Study Buddy (Explorer): Zoo in China struggles to recruit qualified panda keepers
- Job requirements include weighing the animals’ faeces, observing their mood, and carefully distributing bamboo for them to eat
- Each week, this page tests your reading comprehension with an interesting story that we’ve adjusted to be more accessible for all English learners
Four six-month-old giant panda cubs play at the Chongqing Zoo in southwest China. Photo: XinhuaContent provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] It is difficult to raise giant pandas in captivity. A Chinese zoo received hundreds of applicants for panda keeper jobs but said it could not find anyone acceptable for the position.
[2] Nanshan Mountain Bamboo Scenery Zone is in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. The tour area told the Modern Express that recruitment had been a “headache” for years. The zoo could not recruit enough staff to care for the pandas because there were not enough people with the qualifications for the job.
[3] The tour area has allocated an enclosure of 1,000 square metres for the facility that rears pandas. It has an undisclosed number of pandas. A manager at the tour zone said being a panda keeper was more complex than most people realise, and it involved more than feeding and playing with the animals. He added that the job required professionalism, personality and observation skills.
[4] “There are many detailed requirements for a keeper during the raising of pandas, such as weighing their faeces, observing the pandas’ moods and distributing bamboo by scattering it around and leaving it in a vertical position,” said the manager, whose name was not released. “Perhaps due to the high threshold, we found very few applicants meet our requirements. So far, none of them has been recruited.”
[5] The manager said they wanted panda keepers with degrees in livestock rearing or veterinary medicine. Applicants should also be patient and responsible. “They must love animals. Having experience raising animals in a zoo is a plus,” the manager said.
[6] Mainland internet users have been buzzing about the panda sanctuary’s recruitment problem, with the news story receiving more than 120 million views on Weibo. “The world’s toughest job with ‘too high a bar to be reached’ is actually the position of a panda keeper,” one person joked.
[7] Ma Tao is a giant panda keeper with over three decades of experience at Beijing Zoo. He said his job required boldness and attentiveness. “Animals don’t speak. Only through their keepers’ careful observation can we then find out what they want,” Ma told the Shanghai Morning Post. “You interact with animals so that they get familiar with you, and you are getting familiar with them. From a panda’s response, you could sense its status: being afraid, vigilant or relaxed. You must read its language,” he explained.
[8] But Ma said it was still risky to be around pandas. He said “cute” viral pictures of a panda holding a keeper’s legs showed a potentially dangerous situation as this behaviour could injure the keeper. “It could bite you. Its teeth are small, but it really is painful,” he said.
[9] According to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration, 673 pandas currently live in captivity around the world, most of them in China.
Source: South China Morning Post, March 28
Questions
1. Find a word in paragraph 1 that refers to “someone who is looking for a job.”
2. Decide whether the following statements are True, False or the information is Not Given in paragraphs 1 and 2. Blacken ONE circle only for each statement. (4 marks)
(i) No one was interested in the job.
(ii) The zoo has been trying to hire panda caretakers for years.
(iii) Many of the people who applied for the job are overqualified.
(iv) The zoo is recruiting panda keepers who are between the ages of 21 and 40.
3. How many pandas are in the Nanshan Mountain Bamboo Scenery Zone?
A. 250
B. less than 500
C. about 1,000
D. information not given
4. Name three tasks that panda keepers have to do according to paragraph 4. (3 marks)
5. What qualifications should the ideal candidate possess?
6. Which word can replace “plus” in paragraph 5?
A. excess
B. additional
C. bonus
D. perk
7. According to Ma Tao in paragraph 7, what does a panda’s behaviour show?
8. Based on paragraph 8, panda keepers should be careful when handling the animals because ...
A. the pandas could hurt them.
B. the pandas are extremely fragile.
C. the pandas are an endangered species.
D. all of the above
9. How many pandas in the world live under human care, according to paragraph 9?
Answers
1. applicants
2. (i) F; (ii) T; (iii) F; (iv) NG
3. D
4. weigh the pandas’ faeces, observe the pandas’ moods and distribute bamboo by scattering it around and leaving it in a vertical position
5. a degree in livestock rearing or veterinary medicine
6. C
7. what it wants and how it feels (accept other similar answers)
8. A
9. 673