IELTS Reading Short Answer Questions | Example 9

Nature on display in American zoos

by Elizabeth Hanson

A. The first zoo in the United States opened in Philadelphia in 1874, followed by the Cincinnati Zoo the next year. By 1940 there were zoos in more than one hundred American cities. The Philadelphia Zoo was more thoroughly planned and better financed than most of the hundreds of zoos that would open later. But in its landscape and its mission – to both educate and entertain, it embodied ideas about how to build a zoo that stayed consistent for decades. The zoos came into existence in the late nineteenth century during the transition of the United States from a rural and agricultural nation to an industrial one.

B. The population more than doubled between 1860 and 1990. As more middle-class people lived in cities, they began seeking new relationships with the natural world as a place for recreation, self-improvement, and Spiritual renewal. Cities established systems of public parks, and nature tourism – already popular – became even more fashionable with the establishment of national parks. Nature was thought to be good for people of all ages and classes. Nature study was incorporated into the school curriculum, and natural history collecting became an increasingly popular pastime.

1. 1875
2. From agricultural to industrial nation
3. Recreation, self-improvement and  spiritual renewal
4. Nature study