Prepare 7, Unit 2, Reading

When I planned my trip to China, one of things I really wanted to do was to work at the Dujiangyan Panda Base i Chengdu. I spent seven days there, looking after the pandas, giving them food and cleaning their enclosures. While I was there, I learned a lot about pandas. Wild pandas live in bamboo forests, high in the mountains of central China. In the past, they also lived in other parts of China and in Myanmar ar Vietnam, but they don't any more. They spend about 12 hours a day eating bamboo, but they sometimes eat other plants or small animals. At Dujiangyan, we also gave them fruit, like apples, and special panda cakes made of rice, eggs and flour and other things. Adult giant pandas weigh between 75 and 135 kilograms. Females usually only have one baby panda, or cub, at a time. The cubs only weigh about 85 grams when they are born! The little cub drinks milk for about four months and then begins to eat bamboo. Young pandas stay with their mothers for around 18 months. Scientists think there are now between 1,500 and 2,000 pandas in the wild. This is a low number, but it's double what it was in the 1970s. The reason the number is going up is because of all the work scientists are doing at places like the Dujiangyan panda base in Chengdu. There are also about 325 pandas in zoos in a number of different countries, including the United States, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

True/False

The writer spent a week working at the Dujiangyan Panda Base in Chengdu.

When I planned my trip to China, one of things I really wanted to do was to work at the Dujiangyan Panda Base i Chengdu. I spent seven days there, looking after the pandas, giving them food and cleaning their enclosures. While I was there, I learned a lot about pandas. Wild pandas live in bamboo forests, high in the mountains of central China. In the past, they also lived in other parts of China and in Myanmar ar Vietnam, but they don't any more. They spend about 12 hours a day eating bamboo, but they sometimes eat other plants or small animals. At Dujiangyan, we also gave them fruit, like apples, and special panda cakes made of rice, eggs and flour and other things. Adult giant pandas weigh between 75 and 135 kilograms. Females usually only have one baby panda, or cub, at a time. The cubs only weigh about 85 grams when they are born! The little cub drinks milk for about four months and then begins to eat bamboo. Young pandas stay with their mothers for around 18 months. Scientists think there are now between 1,500 and 2,000 pandas in the wild. This is a low number, but it's double what it was in the 1970s. The reason the number is going up is because of all the work scientists are doing at places like the Dujiangyan panda base in Chengdu. There are also about 325 pandas in zoos in a number of different countries, including the United States, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

True/False

Wild pandas live in the forests of northern China.

When I planned my trip to China, one of things I really wanted to do was to work at the Dujiangyan Panda Base i Chengdu. I spent seven days there, looking after the pandas, giving them food and cleaning their enclosures. While I was there, I learned a lot about pandas. Wild pandas live in bamboo forests, high in the mountains of central China. In the past, they also lived in other parts of China and in Myanmar ar Vietnam, but they don't any more. They spend about 12 hours a day eating bamboo, but they sometimes eat other plants or small animals. At Dujiangyan, we also gave them fruit, like apples, and special panda cakes made of rice, eggs and flour and other things. Adult giant pandas weigh between 75 and 135 kilograms. Females usually only have one baby panda, or cub, at a time. The cubs only weigh about 85 grams when they are born! The little cub drinks milk for about four months and then begins to eat bamboo. Young pandas stay with their mothers for around 18 months. Scientists think there are now between 1,500 and 2,000 pandas in the wild. This is a low number, but it's double what it was in the 1970s. The reason the number is going up is because of all the work scientists are doing at places like the Dujiangyan panda base in Chengdu. There are also about 325 pandas in zoos in a number of different countries, including the United States, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

True/False

Pandas spend about 12 hours a day eating bamboo.