Climate Change and the Inuit - IELTS Reading Sample With Explanation

The IELTS Reading section contains three passages and forty questions in total. Candidates get an hour to solve all the IELTS reading questions. This topic -Climate Change and the Inuit is an IELTS Academic Reading topic. The IELTS reading passages of the Academic section are taken from a wide range of sources like magazines, newspapers, journals, advertisements, and more.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Climate Change and the Inuit - IELTS Reading Sample

1. Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud, following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us, but in the Arctic, it is already having dramatic effects – if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the ‘canary in the mine’ for global warming – a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.
2. For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.
3. The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.
4. Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing. Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer. It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and for many people state benefits are their only income.
5. While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people’s health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In Nunavut’s ‘igloo and email’ society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land, there’s a high incidence of depression.
6. With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as ‘Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit’, or IQ. ‘In the early days, scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’ says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’ In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.
7. Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.

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Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-6

Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

1. The reaction of the limited community to climate change
2. Understanding of climate change remains limited
3. Alternative sources of essential supplies
4. Respect for limit opinion grows
5. A healthier choice of food
6. A difficult landscape
7. Negative effects on well-being
8. Alarm caused by unprecedented events in the Arctic
9. The benefits of an easier existence

1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G

Question 1.Paragraph B

Answer: i

Supporting Sentences: “In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country's newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science”

Keywords: ‘survival’, ’combining’, ’ancestral knowledge’

Keyword Location: Paragraph B

Explanation: The Inuit people are bent on guarding their hard-won autonomy in Nunavut. They believe that the best way of surviving this climate change is to mix ancestral knowledge with modern science.

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Question 2.Paragraph C

Answer: vi

Supporting Sentences: “The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that's covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home”

Keywords: ‘Treeless polar desert’, ‘covered with snow’

Keyword Location: Paragraph C

Explanation: The environment of the Canadian Arctic is a treeless, polar desert. It is covered with snow for most of the year. One needs to go into this area and see the hardships of the locals. This is a difficult landscape to call home.

Question 3.Paragraph D

Answer: iii

Supporting Sentences: “Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer.”

Keywords: ‘provisions’, ‘flown’, ‘costly air networks’

Keyword Location: Paragraph D

Explanation: All the necessities are to be brought into Nunavut either via one of the most costly airlines or via shipping within the very small span of summer.

Question 4.Paragraph E

Answer: vii

Supporting Sentences: “While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people's health. Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are beginning to appear in people for whom these have never before been problems”

Keywords: ‘diseases’, ‘never been a problem ’

Keyword Location: Paragraph E

Explanation: Due to the climatic change, the Inuit may not have to starve, but they are suffering from diseases like obesity, heart problems, which were earlier absent in their community. These are some of the negative effects of well-being.

Question 5.Paragraph F

Answer: iv

Supporting Sentences: “And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as 'Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit', or IQ. 'In the early days, scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don't know very much so we won't ask them,' says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ``But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.”

Keywords: ‘Scientist ignored’, ‘IQ had more credibility and weight’

Keyword Location: Paragraph F

Explanation: Previously the western scientist, when they went there for studying, thought that the Inuit were ignorant and did not know much. But in recent times, the 'Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit' is gaining importance and is gaining more weight.

Question 6.Paragraph G

Answer: ii

Supporting Sentences: “Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses’

Keywords: ‘Predictions are no more than best guesses’

Keyword Location: Paragraph G

Explanation: There are still many gaps in our knowledge about the weather in Inuit. The weather station was installed there just 50 years ago. The predictions about that region are no more than best guesses.

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Questions 7-14

Complete the summary of paragraphs C and D below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from paragraphs C and D for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-14 on your answer sheet.

If you visit the Canadian Arctic, you immediately appreciate the problems faced by people for whom this is home. It would clearly be impossible for the people to engage in 7.................... as a means of supporting themselves. For thousands of years they have had to rely on catching 8.................... and 9.................... as a means of sustenance. The harsh surroundings saw many who tried to settle there pushed to their limits, although some were successful. The 10.................... people were an example of the latter and for them the environment did not prove unmanageable. For the present inhabitants, life continues to be a struggle. The territory of Nunavut consists of little more than ice, rock and a few 11.................... . In recent years, many of them have been obliged to give up their 12.................... lifestyle, but they continue to depend mainly on 13.................... their food and clothes. 14.................... produce is particularly expensive.

Question 7.

Answer: Farming

Supporting Sentences: “Farming is out of the question and nature offers meager pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago”

Keywords: ‘support themselves, farming’

Keyword Location: paragraph C

Explanation: It was not possible for the Inuit to survive by the profession of farming, because of the climate there and the soil type.

Question 8.

Answer: Sea mammals

Supporting Sentences: “surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish”

Keywords: sea mammals

Keyword Location: Paragraph C

Explanation: The residents used to feed on sea mammals and fish that they used to hunt.

Question 9.

Answer: Fish

Supporting Sentences: “surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish”

Keywords: ‘sea mammals’

Keyword Location: Paragraph C

Explanation: The residents used to feed on sea mammals and fish, that they used to hunt

Question 10.

Answer: Thule

Supporting Sentences: “one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery, and iron tools.”

Keywords: ‘Thule people’

Keyword Location: Paragraph C

Explanation: Thule are the ancestors of Inuit who had the ability to quickly adapt themselves to the Arctic environment. They brought kayaks, dogs, sleds, potter and iron tools, etc.

Question 11.

Answer: Islands

Supporting Sentences: “Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometers of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole”

Keywords: ‘islands’, ‘ice’, ‘rock’

Keyword Location: Paragraph D

Explanation: The total area of Nunavut is 1.9 million sq. km. The maximum area is covered with rocks, ice, and a few islands in the north pole. The life of the Thule descendants is still very harsh.

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Question 12.

Answer: nomadic

Supporting Sentences: “most have abandoned their nomadic ways”

Keywords: ‘give up’, ‘nomadic’.

Keyword Location: paragraph D

Explanation: The Inuit are forced to give up the nomadic life and to settle in the territory's 28 isolated communities. There is a total population of 2500 people at present, but only a few of them are indigenous Inuit.

Question 13.

Answer: nature

Supporting Sentences: “they still rely heavily on nature”

Keywords: ‘depend heavily on nature’

Keyword Location: paragraph D

Explanation: The Inuit are still highly dependent on nature for their food and clothing. All their necessities are to be transported to Nunavut via airline or via ships during the new weeks of summer.

Question 14.

Answer: Imported

Supporting Sentences: “It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat”

Keywords: ‘imported’

Keyword Location: Paragraph D

Explanation: It would cost the Inuit to replace their hunted meat with the imported meat. Many people there survive on the benefits of the state as that is the only source of income for them. The economic opportunities are also less there. Therefore, it becomes very expensive for them to import.