7 Christian the lion 3

Read the blog again. Put these events in order (1–9).

1 Which animals have you seen
in the wild? Which would you
like to see?
2 Read the blog. Answer these
questions.
1 Where did Christian live
when he was growing up?
a Christian lived with John and Ace in Chelsea.
b John and Ace bought the lion cub and called him Christian.
c Christian played with his friends for the last time.
d A zoo sold a lion cub to a London department store.
e Someone put a video of the reunion online, which went viral.
f A film of their trip to Kenya was shown on TV.
g Christian greeted the friends when they visited him in Kenya.
h John and Ace took Christian to live in Kenya.

2 What happened when John i John and Ace decided that Christian couldn’t live in their flat
and Ace went to see him in any longer.
Kenya?
3 How did Christian become
4 Which animals do you think make the best pets? Do you think
wild animals should be kept as pets? Why?/Why not?
famous?
www.amazinganimalstories.net/christianthelion

Christian the lion was bought from Harrods, the famous London department store, as a cub in 1969.
At that time, it was still legal for shops in the UK to sell wild animals as pets. The
lion cub had been born in a zoo, but it was sold to Harrods when the zoo closed.
At Harrods, the playful young lion caused chaos, so Harrods’ managers were
relieved when two friends, John Rendall and Ace Bourke, wanted to give the cub
a home.

extra reading:
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The two men ran a furniture shop in Chelsea, a fashionable part of London,
and Christian lived there with them as a pet. They used to drive around London
in their sports car with the lion on the back seat and take him to their favourite
restaurants. There was a local graveyard nearby where Christian could play
outside every day and they also used to take him to the beach. He was well-
behaved and very affectionate; everyone loved him.
But Christian was growing all the time – from about 16 kilos when he first arrived
to 84 kilos a year later – and he was starting to grow a mane. John and Ace
realised that they couldn’t keep him in their flat any longer, so they decided
to take him to Africa so that he could start a new life. Christian was flown to
Kenya in 1971 where, with the help of an expert, George Adamson, the lion was
successfully introduced to the wild.
Nine months later, John and Ace went to Kenya in the hope of seeing Christian, even
though they were warned that the lion probably wouldn’t remember them. But as
soon as Christian saw his old friends he started running towards them. He jumped
up and repeatedly put his paws on their shoulders, exactly as he used to when they
lived in London together.
A year later, the two men went back to Kenya and met Christian again. By then he
had a family and cubs of his own. The lion came to see them one evening and they
spent the whole night playing together. Then in the morning Christian walked back
into the jungle, never to be seen again.
John and Ace’s trip was filmed for a TV documentary, then a few years later a clip
from the documentary showing the lion greeting the two men was posted online.
Different versions of the reunion on YouTube have been watched over 30 million
times, making it one of the most-watched videos in internet history.

3   1d  2b  3a  4i  5h 6g 7c 8f 9e

put his paws on their shoulders. 3 Someone posted a video of him on YouTube, which has been watched over 30 million times.
2  1 He lived in a furniture shop in Chelsea, a fashionable part of London. 2 He ran towards them, then jumped up repeatedly and

Instructions p215 © Cambridge University Press 2013 face2face Second edition Intermediate Photocopiable 223