READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which
are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Bovid
A bovid is any member of almost 140 species of ungulates
belonging to the family Bovidae. The bovids are the largest
family of hoofed mammals and are native to Africa, Europe,
Asia, and North America. Members include antelope, bison,
buffalo, cattle, sheep and goats. Bovids have mutually beneficial
symbiotic relationships with bacteria and other microorganisms
that allow the digestion of cellulose, the most abundant form of
living terrestrial biomass, but one that is indigestible for many
animals, including humans.
Bovids are not so common in endemic insular faunas and are
mainly recorded in Southeast Asia, Japan and some
Mediterranean islands. Ely the late Miocene, the bovids rapidly
diversified, leading to the creation of 70 new genera. This late
Miocene radiation was partly because most bovids became
adapted to more open, grassland habitats. Some species of
bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with complex
social structures.
All bovids have the similar basic form—a snout with a blunt end,
one or more pairs of horns immediately after the oval or
pointed ears, a distinct neck and a tail varying in length and
bushiness among the species. However, the bovids show great
variation in size: the gaur can weigh as much as 1,000kg and
stands 2-3m high at the shoulder. The royal antelope, at the
opposite extreme, is only 25cm tall and weighs at most 3kg.
Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by
the possession of certain common features. Being ruminants,
the stomach is composed of four chambers: the rumen (80%),
the omasum, the reticulum, and the abomasum. Bovids retain
undigested food in their stomachs to be regurgitated and
chewed again as necessary Bovids are almost exclusively
herbivorous. Most bovids bear 30 to 32 teeth. While the upper
incisors are absent, the upper canines are either reduced or
absent. Instead of the upper incisors, bovids have a thick and
tough layer of tissue, called the dental pad, which provides a
surface to grip grasses and foliage. All bovids have four toes on
each foot—they walk on the central two (the hooves), while the
outer two (the dewclaws) are much smaller and rarely touch the
ground. Bovid horns vary in shape and size: the relatively simple
horns of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4m from tip
to tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles have
horns with a variety of elegant curves.
Bovids are the largest of 10 extant families within Artiodactyla,
consisting of more than 140 extant and 300 extinct species.
Fossil evidence suggests five distinct subfamilies: Bovinae
(bison, buffalos, cattle, and relatives). Antelope (addax, oryxes,
roan antelopes and relatives), Caprinae (chamois, goats, sheep,
and relatives), Cephalophinae (duikers), and Antilocapridae
(pronghorn). Unlike most other bovids, Bovinae species are ail
non-territorial. As the ancestors of the various species of
domestic cattle, banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo are
generally rare and endangered in the wild, while another
ancestor, auroch, has been extinct in the wild for nearly 300
years.
Antelope is not a cladistic or taxonomically defined group. The
term is used to describe all members of the family Bovidae that
do not fall under the category of, cattle, or goats. Not
surprisingly for animals with long, slender yet powerful legs,
many antelopes have long strides and can run fast. There are
two main sub-groups of antelope: Hippotraginae, which includes
the oryx and the addax, and Antilopinae, which generally
contains slighter and more graceful animals such as gazelle and
the springbok. The antelope is found in a wide range of habitats,
typically woodland, forest, savannah, grassland plains, and
marshes. Several species of antelope have adapted to living in
the mountains and rocky outcrops and a couple of species of
antelope are even semi-aquatic and these antelope live in
swamps, for instance, the sitatunga has long, splayed hooves
that enable it to walk freely and rapidly on swampy ground.
Subfamily Caprinae consists of mostly medium-sized bovids. Its
members are commonly referred to as the sheep and the goat,
together with various relatives such as the goral and the tahr.
The group did not reach its greatest diversity until the recent ice
ages, when many of its members became specialised for
marginal, often extreme, environments: mountains, deserts, and
the subarctic region. Barbary and bighorn sheep have been
found in arid deserts, while Rocky Mountain sheep survive high
up in mountains and musk oxen in arctic tundra.
The duiker, belonging to Cephalophinae sub-family is a small to
medium-sized species, brown in colour, and native to sub-
Saharan Africa. Duikers are primarily browsers rather than
grazers, eating leaves, shoots, seeds, fruit buds and bark. Some
duikers consume insects and carrion (dead animal carcasses)
from time to time and even manage to capture rodents or small
birds.
The pronghorn is the only living member of the sub-family
Antilocapridae in North America. Each “horn” of the pronghorn
is composed of a slender, laterally flattened blade of bone that
grows from the frontal bones of the skull, forming a permanent
core. Unlike the horns of the family Bovidae, the horn sheaths of
the pronghorn are branched, each sheath possessing a forward-
pointing tine (hence the name pronghorn). The pronghorn is the
fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, being built for
maximum predator evasion through running. Additionally,
pronghorn hooves have two long, cushioned, pointed toes which
help absorb shock when running at high speeds.
Questions 1-3 (Bovids ielts reading answers)
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
1 Bovids mostly inhabit
A Africa.
B Eurasia.
C Southeast Asia.
D South America.
2 What are the most favorable locations for the existence of bovids?
A tropical forests
B wetlands
C mountains
D open grassy areas
3 What is the common feature of idle bovid species?
A Their horns are short.
B They store food in the body.
C They have upper incisors.
D Their hooves are undivided.
Questions 4 – 8
Look at the following characteristics (Questions and the list of sub-families below).
Match each characteristic with the correct;
Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
4 can survive in harsh habitats.
5 move at a high speed.
6 origins of modern ox and cow.
7 does not defend a particular area of land.
8 sometimes take small animals as their food supply.
A Bovinae
B Antelope
C Caprinae
D Cephalophinae
Questions 9-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
9 What is the smallest species of Bovids?
10 Which member of Bovinae has died out?
11 What helps sitatunga move quickly on swampy lands?
12 Where can Barbary sheep survive?
13 What is the only survivor of Antilocapridae?
