Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Driven by a
lucrative market for the beasts’ horn and flesh, poachers have hunted the rhino
to near extinction in every country of the animals’ habitat throughout Africa
and Asia. Yet, Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, has
effectively halted the rhino’s decline. While the rhinos of Kenya, Uganda, and
Zambia have been decimated, Nepal’s herd has quadrupled in the last fifteen
years.
Nepalis killed rhinos, too. Hindus used rhino
horn for a ceremony called Turpa, in which they pour water over a horn fragment
as part of the ceremony honouring ancestors. Lacking the horn, the knee-cap,
skin or hoof may be used as a ceremonial cup. Some Nepalis drink rhino urine as
an antidote for asthma and digestive disorders or apply it to the skin to
disinfect wounds. A rhino-skin bracelet is thought to bring luck. “People
believe that if they eat rhino meat they will go to heaven. May be because the
rhino is so big and powerful,” said an old Tharu tribesman.
At six feet in
height, with a weight of two tons, the great one-horned rhino is a powerful
beast but no match for peoples’ greed. The great beast was on its way to
extinction when the King of Nepal stepped in.
King Birendra
declared the rhino protected. He generously converted its largest habitat — his
family hunting reserve — into a National Park. Chitwan National Park, as it is
called, now stretches over 360 square miles. And a unit of the army — about 850
men enforced the royal decree. Stationed at outposts every few miles, they
are ordered to
shoot poachers at sight.
Questions:
1. What has
happened to the rhino in the African countries?
2. How many
times has the number of rhinos in Nepal increased?
3. Which parts
of the rhino’s body are used as a ceremonial cup?
4. What are the
diseases that rhino urine is believed to be able to cure?
5. What did King
Birendra do to protect the rhino in Nepal?
6. Write down,
from the passage, the words that have the following meanings:
(a) medicine
used to prevent a disease from having an effect
(b) people who
kill or take animals illegally
(c) profitable
(d) natural home
of animals.
