Health Concerns Raised as Ugandans Add Primates to the Menu
Uganda's recent flood of Congolese refugees is having unexpected side-effects: some Ugandans are adopting the Congolese custom of eating primates, a new trend that may be linked to outbreaks of Ebola and represents a potential threat to the country's endangered chimpanzee population.
I. Match the words/phrases with the corresponding definitions.
1. adopt: ______
2. primate: ______
3. outbreak: ______
4. endangered: ______
5. sanctuary: ______
6. consumption: ______
7. emerging: ______
8. totem: ______
9. clan: ______
A. the sudden start of something unpleasant, especially violence or a disease
B. an area where wild birds or animals are protected and encouraged to breed
C. to choose a new name, a country, a custom, etc. and begin to use it as your own
D. the act of eating and drinking something
E. any animal that belongs to the group of mammals that includes humans, apes and monkeys
F. soon no longer exist; extinct
G. an animal or other natural object that is chosen and respected as a special symbol of a community or family, especially among Native Americans; an image of this animal, etc.
H. starting to exist, grow, or be known
I. a group of families who are related to each other, especially in Scotland
II. Read the excerpt from a news report and answer the following questions.
Health Concerns Raised as Ugandans Add Primates to the Menu
Hilary Heuler
December 06, 2012
Uganda's recent flood of Congolese refugees is having unexpected side-effects: some Ugandans are adopting the Congolese custom of eating primates, a new trend that may be linked to outbreaks of Ebola and represents a potential threat to the country's endangered chimpanzee population.
For some conservationists, protecting an animal that shares almost 99 percent of its DNA with humans is a deeply personal issue.
“In terms of relationship, you could have one who is really your close friend, while others tend to not bother so much," says Amos Okello, a caregiver at Lake Victoria's Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, who feeds an eager bunch of the highly intelligent creatures each morning.
According to sanctuary director Lily Ajarova, while primate consumption is not unusual in Africa, Uganda has no history of the practice. Although her team has yet to find Ugandans eating chimpanzees in particular, they fear that Ugandans who are known eat various primates may soon go the way of their chimp-eating neighbors to the west.
"It’s an emerging issue that we are very keen to dig into right now," she says, explaining that hunters already pose the biggest threat to the continent's primate population. “We have encountered local Ugandans actually hunting primates and being in possession of them, and saying ... that ‘Yes, we are going to eat them.’
“The fear is that if they can eat a baboon, if they can eat a black-and-white colobus monkey, what would be the difference with eating a chimp?" she says. "In the case of chimpanzees, they are endangered, so they will actually go extinct from the face of the Earth if they are just eaten like that.”
Loss of values
While environmental groups are trying to fight the trend by teaching people about conservation and the dangers of eating primates, sanctuary director Ajarova emphasizes the value of traditional Ugandan culture, in which primates are protected as totem animals, or animals representing a clan.
“This culture has been of great value for conservation, but I also feel we are at a point where, in Uganda, the current generation thinks that the Western culture is better, so we are losing our own culture," she says. "With that comes the loss of these values we had for conservation.”
Statements:
A) Uganda is calling a truce with Congo.
B) Some Ugandans start eating primates.
C) The virus of Ebola spreads among Uganda.
D) The number of chimpanzees is shrinking.
E) Many refugees are moving into Uganda.
G) The environmental organizations reinforce the idea of conservation.
H) The younger generation of Ugandans prefer Western culture.
I) The chimps in Uganda has been found to carry virus.
Questions:
1. What does “the new trend” (boldfaced in paragraph 1) refer to ? ______
2. What is the cause of the new trend? ______
3. What are the possible effects of the new trend? (choose TWO) ______ ______
4. Which fact causes “loss of values”? ______
5. Which of the statements above has been done to fight the new trend? ______
Ans:
I. 1. C 2. E 3. A 4. F 5. B 6. D 7. H 8. G 9. I
II. 1. B 2. E 3. C, D 4. H 5. G
Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/concerns-voiced-as-ugandans-eat-primates/1559820.html
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