A Kenyan Teen's Discovery: Let There Be Lighst to Save Lions

A Kenyan Teen's Discovery: Let There Be Lighst to Save Lions

ESOL 3

Multiple Choice

One of the talks from the TED stage in Long Beach, Calif., this week came from Richard Turere, an inventor. He is a Maasai from Kenya. And he’s 13.

“From ages 6 to 9, I started looking after my father’s cows,” Richard says. “I’d take them out in the morning and bring them back in the evening. We put them in a small cow shed at night,” and that’s when the trouble would start. Lions would jump in the shed and kill the cows, which are enclosed and an easy target.

Lions are the top tourist attraction to Kenya, especially in the Nairobi National Park, which is near where Richard lives. Lions are also considered critically

endangered in Kenya.

The Kenya Wildlife Service estimates there are just 2,000 lions left in the country. One of the main causes of their demise, “is that people kill them in retaliation

for lions attacking their livestock,” says Paula Kahumbu, executive director of Wildlife Direct, a wildlife conservation organization in Africa.

Q1

Why do humans kill local lions if they are endangered?

• People want to sell the lions to poachers for money.

• People do not care that lions are endangered.

• People are trying to protect their livestock from being eaten.

• People use dead lions to scare other animals away from their livestock.

Multiple Select

“There have been a lot of efforts to try to protect the lions,” Kahumbu says. “It’s a crisis and everyone is looking for a solution. One idea was land leases, another was lion-proof fences. And basically no one even knew that Richard had already come up with something that worked.”

His simple solution was so successful, his neighbors heard about it and wanted Lion Lights, too. He installed the lights for them and for six other homes in his community. From there, the lights spread and are now being used all around Kenya. Someone in India is trying them out for tigers. In Zambia and Tanzania they’re being used, as well.

To get to the TED stage, Richard traveled on an airplane for the first time in his life. He says he has a lot to tell his friends about when he goes back home, and among the scholars and prize winners, scientists and poets, what impressed him the most on his trip was something he saw at the nearby Aquarium of the Pacific: “It was my first time seeing a shark. I’ve never seen a shark.”

Q3

What makes lion lights so popular?

• They are known to work on all large animals in the world.

• They are easy for all people to make by themselves at home.

• They are both simpler and more effective than other solutions

• People are desperate for a solution and will try anything.

Multiple Choice

PART A: Which of the following best identifies the central idea of the article?

• Before Richard Turere's invention attracted widespread attention, animal rights activists and local farmers in Kenya had given up on solving the lion crisis.

• Richard Turere was inspired to build his invention by the work he had seen presented at past technology conferences.

• Richard Turere develop a way to protect both the livestock and lions with his invention, Lion Lights, which was more effective than many other complicated solutions.

• The greatest danger faced by lions in Kenya today comes from humans who hunt lions as payback for trespassing on their property and threatening their farm animals.

Multiple Select

PART B: Which phrase from the text best support the answers to Part A?

• "Lions would jump in the shed and kill the cows, which are enclosed and easy target." (Paragraph 2)

• "She has been studying the conflict between humans and lions, and her work led her to Richard." (Paragraph 5)

• "It's a crisis and everyone is looking for a solution." (Paragraph 10)

• "His simple solution was so successful, his neighbors heard about it and wanted Lion Lights, too." (Paragraph 11)

Multiple Select

PART A: Which statement best describes the relationship between livestock owners and lions?

• Livestock owners want the lions to all die or become extinct so that they no longer have to worry about their livestock being attached.

• Livestock owners have retaliated against lion in the past, but in general, they want to find a way to protect their livestock that does not involve killing the lions.

• Livestock owners want to get rid of the Nairobi National Park so that lions will be removed along with the park and will no longer attack local farmer's livestock.

• Livestock owners want a complete lion-proof fence around Nairobi National Park to stop lions from wandering off and attacking livestock.

Multiple Choice

PART B: Which phrase from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

• "Lions are the top tourist attraction to Kenya, especially in the Nairobi National Park... Lions are also considered critically endangered in Kanya." (Paragraph 3)

• "One of the main causes of their demise, 'is that people kill them in retaliation for lions attacking their livestock, 'says Paula Kalumbu" (Paragraph 4)

• "There have been a lot of efforts to try to protect the lions,' Kalumbu says. 'It's a crisis and everyone is looking for a solution." (Paragraph 10)

• "One idea was land leases, another was lion-proof fences." (Paragraph 10)

Multiple Select

One night he was walking around with a flashlight and discovered the lions were scared of a moving light. A light went on inside him and an idea was born.

Three weeks and much tinkering later, Richard had invented a system of lights that flash around the cow shed, mimicking

a human walking around with a flashlight. His system is made from broken flashlight parts and an indicator box from a motorcycle.

“The only thing I bought was a solar panel,”

which charges a battery that supplies power to the lights at night, Richard says. He calls the system Lion Lights.

Q2

Why did Richard think his idea would be successful?

• He saw that lights bothered the lions.

• He didn't know it would work but could not afford other solutions.

• He felt that if he tinkered with it long enough, his device would have to work.

• He though that it was easier than patrolling with a flashlight himself.

Open Ended

Q5. What is the author's main purpose in writing this piece?

Cite evidence from the text in your response.