Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Reading Passage 2 The Little Ice Age, Solution With Answer Key

IELTS Reading Passage Solution with Answer Keys. Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Passage 2 The Little Ice Age step by step Explanation of all the questions with Tips and Strategies. This post is for educational purpose only. If you find difficulties in reading passage to find the right answer in the exam, just read the post carefully. Tips and strategies will help you find the right answer.

Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Reading Passage 2 The Little Ice Age – Explanation

 

Detail Explanation of IELTS Cambridge 8 Test 2  Academic Reading Module, Reading Passage 2

 

PASSAGE 2: The Little Ice Age (View Full Passage Here)

Questions 14-17 (List of headings)
** Tips (link details): How To Solve List of Heading in IELTS Reading Passage

Question 14: Paragraph B
Now, in paragraph B, lines 3-5, “The climate events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. They are the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming”.
The lines suggest that the climate events of the Little Ice Age are very important or relevant for the modern world / current state of global warming.
Answer: ii (The relevance of the Little Ice Age today)

Question 15: Paragraph D
Now, in the first sentence of paragraph D, “This book is a narrative history of climate shifts during the past ten centuries.”
Here, ten centuries means a thousand years, narrative history means study,
Answer: vii (A study covering a thousand years)

Question 16: Paragraph E
Now, in the last sentence of paragraph E, “The increased productivity from farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock and offered effective protection against famine”.
The lines clearly indicate that some countries now have enough food to tackle famine, thanks to the productivity from farmland.
Here, self-sufficient = adequate to survive from their own resources, grain and livestock = foods and animals such as cows, sheep, horse, buffalos, buffalos, goats, etc.
Answer: ix (Enough food at last)

Question 17: Paragraph F
Now, in general, paragraph F deals with how present human civilization is responsible for different types of problems that have affected our climate. For instance, we can find the reference of the famine caused by the Irish potato blight (lines 2-4), deforestation because of intensive farming (lines 4-5), and the rise in temperature because of excessive use of fossil fuel (lines 9-10).
All these activities are done by humans and it has affected the climate seriously.
Answer: iv (Human impact on the climate)

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Questions 18-22 (Completing summary with list of words)

** Tips (link details): How To Solve Completing Summaries with and without a Wordlist in IELTS Reading Module?

Title of the summary: Weather during the Little Ice Age

Question 18 and 19: Documentation of past weather conditions is limited: our main sources of knowledge of conditions in the distant past are 18. ________ and 19. _________.
Keywords: documentation, past weather conditions, limited, main source of knowledge,
Now, in paragraph C, about how limited the documentation of the past weather is.
In lines 1-2 the writer says, “Reconstructing the climate changes of the past is extremely difficult, because systematic weather observations began only a few centuries ago. . . .”
Then, in lines 4-5, “For the time before records began, we have only ‘proxy records’ reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, . ..”
Here, For the time before records began = distant past,
Answers: (in either order)
C (tree rings)
B (ice cores)

Question 20: We can deduce that the Little Ice Age was a time of ________, rather than of consistent freezing.
Keywords: Little Ice Age, time of, rather than, consistent freezing,
Now, in paragraph B, in lines 6-7,  “. . . The little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts, few lasting more than a quarter-century, . . ..”.
again, in paragraph C, in the first line, “This book is a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries, . . . .”
Here, far from a deep freeze = rather than of consistent freezing;
So, the book shows that The Little Ice Age was, in fact, a time of climatic shifts.
Answer: A (climatic shifts)

Question 21 & 22: Within it there were some periods of very cold winters, others of 21. _________ and heavy rain, and yet others that saw 22. _________ with no rain at all.
Keywords: some periods, very cold winters, others of, heavy rain,
Now, as paragraph B (lines 6-7) gave us the answer for question no. 20, we need look for the answer of this question in paragraph B. In lines 9-13, “The seesaw brought cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds; then switched abruptly to years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent Atlantic storms, or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves.”
Answers:
21. H (storms)
22. G (heat waves)

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Questions 23-26 (Classifying events to periods)

Question 23: Many Europeans started farming abroad.
Keywords: Many Europeans, farming, abroad,
Now, in paragraph F, “Global temperature began to rise slowly after 1850, with the beginning of the Modern Warm Period. There was a vast migration from Europe by landhungry farmers and others, to which the famine caused by the Irish potato blight contributed. . .. .”
Here, a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers and others = Europeans started farming abroad,

Answer: C (Modern Warm Period)

Question 24: The cutting down of trees began to affect the climate.
Keywords: cutting down of trees, affect the climate,
Now, in paragraph F, lines 5-7, “. . . Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell before the newcomers’ axes between 1850 and 1890, as intensive European farming methods expanded across the world. The unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming.”
Here, Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell and unprecedented land clearance = the cutting down of trees,
Answer: C (Modern Warm Period)

Question 25: Europeans discovered other lands.
Keywords: Europeans, discovered, other lands,
Now, in paragraph D, lines 2-5, “.. .. . Part one describes the Medieval Warm Period, roughly 900 to 1200. During these three centuries, Norse voyagers from Northern Europe explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America.”
Answer: A (Medieval Warm Period)

Question 26: Changes took place in fishing patterns.
Keywords: Changes, fishing patterns,
Now, in lines 9-12 of paragraph E, which talks about the Little Ice Age, “Dried cod and herring were already staples of the European fish trade, but changes in water temperature forced fishing fleets to work further offshore. The Basques, Dutch and English developed the first offshore fishing boats adapted to a colder and stormier Atlantic…”
This means the boats were redesigned for the change in fishing practice in the Atlantic.
Answer: B (Little Ice Age)

 

 

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Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Reading Passage 2 Answer Keys

 

The Little Ice Age Reading Passage Answers Keys

Passage 2

 

 

 

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