Reading comprehension.
The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke
up in a terrible anger: it chased the dogs into the village where they ran for safety. That didn't stop the elephant.
It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone
suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant
before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up-how to catch wild
elephants.
Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to
boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to
her old fife. "Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days
after the chase," she says.
But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. "My work," she says, "is to rescue man from the elephants,
and to keep the elephants safe from man." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years.
Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the
jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea
garden or a village, Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a
day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant. "Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never
forget them. They are also more loyal than humans," she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat
on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!
1. For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to _____. [ ]
A. get long lasting excitement
B. keep both man and elephants safe
C. send them back to the jungle
D. make the angry elephants tame
2. Before Parbati studied in a boarding school, _____. [ ]
A. she spent her time hunting with her father
B. she learned how to sing love songs
C. she had already been called an elephant princess
D. she was taught how to hunt tigers
3. Indian elephants are getting increasingly angry and they revenge because _____. [ ]
A. they are caught and sent for heavy work
B. illegal hunters capture them and kill them
C. they are attacked and their land gets limited
D. dogs often bark at them and chase them
4. The passage starts with an elephant story in order to explain that in India _____. [ ]
A. people easily fall victim to elephants' attacks
B. the man-elephant relationship is getting worse
C. elephant tamers are in short supply
D. dogs are as powerful as elephants
