IT - practice test 8 - Bui Nhung

In the sets of material, both the reading and the listening focus on the reasons for the extinction of the dodo birds. The listening gives 3 main arguments to cast doubt on the reading.

At the first point, the writer states that the disappearance of dodo was mainly due to the overhunting and occupying land of the Dutch. However, the speaker presents a totally different point. He states that little remaining of the bird like bone or feather was found in Dutch settlement. Furthermore, to the Dutch, dodo’s meat had a terrible taste. There was a obvious evidence that in the Dutch language, dodo means “disgusting birds”.

Secondly, in the reading, the Dutch came and exploited the precious wood in the forest that destroyed the balance environment of animals there, especially the dodo. In contract to this point, the listening shows different evidences. The expansion of the Dutch has not succeeded at all due to some reasons. One of them is that they may be prohibited to do that. Moreover, there was a proof that in 18^th and 19^th centuries, the French and the Europe rulers played a main role in this extinction.

Last but not least, the writer claims that the introduction of some new predators that hunted and ate the birds was the most important reason. Nevertheless, the professor do not agree with that argument. There are a lot of evidences in many studies supporting his reasoning. It was the calamities in the 15^th century that made the mass deaths of not only  the dodo but also numerous other animals. It means that the enormous disasters like huge floods and cyclones mainly caused the disappearance of the dodo.