What makes you feel close to nature?

Part 7.- You are going to read an article in which the four presenters of a TV nature programme show an object say why it makes them feel close to nature. For questions 43-52, choose from the paragraphs (A-D). The paragraphs may be chosen more than once.

 

Which presenter says their chosen object or combination of objects…

43.- Makes them feel very privileged?

44.- might enable them to help researchers?

45.- makes them realise that what a person really enjoys can change?

46.- is relatively easy to come across?

47.- is selected from a number of possibilities?

48.- connects them with looking after an animal in an advisable way?

49.- shows evidence of having been used?

50.- makes them realise how incredibly clever nature is?

51.- was not in fact their original choice?

52.- is now incomplete?

What makes you feel close to nature?

 

A.- Chris Packham  - a deer’s antler

I live in woodland and in early summer when I’m out walking, if I’m lucky, I will stumble upon the discarded antlers of fallow bucks, who shed them in April or early May. … I’m as excited as I would have been if I’d found them when I was eight years old. … it’s like natural treasure you’re honoured to possess, an immediate connection with a shy and elusive animal you’ve usually only seen at a distance. … Given thee size and shape of this one, it has come from mature animal of around ten years old. It has a story to tell, too a piece at one end has been chewed off…, probably by a squirrel or another deer looking for calcium. These are scratches, too, on the polished surface where the antler has scraped the ground and trees. … So it’s marked with a pattern of use, and I love that…

 

B.- Gillian Burke – a ‘mermaid’s purse’

I have a nature table at home, an eclectic assortment of feathers, shells and crystals collected over decades. There are things collected as a child on my filming trips, and now my kids find heaps of things for it too. So my instinct was to take something from that taole, as it represents my family’s link to nature. In the end, after endless prevarication, I chose a single shark egg case, what people often call a mermaid’s purse. … What I like about these egg cases is that, while on one level collecting them can be simply an enjoyable pastime, they can also feed into some real citizen science. The Shark Trust runs a campaign… which encourages people to go online and send in phots and details of any egg cases they’ve found fhat can help provide the trust with information about which species are using ther waters as their nursery grounds…

 

C.- Michaela Strachan – my old nature books

Given that my eyes aren’t as sharp as they once were, I was initially tempted to bring my binoculars: if I’m anywhere near wildlife I get so frustrated without them. … But then I remembered my old nature books, British Wild Animals and What to Look for in Spring, which I fell in love with as a child of around seven. What tickles me now is… the advice they give. In one passage we’re told that if we find a newt… we’re to put in a home aquarium, which we absolutely wouldn’t do now, of course. … The real point, though, is that while I loved wildlife, back then I was far more interested in ballet and gymnastics – it was only later in life that may passion for nature developed. It’s a reminder to us all, but particularly to parents, that passions can change. Love of nature is something that can develop at any time.

D.- Martin Hughes-Games – the skulls of a horse and a weasel

II found this horse’s skull in a ditch while out walking and the weasel skull… was uncovered at the bottom of my garden. The disparity in size iws what strikes you first, but what I like about them is what they tell us, both about what makes a mammal and about nature’s infinite inventiveness. What makes a mammal skull boils down to two bones, the articular and the quadrate. … In other animal groups they are  part of the jaw, but in us mammals they’ve turned into the incus and malleus, the tiny little bones in your ear. … It’s a reminder that, once nature comes up with a successful design, it’s incredibly plastic…