffaloes, who have been sleeping on the buffalo platform or quite frequently round the fire with their owners, leave, infinitely slowly and wearily, their wallowing progress continually punctuated with despairing groans, for the distant reed-beds beyond the open water. For a long time they stand on the edge of the platform, groaning to each other of the infinite fatigue of the coming day, until at last the leader takes a ponderous pace forward and subsides into the water. Once in the water a deep lassitude once more descends upon the party, as if they had by now forgotten their intention and they may wallow there with low notes of complaint for many minutes. The movements that at length remove them from the immediate vicinity of the house are so gradual as to pass practically unnoticed, but finally they are swimming, so low in the water that their noses seem held above it by a last effort of ebbing strength, their rolling eyes proclaiming that this is the end at last and that they are drowning. So, patient and protesting and more or less submerged, they spend the day among the reeds and the bulrushes, grazing leisurely upon such green shoots as their antediluvian heads may find at eye level.

23 The writer states that the marshmen A B C D worship the buffaloes. look after the buffaloes carefully. treat the buffaloes better than they do people. guard the buffaloes closely.

24 What sort of sounds do the buffaloes make? A B C D melancholy drowsy lazy irate

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PICASSO, Pablo The soles 1940 Oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Picasso tended to paint those things that surrounded him, and in the early spring of 1940, he painted several fish still lifes while he was staying in the fishing port of Royan. The ostensible subject of the painting is a fishmongers slab with a crab, and a pair of scales containing two or three soles. In spite of their predicament these sea creatures look very much still alive. It is not very easy to read the painting because Picasso has treated the composition in terms of a flat pattern of overlapping and interlocking transparent planes. This, the thin delicately brushed paint, and the cool, undemonstrative colours give the painting the appearance of an underwater world of slow-moving calm and harmony. But this is disturbed by what seems to be an impending battle between the fish, baring their teeth, and the crab, with its open claws. Those sharp, pointed forms are echoed by the scales. Even the chain going round one of the fish takes on a more sinister aspect. There is an undercurrent of menace and barely suppressed violence that gives the picture a symbolic edge.
25 The writer suggests that the idea behind this painting A B C D was not typical of Picassos work. is not immediately obvious. is revealed by Picassos painting technique. was influenced by contemporary taste.

26 The writer says the creatures in the painting look as if A B C D they have just been caught. they have been trying to escape. they are still swimming in the sea. they are about to fight each other.

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