The tuatara – past and future
Read The tuatara – past and future and check the IELTS Reading answers. The New Zealand species of lizard, the tuatara, is firmly embedded in the national psyche: an icon for today which dates from the age of dinosaurs; an ancient reptile commemorated on the back of the five-cent coin. New Zealande…
Passage preview
The New Zealand species of lizard, the tuatara, is firmly embedded in the national psyche: an icon for today which dates from the age of dinosaurs; an ancient reptile commemorated on the back of the five-cent coin. New Zealanders feel an affinity with the tuatara, and accept that active conservation management is required to ensure it will be among the legacies left to future generations.
Vocabulary from this passage
9 words worth learning before you sit the test, each with the sentence it appears in.
- accumulate in its favour verb phrase
To build up gradually so that more of it supports an idea.
In the passage:
Q32: "the evidence continues to accumulate in its favour" shows support (YES), while "still being debated" shows it is unproved.
Synonyms: mount in support of, pile up behind
Opposites: accumulate against it
- a fraction of noun phrase
A very small part or amount of the whole.
In the passage:
Q35: "numbers of tuatara are still a fraction of what they once were": low, but the statement is about falling.
Synonyms: a small part of, a tiny proportion of
Opposites: the whole of
- coexist verb
To live or exist together peacefully at the same time and place.
In the passage:
Q30's option says rats and tuatara "cannot live together"; the passage says this is not evidence they "can coexist".
Synonyms: live together, live alongside each other
Opposites: be mutually exclusive
- demise noun
The end or death of something, often after a decline.
In the passage:
"no concern about the probable demise of the tuatara": Gunther's attitude to extinction (Q28).
Synonyms: downfall, collapse
Opposites: rise
- devoid of adjective phrase
Completely lacking something that you would expect to find.
In the passage:
"a mainland devoid of the biological wonders of our past": a formal way to say "without".
Synonyms: lacking in, empty of
Opposites: full of
- disregard verb
To ignore something and treat it as unimportant.
In the passage:
Q27's option says "no interest in" the tuatara; the passage says the naturalists "disregarded the tuatara".
Synonyms: have no interest in, ignore
Opposites: take note of
- eradication noun
The complete removal or destruction of something harmful.
In the passage:
Q33 says "totally destroy a population of rats"; the passage says "Eradication of rats from any given environment".
Synonyms: totally destroy, elimination
Opposites: spread
- feel an affinity with verb phrase
To feel a natural liking for or connection with someone or something.
In the passage:
"New Zealanders feel an affinity with the tuatara": useful in Speaking for talking about places or hobbies.
Synonyms: feel close to, identify with
Opposites: feel alienated from
- surrogate adjective
Acting as a substitute for another person or thing.
In the passage:
Q37's gap follows "similarities between rats and"; the passage says rivers are full of "surrogate rats": trout.
Synonyms: substitute, replacement
Opposites: original
Answers with explanations
- 27. C
Look for what the naturalists did with the tuatara in the second paragraph. They **disregarded** it, which is **had no interest in**. Option about one large island is wrong because the explorers found **two large islands**. The option about museum is wrong because a specimen reached the British Museum only **several decades later**. The naturalists came **with** the explorers, so the option about not studying nature is also wrong.
- 28. B
Look at the paragraph about Gunther for how the writer describes his thinking. **He and his contemporaries were products of their age** matches **typical of his generation of scientists**. He did value the tuatara, but as a collection object, not for its price. Darwin's theory **influenced** him, so he did not disagree with it, and he showed **no concern** about extinction.
- 29. B
Gunther's mistake is in the paragraph about the two rat species. There are **two species**, but he **failed to recognise the distinction** and treated all rats as one kind: **one species of rat**. He thought rats were a **recent introduction**, which is the opposite of "always been rats". He did record that they were predators of the tuatara, so they did eat it.
- 30. D
Look at Crook's findings. On islands with kiore, the few tuatara are **declining**, and Crook says this is **not evidence that tuatara and kiore can coexist**. That matches **cannot live together**. Safe small islands are the opposite, since those populations are **extinctions in progress**. The text never compares ship's rats and kiore, and swimming is not mentioned.
- 31. D
Holdaway says the kiore were **agents of ecological warfare** that **exterminated** perhaps thousands of species, and many species were **already rare or extinct** before the Maori arrived. So **rats caused extinctions before any humans settled**. The Polynesian explorers **did not settle**, which rules out permanent settlements. The kiore, not the ship's rat, are the older rats.
- 32. YES
The writer says the **hypothesis is still being debated**, so it is **not proved**, but **the evidence continues to accumulate in its favour**, so research **supports** it. Both halves of the statement are in one sentence, and they agree with the writer, so the answer is YES.
- 33. YES
**Totally destroy a population of rats** matches **eradication of rats**. Eradication was once thought **virtually impossible**, but **since then** it has **become routine**, so it is possible nowadays. The same paragraph refers to rat-free offshore islands, so a small island is covered. The statement agrees with the writer: YES.
- 34. NOT GIVEN
The deciding phrase is **the first person**. The paragraph says rat-free offshore islands **are providing sanctuaries**, and Crook found that tuatara **thrive** there. But the writer never says who first recognised their potential as sanctuaries. The writer's view on that is missing, so it is NOT GIVEN.
- 35. NO
The deciding phrase is **continuing to fall**. Numbers are **still a fraction** of what they were, which might tempt you towards YES, but the writer says **the decline has been reversed**. A reversed decline means numbers are no longer falling, so the statement contradicts the writer: NO.
- 36. B
**Frees** matches **liberates**, and what is freed is **the imagination**. The box word with the same meaning is **creative thought**. No other box word is something a person has and uses, so none fits after "frees our".
- 37. D
The summary's **similarities between rats and** points to the writer's idea of **surrogate rats**: introduced fish called **trout**. They act like rats because they replaced a native fauna. **Native fish** is tempting, but those are the victims, like the tuatara, not the rat-like invaders.
- 38. G
**Reintroducing ... to our mainland rivers** matches **establish ... once again** species that **used to live in our rivers**. **Indigenous** means native, so the answer is **native fish**. The box also has indigenous plants, but the writer discusses only fish and birds.
- 39. F
Go to the last paragraph and look for the **children**. The writer says conservation is about **creating the future we wish for**, and asks whether the tuatara could again occur throughout New Zealand. Bringing species back is **restoration**. Don't pick the box word about creative thought, which is already used for the imagination.
- 40. H
**Refuses to accept** matches **no longer tolerate**, and the thing no longer tolerated is **extinction**. The writer uses this as the comparison for what we may refuse in future. Pollution is never mentioned in the passage.