speaker_notes Use of English (JAMB 2003)

When man evolved a conscience, his basic relationship
with the other animals began to change. Until then, they were
broadly divided into those which ate him when they got the
chance, those which he ate when he got the chance, and a third
group which competed with him for food, or was otherwise a
nuisance to him in the business of keeping alive.
In the primitive situation,man was, therefore, basically
against Nature but, as the battle was progressively won,
conscience crept in; the awareness of responsibility, and a failure
to meet it, produced feelings of guilt. Those who live in cities
and need no longer do battle against Nature are nowadays most
actively for Nature. At this time, something like a thousand kinds of animals
(vertebrate animals) can be said to be in danger of extinction. A
few of them have been reduced to this precarious position by
extensive killing but the majority are disappearing only as fast
as the particular kind of country they need for existence is itself
disappearing: and all this at the hands of man, as often as not by
mistake.
There are three species of turtles whose future survival
is menaced by the demand for turtle soup, which would hardly
justifythe extermination of a giant reptilewhose family has existed
for 200 million years. Leopards are in jeopardy because of the
fashion for their skins.As they get rarer, the prices rise and, as
leopard skin coats becomemore expensive, the demand increases.
No species can long survive the price of N60,000 which a halfgrown
baby leopard nowcarries on its skin.And crocodiles, the
longest surviving reptiles, are now dwindling alarmingly as a
result of the fashion in crocodile skin for ladies’ handbags and
men’s shoes.
The human population explosion spreads mankind
across the land surfaces of the earth at an alarming rate. There
will be twice as many of us beforemost of us are dead. Does this mean no room for wild animals? Of course not.With ingenuity
and forethought, a place can be kept for them. To destroy their
habitat is as unnecessary as it would be to pull down a great
cathedral in order to grow potatoes on the site. A campaign to
savewhat remains is the concern of a newkind of Noah’s Ark –
the World Wildlife Fund. It does not believe that all is lost.

The basic causes of the elimination of certain animals
from the earth include

From the passage, the attitude of the writer can be described as.