Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 454
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 454 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 454
READING PASSAGE – 3
White storks back in Britain after hundreds of years
These beautiful birds could be about to become a feature of the British landscape again
A. The last definitive record of a pair of white storks successfully breeding in Britain was in 1416, from a nest on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. No one knows why storks disappeared from our shores. They often featured on the menus of medieval banquets so we might, quite simply, have consumed them all. But there could be a more ominous reason. Storks are migrants arriving after the end of Winter, nesting on rooftops and happily associating with humans, and because of this they have long been a symbol of hope and new life.
Yet their association with rebirth also meant they became a symbol of rebellion. Shortly after the restoration of King Charles ll in 1660, while storks were rare but surviving, parliament debated putting greater effort into destroying them entirely for fear they might inspire republicanism. Today, fortunately, that notion has disappeared and the stork retains its association with new life, appearing on cards given to celebrate the arrival of a new child, as a bird carrying a baby in a sling held in its beak.
IELTS General Reading Test
B. So, after such a long absence, there was great excitement when in April of this year a pair of white storks built an untidy nest of sticks in the top branches of a huge oak in the middle of our rewilding project at Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Drone footage, taken before the pair started sitting on them, showed three large eggs. The fact that they were infertile and did not hatch was not too disappointing. The pair are only four years old, and storks can live to over thirty, with their first attempts to breed often failing.
Prospects for next year are encouraging. These young storks are part of a project to return the species to Britain, inspired by reintroductions in European countries that more than reached their target. Imported from Poland, they have spent the best part of three years in a six acre pen with a group of other juveniles and several injured, non-flying adults, also from Poland. Other birds have already shown strong loyalty to the site. Two years ago, a young bird from Knepp flew across the Channel to France and, this summer, returned to its companions.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. In the face of reports of unrelenting ecological loss (the UN estimates a million species are on the brink of extinction globally), the white stork’s return is refreshing news. As tens of thousands of people demonstrate about the growing climate crisis and eco-anxiety besets us, these glimpses of restoration are important. Featuring the storks in BBC television’s Springwatch in June, the ecologist Chris Packham described the project as ‘imaginative, intelligent, progressive and practical’.
D. And yet its path to restoration in the UK has not been smooth. Support from conservation bodies has been surprisingly difficult to obtain; some were hard-pressed with their own initiatives, while others were simply reluctant to stick their necks out. In addition, the committee of the Sussex Wildlife Trust raised doubts about the stork ever having been a British bird. They also had concerns that English-bred birds would migrate across the Channel, and feared that their messy nests and closeness to humans would cause a hazard – rubbish falling down people’s chimneys.
IELTS General Reading Test
So how has the reintroduction project managed to get going? What makes it in some ways special is that it has had to rely on private individuals actually building the introduction pens themselves and feeding the birds at their own expense. The expertise of tiny yet determined conservation charities such as the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation – responsible for the successful reintroductions of ospreys and white-tailed eagles to Britain – has been very welcome. And the support of Cotswold Wildlife Park, which quarantined the original Polish birds and continues to manage and cover the costs of the captive-breeding programme using its own well-trained staff and excellent facilities, has proved invaluable.
E. Across Europe, as stork populations have suffered from the draining of wetlands and disappearance of insect-rich pastures and meadows, their loss has been felt deeply. A few years ago, a tearful old woman in a village in Belarus showed me the nest on her roof, empty of storks for the first time in living memory. Where storks have been reintroduced, they are greeted with great happiness and some historical stork festivals have been restored. The Spanish erect poles for nests along their motorways, and in Alsace householders install cartwheels for storks to build nests on their roofs. During a cold snap in Bulgaria last March, villagers even gave white storks access to their homes.
IELTS General Reading Test
F. A driving motivation behind the project in the UK is the aspiration that the storks’ return will spark feelings of empathy and affection from townspeople who see their nests on rooftops. They might also encourage the public to feel worried about the wider area where they fly off to feed on earthworms, grasshoppers and frogs. White storks could be that charismatic species that connects urban communities directly with landscape restoration. Certainly, people once loved them here.
The name of our local village, Storrington, was originally ‘Estorcheton’ or ‘home of the storks’. The public response has been overwhelming, with crowds coming to see white storks flying free in England for the first time in hundreds of years, and private landowners queueing up to offer more introduction sites. The flight of the white stork over Britain is the triumph of practical action over bureaucracy, self-interest and negativity.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 28-33
The text has six sections, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. An enterprise arising from success in other countries
ii. The hope that storks will inspire a range of emotions and actions
iii. Support from some organisations but not from others
iv. Finding new types of habitat
v. Opposition from the general public
vi. A sign of hope in difficult times
vii. Creatures which represent both joy and opposition
viii. Storks causing delight and the revival of public events
28. Section A
29. Section B
30. Section C
31. Section D
32. Section E
33. Section F
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 34-37
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.
Project to reintroduce white storks at Knepp Estate
Last spring, two white storks were observed nesting at Knepp Estate, putting (34)……………. together high up in a large oak tree_ The female laid three eggs, Which unfortunately proved to be (35)……………. . However, this was not surprising for such young storks. Naturalists believe they are likely to breed successfully in the future.
These two storks were bred in (36)……………. and, after arriving in the UK, were kept for several years together with a few fully mature storks and some fellow juveniles before being released at Knepp. It appears that other storks are developing a sense of (37)……………. to their new home. One left Knepp for a year, only to fly back to be with the group again.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 38-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
38. In Section A, we learn that in the past people thought white storks
A. represented the deep snow and cold days of winter.
B. had the power to ensure that babies were born safely.
C. were a speciality that only the very rich were allowed to eat.
D. might be used to encourage people to get rid of the monarchy.
39. The Sussex Wildlife Trust committee was unwilling to support the storks because
A. it thought there might not be any safe breeding places locally.
B. it worried whether they would survive in Britain long enough.
C. it was unsure that they were actually a native species.
D. it had too many other worthy projects to support.
IELTS General Reading Test
40. What has been one effect of stork reintroductions in Europe?
A. A variety of measures have been taken to create nesting sites.
B. Changes have been made to the routes of some major roads.
C. Special shelters have been made to protect the birds in bad Weather.
D. Some people have strengthened their roofs to support the birds’ weight.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. vii
29. i
30. vi
31. iii
32. viii
33. ii
34. STICKS
35. INFERTILE
36. POLAND
37. LOYALTY
38. D
39. C
40. A
IELTS General Reading Test