Intermediate passages 1 The best recruiting agents

The Gorilla’s chest-beating

Why does a gorilla beat its chest? It depends on the gorilla - and on the situation. In some instances, the flamboyant and intimidating gesture may be just what it seems: a warning to keep away. When truly aroused, the leader of the gorilla troop rises and drums his chest rapidly, palms open and slightly cupped. Then he explodes into a charge which may or may not be a bluff. Scientists who have been charged at by gorillas report that the animals almost always stop short of violence - unless the human intruder responds in a hostile manner. Sometimes chest-beating is only an expression of relief after the danger has passed, a means of keeping in touch with other gorillas in the troop, or a way of warning other troops away from the feeding area. Some gorillas, especially the young ones, often beat their chests as expressions of high spirits. One thing the gorilla does not do is stage a victory celebration by drumming furiously on his chest after he has just cracked an opponent's spine. That sort of thing happens only in the movies.

1. One function of a gorilla's chest-beating is

A) to frighten younger gorillas with overly high spirits B) the celebration of a recent victory
C) to call the other troop members to the feeding area D) communication with the other members of the troop

2. According to the passage

1. 
   scientists have found shorter gorillas to be more violent
   
2. 
   only the leader of the troop of gorillas beats his chest
   
3. 
   gorillas beat their chests for various reasons
   
4. 
   a gorilla's charge never needs to be taken seriously
   

3. After a fight with his opponent, the gorilla

A) does not act triumphantly B) beats his chest as an expression of relief
C) breaks the opponent's backbone D) drums his chest furiously


37 Love

For most of us, love is the most absorbing subject in existence. There is an enormous range of meanings in this one little word: motherly love and self-love, fatherly love and children's love for their parents; there is brotherly love and there is the love of one's home and one's country; there is love of money and there is love of power. Love clearly includes all of these, but the love in which one can be oneself is the pre-eminent love for most of us. Love at its fullest can include an enormous range of emotions and sentiments. It can combine humility with pride, passion with peace, self-assertion with self-surrender; it can reconcile violence of feeling with tenderness. "Being in love" is love at its most intense, and is personally focused in a very special way. Our common speech reflects this fact, as we talk of "falling in love" as if it were something into which we are precipitated against our will, like falling into a pond.

1. Love, according to the passage,

A) makes us experience all emotions more intensely B) enables the balancing of extreme feelings
C) happens against our will D) is only real when we are "in love"

2. It is stated in the passage that

A) we frequently mention love in our speech B) there are various kinds of love
C) nobody wants to "fall in love" D) it requires effort to maintain any kind of love

3. The writer states that, generally, the most important kind of love

A) absorbs us more than anything in existence B) occurs when we feel that we are "in love"
C) is "fallen into" and happens against our will D) is the one which allows us to behave as we are

17