IELTS Reading: Two wings and a toolkit

A research team at Oxford University discover the remarkable tool-making skills of New Caledonian crows

Betty and her mate Abel are captive crows …the only birds that use a wide selection of self-made tools to find food.

Questions 14-17: Labelling a diagram

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

(a) (14) One of the wild crows’ cleverest tools is the crochet hook, made by detaching a side twig from a larger one, leaving enough of the larger twig to shape into a hook.

(b) (15) Equally cunning is a tool crafted from the barbed vine-leaf, which consists of a central rib with paired leaflets each with a rose-like thorn at its base.

(16) They strip out a piece of this rib, removing the leaflets and all but one thorn at the top, which remains as a ready-made hook to prise out insects from awkward cracks.

(c) (17) The crows also make an ingenious tool called a padanus probe from padanus tree leaves. The tool has a broad base, sharp tip, a row of tiny hooks along one edge, and a tapered shape created by the crow nipping and tearing to form a progression of three or four steps along the other edge of the leaf. What makes this tool special is that they manufacture it to a standard design, as if following a set of instructions.

Answers

14. One of the wild crows’ cleverest tools is the crochet hook, made by detaching a side twig from a larger one, leaving enough of the larger twig to shape into a hook.

15. Equally cunning is a tool crafted from the barbed vine-leaf, which consists of a central rib with paired leaflets each with a rose-like thorn at its base.

16. They strip out a piece of this rib, removing the leaflets and all but one thorn at the top, which remains as a ready-made hook to prise out insects from awkward cracks.

17. The crows also make an ingenious tool called a padanus probe from padanus tree leaves. The tool has a broad base, sharp tip, a row of tiny hooks along one edge, and a tapered shape created by the crow nipping and tearing to form a progression of three or four steps along the other edge of the leaf.

14. crochet hook

15 (paired) leaflets/leaves

16 thorn

17 (tapered) steps

Questions 18-23: Test yourself first

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

The crows also make an ingenious tool called a padanus probe from padanus tree leaves. The tool has a broad base, sharp tip, a row of tiny hooks along one edge, and a tapered shape created by the crow nipping and tearing to form a progression of three or four steps along the other edge of the leaf.

(18) What makes this tool special is that they manufacture it to a standard design, as if following a set of instructions.

18 There appears to be a fixed pattern for the padanus probe’s construction.

(19) Although it is rare to catch a crow in the act of clipping out a padanus probe, we do have ample proof of their workmanship: the discarded leaves from which the tools are cut.

19 There is plenty of evidence to indicate how the crows manufacture the padanus probe.

(20) The remarkable thing that these ‘counterpart’ leaves tell us is that crows consistently produce the same design every time, with no in-between or trial versions.

20 Crows seem to practise a number of times before making a usable padanus probe.

(21) It’s left the researchers wondering whether, like people, they envisage the tool before they start and perform the actions they know are needed to make it.

21 The researchers suspect the crows have a mental image of the padanus probe before
they create it.

(22) Research has revealed that genetics plays a part in the less sophisticated tool-making skills of finches in the Galapagos islands. No one knows if that’s also the case for New Caledonian crows,

22 Research into how the padanus probe is made has helped to explain the toolmaking
skills of many other bird species.

(23) but it’s highly unlikely that their toolmaking skills are hardwired into the brain. ‘The picture so far points to a combination of cultural transmission – from parent birds to their young – and individual resourcefulness,’ says Kacelnik.

23 The researchers believe the ability to make the padanus probe is passed down to the crows in their genes.

Answers

18 There appears to be a fixed pattern for the padanus probe’s construction. TRUE

What makes this tool special is that they manufacture it to a standard design, as if following a set of instructions.

19 There is plenty of evidence to indicate how the crows manufacture the padanus probe. TRUE

Although it is rare to catch a crow in the act of clipping out a padanus probe, we do have ample proof of their workmanship: the discarded leaves from which the tools are cut.

20 Crows seem to practise a number of times before making a usable padanus probe. FALSE

The remarkable thing that these ‘counterpart’ leaves tell us is that crows consistently produce the same design every time, with no in-between or trial versions.

21 The researchers suspect the crows have a mental image of the padanus probe before they create it. TRUE

It’s left the researchers wondering whether, like people, they envisage the tool before they start and perform the actions they know are needed to make it.

22 Research into how the padanus probe is made has helped to explain the toolmaking skills of many other bird species. Not Given – other bird species are mentioned but they are not connected with the padanus probe.

Research has revealed that genetics plays a part in the less sophisticated tool-making skills of finches in the Galapagos islands. No one knows if that’s also the case for New Caledonian crows, but it’s highly unlikely that their toolmaking skills are hardwired into the brain.

23 The researchers believe the ability to make the padanus probe is passed down to the crows in their genes. FALSE

but it’s highly unlikely that their toolmaking skills are hardwired into the brain. ‘The picture so far points to a combination of cultural transmission – from parent birds to their young – and individual resourcefulness,’ says Kacelnik.