Прочитайте текст два раза и выполните следующие задания. From inside the zoo director's office, the tiger is living very comfortably

From inside the zoo director's office, the tiger is living very comfortably. Saved from having to earn its own living in the tough outside world, it has all its meals provided and doesn't even have to walk anywhere. I have heard one zoo director describe the zoo as a «welfare state» for animals. But the zoo director also tells us that the tiger is earning its keep by educating the public. When their existence is put into question zoos always answer by saying that they educate people. The argument goes like this: all the nature and wildlife documentary films in the world can't replace flesh and blood. There's just nothing like the experience of coming face to face with real, live, wild animals. Having seen wild animals close up, zoo visitors will be so enthusiastic about the wonders of the natural world that they will start to care deeply about what is happening to wild animals, go off and do something about it. Along with all the other caged animals, the tiger — to use a favourite zoo phrase — is an «ambassador for the wild».

As someone who studies human behaviour, I'm interested in why people go to zoos, what they get from looking at animals in cages and what zoos say they get. Having spent hours watching people watching animals, my feeling is that no zoo can fulfil the educational aim it says it has. No zoo can bring about a meaningful meeting between people and animals because by its very nature, the zoo — good, bad, best in the world — presents a false picture of wild animals and our relationship with them.

The time I have spent outside the cages has shown me how the zoo hinders¹ any true understanding of animals.

The only way we can bring about any healthy and relaxed meeting between people and imprisoned animals is to do away with² the idea of zoos and to start again. Start with the animals, not the people. Start by asking what reasons there could be for keeping animals in cages. Start by finding ways of offering them somewhere which can realistically replace the wild, an imaginative space of the right size, a chance to relate to other animals as they would in the wild, a chance to get away from the public stares — a chance, basically, to live their own lives.

¹ hinder —мешать

² to do away with —покончить с чем-то

Test № 18

I. Определите, верны (True) или неверны (False) сле­дующие утверждения.

1. According to the director of the zoo, animals have a safer life at zoos than in the outside world.

2. The author believes that documentary films can't replace seeing wild animals face to face.

3. People who visit zoos are enthusiastic about the wonders of wild life.

4. The author suggests that it's impossible to create any place where animals can live their own life.

II. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

1. How, according to the zoo director, does the tiger earn its keep?

2. What experience helped the author to get a good idea of zoos?

3. Why, according to the author, can't zoo bring a meaningful meeting between people and animals?

4. What, in the author's opinion, should people do about zoos?

III. Исправьте предложения в соответствии с содержани­ем текста.

1. From the point of view of the zoo visitors the tiger is living very comfortably.

2. As someone who studies the behaviour of animals the author is interested in why people go to zoos.

№19

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