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--- lesson 1 A puma at large |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- Where must the puma have come from? |
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Pumas are large, cat-like animals which are found in America. |
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When reports came into London Zoo that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south of London, they were not taken seriously. |
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However, as the evidence began to accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate, |
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for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar. |
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The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a woman picking blackberries saw 'a large cat' only five yards away from her. |
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It immediately ran away when she saw it, and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered. |
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The search proved difficult, |
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for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. |
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Wherever it went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits. |
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Paw prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to bushes. |
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Several people complained of 'cat-like noises' at night and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. |
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The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma, but where had it come from? |
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As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, |
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this one must have been in the possession of a private collector and somehow managed to escape. |
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The hunt went on for several weeks, but the puma was not caught. |
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It is disturbing to think that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside. |
