Exercise 27
IELTS Reading: gap-fill summary
Large migrations are some of nature's greatest spectacles. Wildebeest and zebra chase the
rains through the Mara ecosystem every year, monarch butterflies trace a path from Mexico
to Canada and back, and tiny songbirds fly nonstop for days at a time. And now scientists
are starting to figure out how they know where to go, and when.
Some of these animals, they’ve found, have their migration pathways written into their
genes. A songbird hatched in a laboratory, having seen nothing of the natural world, still
attempts to begin migration at the right time of year and in the right cardinal direction.
But large mammals like bighorn sheep and moose are a different story. Wildlife researchers
have long suspected that they require experience to migrate effectively, that their annual
journeys are the result of learning from one another, not of genetic inheritance. A new
study, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that those hunches may be
correct
—some animals must learn how to migrate.
The existence of collective information and knowledge, that can be passed from older
animals to younger ones, is a form of “culture,” researchers explain. And when animals
learn as a result of social interaction and the transfer of this information, that’s a type of
cultural exchange
—as opposed to genetic.
Fill each gap in the summary below with ONE word from the passage.
Scientists believe that ______ are responsible for some animal migrations. Songbirds, for
example, do not need to learn when and in which ______ to migrate. On the other hand,
bighorn sheep appear to ______ migration habits from the herd. They, and other mammals,
seem to have a ______ that is passed from one generation to the next through interaction
and exchange of ______.
Exercise 28
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