Skip to main content
Sensations English Logo
LEVEL B2

Shadowing the newsreader

Listen to the newsreader read out each line and then practise saying it. Record your own voice line by line and submit your voiceover.

Hide View

South of Liberia's capital, Monrovia, 65 chimpanzees live on 6 uninhabited river islands.

The chimps are the remainders of a group of about 400 ex-test subjects of a US funded research project and have survived decades of invasive experiments.

Now cared for and fed twice a day, their current situation belies a dark past.

Richard Ssuna is a vet, working with the Humane Society International, caring for the animals.

The research into diseases such as hepatitis B was funded by the New York Blood Centre (NYBC) and carried out at this centre from the 1970s.

But medical testing wasn't the only problem for the chimps.

In 1989, Liberia exploded into a 14 year long civil war, and the chimps nearly starved to death.

Research staff used their own money to feed the primates.

Then, in 2015, the NYBC withdrew funding, provoking global outrage.

When the Ebola epidemic hit Liberia, the US financial giant Citigroup stepped in to provide funds, until an agreement was reached between the NYBC and the Humane Society International for the ongoing care of the chimpanzees.

With the lifespan of chimpanzees up to 60 years, support will need to continue for decades, as they cannot be released fully into the wild.

REGISTER NOW

Get videos, articles, games and study tools!

Learn at six levels from A1 to C1
Or sign up with your Email
By clicking “Sign Up” above you are accepting our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign in

Sign up with email

Enter the following information to create your account.
All sign up options

Log in Or create an account

or

Forgot password?

reset password or login

Crop Image

Crop preview
Add to homescreen