Homework Week 2

Read and understand the questions

Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text.

1. Pandas only meet regularly in ________  and otherwise restrict contact with each other.
2. By clawing trees and leaving scent, the panda is claiming _______ as its own.
3. Pandas only get a limited amount of energy from bamboo  because it is ___________.

 Read the text

Despite their cuddly image, giant pandas are among some of the least social mammals. This is particularly the case for fully-grown females which are highly territorial and barely tolerate the company of other females. Part of the explanation for this behaviour is that their territories can be vast and are by no means limited to a cave or den, and this has the net result that they do not ordinarily come into contact with one another. The one time that they do gather together is in the mating season, but even here contact is kept to a minimum and the male will leave the female to raise the cub on its own.Whatever communication that does take place in the rest of the year is indirect and mostly takes the form of territorial marking with the panda warning its neighbours against entering its territory either by scratching a tree or spraying urine. Another factor in this lack of sociability is the panda’s diet of almost exclusively bamboo. Because bamboo is very low in nutrition, it provides the panda with little energy, partially because the panda is technically classified as a carnivore and has had to adapt to this herbivorous diet. This lack of nutritional value in its diet means the panda needs to conserve as much energy as possible, and one way of doing this is avoiding social interaction with other animals.

Read more: IELTS reading sentence completion exercise - the giant panda -Dominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-reading/ielts-reading-sentence-completion-exercise-the-giant-panda/#ixzz2rOGoTdNa
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