Comprehension 2 [0990/12, March 2022]
Text C:
The
wild tigers of Ranthambore The narrator, Val, is a photographer, author and
documentary filmmaker. He has spent over 45 years living, working and
campaigning at the tiger reserve in Ranthambore National Park, near the town of
Sawai Madhopur (SM). In this extract from his book, Val remembers first
travelling to the area by train from his city home as a young man in 1976.
Exiting the deserted station, I
woke up the driver of a solitary horse-drawn carriage.
In those days Sawai Madhopur (SM)
boasted few motorised vehicles. The town wasn’t prosperous. Numerous taxi-jeeps
and buses taking chattering tourists into the park were still figments of shiny
future ambition. Garish hotel chains were yet to sprout, mushrooming along
newly surfaced roads to the park. This was a sleepy town, sprawled untidily
around the railway track, the only reason for its existence.
Since then, local painters have
decorated the station walls. Now murals of our tigers and other wildlife engage
curious passers-by, increasing awareness like a kind of open-air art museum.
Back in 1976, we trotted off to
the only guesthouse nearby. A reluctant proprietor prised open a musty room. I
spent a sleepless night.
Next morning, I introduced myself
to Fateh, the wildlife warden for the park. He looked over his luxuriant
moustache disbelievingly at me and my camera. No one came here, he told me, to
‘visit’.
Jolting along dirt tracks, we
drove out towards the reserve. Slowly the wilderness took over. I scanned the
thickening forest for wildlife, unaware my tracking skills would take years to
develop.
My first days felt like shedding
one layer of skin and growing into another. As you track a tiger, the language
of the jungle envelopes you in its folds. You’re alert to the tension in every
rustling leaf, in every impression on the ground. Animal tracks whisper stories
of the night. You’re a jungle detective seeking clues of tigers having padded
past. In the early years, just a paw-print was cause for celebration. There
were still villages everywhere; human disturbance was high.
Until the 1980s, there were few
pictures of tigers in the wild. Even then tourism to the area was only just
starting, driven by Fateh’s determination to make Ranthambore the most
important wildlife destination in the world. My pictures of tigers like Noon
drew multitudes to the forests of Ranthambore, transforming the local economy.
People in the area owed their improving prospects to Noon.
Noon had been a tigress who
filled my senses. Fateh teased me – saying I’d fallen in love with a tigress.
Whenever I arrived in her presence there was a quick look of recognition. Most
of the time it was just her and me with my camera.
Visiting research-scientists
warned me to keep detached, not humanise tigers, but Noon grew into a pleasant
obsession, deepening my understanding of the secret life of tigers. I don’t
think I experienced such closeness with a tiger again. Back then I could drive
out alone and watch tigers in solitude. There were fewer rules, fewer visitors
asking to join me. Even today, traversing the lakes which were at the heart of
her territory, I can summon up images of Noon slicing through their waters or
erupting from a grassy bank in incredible pursuits of deer or wild boar –
lmages that remain etched on my mind.
Sometimes when hunting, Noon
would look skywards and follow the direction vultures took. Visitors are still
fascinated today by film of her tracking low-flying vultures, trotting from
lake to lake until she found the carcass of a deer. Back then, I explain,
Ranthambore was full of white-backed vultures, before chemicals used for
injecting livestock and ingested by these scavenging birds wiped them out.
Nature lost a cleaning service. Noon lost her food-finders.
I last saw Noon in 1990 beside
Ranthambore lake. She looked older. Tigers get paler with age. The sun was
setting, its last rays framing her in golden light. By this time, she’d successfully
raised two litters and delighted the world with our footage of her kills,
racing into the shallows of the lakes, causing chaos amongst grazing deer and
more often than not bringing one down. The tourist boom followed – thanks to
Noon – with no shortage of high-profile visitors keen to promote the cause of
wild tigers.
Read Text C, The wild tigers of Ranthambore, in the insert and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) on this question paper.
Question 2
(a)
Identify a word or phrase
from the text which
suggests the same idea as the words underlined:
(i)
The
railway station was empty of people when the narrator arrived.
................................................................................................................................ [1]
(ii)
The paintings of tigers on the walls of the station attract the
interest of people travelling through.
................................................................................................................................ [1]
(iii)
The owner
of the guesthouse was slow and unwilling to welcome the narrator.
................................................................................................................................ [1]
(iv)
The
guesthouse room had a stale, damp smell.
................................................................................................................................ [1]
(b)
Using your own words, explain what the writer means by each of the words
underlined:
Next morning, I introduced myself to Fateh, the wildlife warden for the park. He looked over his luxuriant moustache disbelievingly at me and my camera. No one came here, he told me, to ‘visit’. Jolting along dirt tracks, we drove out towards the reserve. Slowly the wilderness took over. I scanned the thickening forest for wildlife, unaware my tracking skills would take years to develop.
|
(i) |
luxuriant
................................................................................................................. |
[1] |
|
(ii) |
Jolting
.................................................................................................................... |
[1] |
|
(iii) |
scanned
................................................................................................................. |
[1] |
(c)
Use one example from the text
below to explain how the writer suggests his feelings as he learns to track
tigers.
Use your
own words in your explanation.
My first days felt like shedding one layer of skin and growing into another. As you track a tiger, the language of the jungle envelopes you in its folds. You’re alert to the tension in every rustling leaf, in every impression on the ground. Animal tracks whisper stories of the night. You’re a jungle detective seeking clues of tigers having padded past.
...........................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
Answers
Question 2
(a)
(i) deserted (line 1) [1]
(ii) engage (curious passers-by) (line 8) [1]
(iii) reluctant (line 10) [1]
(iv) musty (line 11) [1]
(b)
(i) | luxuriant: | [1] |
(ii) | Jolting : shaking / vibrating / bouncing | [1] |
(iii) | scanned: searched / looked carefully/ examined | [1] |
(c)
•
felt like shedding one layer
of skin and growing into another: natural process of loss and renewal -
reminiscent of a snake, suggests the
need to learn a whole new way of life, complete change of scenery and lifestyle,
has to adapt and fit in with new surroundings
•
the language of the jungle
envelopes you in its folds: suggests need to learn to understand to interpret signs, details and
information in surroundings; becomes
wrapped up in the experience, welcomed, comforted, enclosed protectively
•
alert to the tension in every
rustling leaf, in every impression on the ground: suggests need for wariness,
heightened senses noticing a myriad of tiny detail, sensitivity to all life
around him; waiting for something to happen, reminiscent of a preying animal
about to spring / prey fearing attack
•
Animal tracks whisper stories
of the night:
creatures he has heard about in legends and tales, suggests sense of fear,
conspiracy or danger, ‘tracks’ indicates hunts and creatures he can’t see now,
but appear to have been there
•
a jungle detective seeking
clues:
an investigator looking for evidence, as if a crime scene, suggests childish
excitement / mystery, sense of solving a case, enjoying the game or challenge
of finding a tiger
•
tigers having padded past: suggests soft, heavy
footsteps of the powerful creature’s paws, moving quietly and deliberately
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