Passage A
The writer goes with Tom Murphy, a wildlife expert, in search of a bear in Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.
Finding a Grizzly
The sun was rising over the Absaroka Mountains, rising behind some high, thin clouds so that the
light that spilled into the valley was shadowed and broken. It was a moving watercolour of a
morning. Waves of subtle pastels were flowing gently across golden August pastures. We drove in
silence. The light reached the river, and for a moment the living expanse of water was a rippling
mirror of shimmering pink and gold.
‘You’re pretty sure he’ll be there?’ I asked.
‘He’ll be there all right,’ Tom said. ‘He had something buried, a bison carcass I think. He was
feeding on it all day yesterday.’
‘What’s the land like where he is?’
‘It’s a prairie location. Rolling hills and sage. No trees to climb in case he, uh ...’. I didn’t know what
he might do. Nobody knows what a grizzly bear might do. One grizzly might simply ignore a man
on foot, while another one could feel obliged to rip him to shreds.
We parked by the side of the road and began walking. Five kilometres in, we saw several ravens
perched on a ridge ahead of us. Tom thought this might mean there was a bear below, feeding on
something. We belly-crawled to the top and peeked over. We saw a few bison, grazing peacefully,
but not too far away was some grizzly dung. Tom broke it open with his boot and handed me a
porcupine quill. I stood there with the white needle in my hand, and it scared me as badly as
anything I’d ever heard or read about grizzly bears. I couldn’t imagine any animal eating a
porcupine, quills and all. We walked down a hill and across a marsh that was full of meandering
streams. If there was a bear, he would be on the other side of the ridge ahead of us.
When we got there, we saw him in a bowl-shaped depression about 20 metres away, standing on
a mound of dirt. He was a glistening black, and his coat scintillated in the sun. In proportion to his
massive body, his claws were almost delicate. They were bone white: the mark of an older bear.
He began digging in the mound. In less than two minutes he had extracted a bison carcass. He
used his claws very dexterously, almost like fingers. There was a disconcerting sound of breaking
bones as the bear gnawed away on the bison’s shoulder.
Tom and I heard, very faintly, the sound of a cracking branch from the stand of trees to the west.
There was a dark shape, moving slowly, deep in the woods. With the binoculars I could see that it
was a bison. The bear stiffened and stared into the trees. It is said that a grizzly’s hearing is far
more sensitive than a human’s. Some people believe grizzlies don’t see well, and in fact they may
not see as well as we do. We retreated and crouched down at a distance of 75 metres. I was
certain that he did not see us.
After an hour or so, he began digging a second hole adjacent to the first. He used the dirt to cover
the carcass. Then he lay down in the second hole and took a nap in the sun. He was on his back,
and you could just see the tip of his nose sticking out of the ground. It looked silly, and I wanted to
laugh, and I knew I shouldn’t, so a series of muffled giggles came snorting up through my nose.
The fear that I’d been living with for 20 hours had stretched itself to breaking point and finally
snapped. The bear couldn’t see us, and now he was taking a nap.
Tom moved in closer now that the bear was asleep. I chose to stay where I was. Tired of staring at
the bear’s nose through my binoculars, I moved behind a small wall of sage and lay on my back,
feeling just a tad bearlike. A dim drowsiness began a slow descent ...
I’m just going to have to live with it. I’m the guy who spent so many sleepless hours being terrified
of a grizzly bear that, when I finally saw him, I fell asleep.
Imagine that you are Tom Murphy. Write a journal entry for the day you took your friend to see
a grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park.
In your journal entry you should explain:
● what you knew about this bear and its whereabouts
● the risks and possibilities once you had found the bear
● what you think about your friend’s reactions and behaviour that day.
Write your journal entry.
Base your journal entry on what you have read in Text C, but be careful to use your own words.
Address each of the three bullet points.
Write about 250 to 350 words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 10 marks for the
quality of your writing.
