Unit 7.4

Comprehension MCQ

A hundred years ago, forest covered as much as ninety per cent of Thailand and accommodated as many as three hundred thousand elephants. Among princes and peasants, in courts and rice paddies, the elephant was deeply enmeshed in the fabric of traditional life. Its image can be found in many Buddhist temples as well as royal palaces. At one time, a white elephant was also a symbol that appeared on the national flag, which is why westerners called the country “The Land of the White Elephant”. Today Thailand’s green canopy covers less than twenty per cent of the land, and elephant numbers are plummeting. Like its larger African relative, the Asian elephant is in decline throughout its range. The once teeming herds have vanished as farmers stripped forests and lush grasslands. The fragmented population that is left has been boxed into national parks, which is under unremitting attack by poachers, woodcutters and land-grabbers. To make matters worse, elephants are still being used by log poachers to help destroy much of what remains of their precious habitat. They heave and struggle to tow logs in some of Thailand’s last great forest reserves. The poaching began when Thailand, alarmed by the rapid disappearance of its forest, banned all logging. This ban sparked sky-high wood prices, a massive loss of jobs and a dramatic increase in illegal cutting. Many elephant owners already living on the edge of poverty chose to break the law with illicit logging rather than sell, abandon or kill their animals. Able to tread where machines cannot go, these slave labourers are essential to the log poachers. These log poachers’ equipment also includes spotlights to blind pursuing officials and high-tech electronic gear for monitoring police communications. The animals forced to work at breakneck speed at night are often injured. Extreme fatigue leads to internal bleeding and susceptibility to disease.

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1. Westerners called Thailand “The Land of the White Elephant” because ____________.

(1) the elephant was deeply enmeshed in the fabric of traditional life
(2) the elephant’s image can be found in many Buddhist temples and palaces
(3) the national flag contained the symbol of a white elephant at one time
(4) there were as many as three hundred thousand elephants in the country ( )

2. The number of Asian elephants has decreased drastically due to ___________.

(1) the rapid deforestation rate in Thailand
(2) elephant owners abandoning or killing them
(3) them dying from extreme fatigue and sickness
(4) being attacked by poachers and land grabbers ( )

3. The words “slave labourers” in line 22 refer to the _____________.

(1) poachers
(2) elephants
(3) elephant owners
(4) logging machines ( )

4. Which one of the following statements is true?

(1) Elephants break their necks while working for log poachers.
(2) Elephants in Thailand were kept in the national parks in the past.
(3) Elephants destroy their own habitat by towing logs in forest reserves.

(4) Asian elephants are decreasing at a faster rate than the African elephants. ( )

5. The most suitable title for the passage is “_______________”.

(1) Illicit Logging in Thailand
(2) Sad Plight of Asian Elephants
(3) Usefulness of Asian Elephants
(4) Thailand - The Land of the White Elephant ( )