Finches on Islands Reading Answers

Dec 22, 2022

Finches on Islands Reading Answers is the topic which discusses about the availability of finches on the Galápagos Islands. The given IELTS topic has been taken from the book called “E-ENG-school IELTS Reading Test With Answers Key (New Edition)”. There are 13 questions total in the the topic called Finches on Islands Reading Answers, which should be answered within the time span of 20 minutes by the candidates. The topic includes three types of questions, which are, no more than two words, complete the following sentence, and True/False/Not Given. The candidates should read thoroughly the IELTS reading passage in order to recognize the synonyms and identify the keywords and for answering the questions below. Similar kinds of topics like Finches on Islands Reading Answers are included in the IELTS reading practice papers, which the candidates can take into their consideration for performing a good score in this section.

Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching- Join for Free Trial Class Now

Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Finches on Islands Reading Answers

Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major-one of the most desolate of the Galápagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher’s knee-Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin’s finch respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds’ lineages hack through time. They have witnessed Darwin’s principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches.
The Grants’ most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galápagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds.
When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out.
Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work-the same process that, over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galápagos’ 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that reached the islands a few million years ago.
Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Major. Vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. ‘Natural selection is observable,’ Rosemary Grant says. ‘It happens when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation.
Recently, the Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galápagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. ‘We realized,’ Peter Grant says, ‘we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow.’ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared the supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areas by the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard.
When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galápagos finches.
On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fast-from 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 in 2001. Today Puerto Ayora is full of hotels and mai tai bars,’ Hendry says. ‘People have taken this extremely arid place and tried to turn it into a Caribbean resort.’
Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be in the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large-billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the finches’ survival, no longer made any difference. ‘Now an intermediate bill can do fine,’ Hendry says.
At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humans, the medium ground finch population remains split between large- and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging.
The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution in its tracks, ending the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues its downhill slide, Darwin’s finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. ‘If we hope to regain some of the diversity that’s already been lost/ Hendry says, ‘we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1 - 4
Complete the following table
Do not choose more than two words for reading passage, one for each answer.
write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet

Year Climate Finch Condition

1977 1.------------ small- big birds failing to survive,

without the power to open 2.------------------

1985 3. ---------------- big- beak birds dying out, with 4.------------

brought by El Nino as the main food resource.

Question 1:

Answer: 1. Severe Drought
Supporting sentence: When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of these small, easily eaten seeds.
Keywords: drought, 1977
Keyword location: Paragraph C, third line
Explanation: Line 3 of paragraph C implies that the Galapagos island is so small and the researchers could easily count the categorise each and every bird species. The birds quickly ate up the last of these tiny, easily consumed seeds when a severe drought struck in 1977.

Question 2:

Answer: 2. Large seeds
Supporting sentence: Smaller members of the medium ground Finch population lacking the bill strength to crack large the large seeds, died out.
Keywords: large seeds, died out
Keyword location: Paragraph C, 4th line
Explanation: The fourth line of paragraph C explains that smaller medium ground finch individuals who lacked the strength in their bills to crack huge seeds died out.

Question 3:

Answer: 3. heavy rain
Supporting sentence: eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transform the normally meagre vegetation on Daphne Major.
Keywords: El Nino
Keyword location: Paragraph E, 1st line
Explanation: The first line of paragraph E says that the generally sparse vegetation in Daphne Major eventually underwent a transformation after eight years of intense rains brought on by an El Nino.

Question 4:

Answer: 4. Small seeds
Supporting sentence: small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones.
Keywords: small seeds, died out, big birds
Keyword location: Paragraph E, 3rd line
Explanation: The third line of paragraph E states that large birds with large bills went off at a higher pace than smaller birds as little seeds began to predominate in the food supply.

Questions: 5-8
Summary of the paragraphs- reading passage using not more than two words from the reading passage for each answer.

On the remote island of Santa Cruz, Andrew Henry and Jeffrey Podos conducted a study on reversal, 5______ due to human activity. In the early 1960s medium ground finches were found to have a larger or smaller beak. but in the late 1960s and early 70s, finches with 6. ________ flourished. The study speculates that it is Due to the growing7___________ who brought in alien plants with intermediate- size seeds into the area and the birds ate 8 __________ sometimes.

Question 5:

Answer: 5. Finch evolution
Supporting sentence: on the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just South of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill university and Jeffrey Podos of the university of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in Finch evolution.
Keywords: Santa Cruz, Jeffrey Podos
Keyword location: Paragraph H, 1st line.
Explanation: The beginning sentence of paragraph H explains that researchers from the universities of Massachusetts at Amherst and McGill University have found a new, man-made twist in the development of the finch on the populated island of Santa Cruz, which is located near Daphne Major.

Question 6:

Answer: 6. Medium sized bills
Supporting sentence: But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large billed birds.
Keywords: 1960’s, finches, early 70’s
Keyword location: Paragraph I, 4th line
Explanation: Line 4 of paragraph I describes that the Academy Bay had a rise in the number of small and large billed birds as well as medium ground finches with medium sized bills in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Question 7:

Answer: 7. Human population
Supporting sentence: the booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice.
Keywords: food sources, bird feeding
Keyword location: Paragraph I, 5th line
Explanation: Line 5 of paragraph I suggests that the new sources of food had been made available by the expanding human population,

Question 8:

Answer: 8. Rice
Supporting sentence: the booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice.
Keywords: rice, birds feeding stations
Keyword location: Paragraph I, 5th line
Explanation: The fifth line of paragraph I imples that exotic plants and bird feeding stations filled with rice were among the new food sources brought in by the expanding human population.

Questions: 9-13
Does the following statement agree with the claims of the writer including passage one? Inbox is 9 to 13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE- if the statement is true
FALSE- if this statement is false
NOT GIVEN- If the information is not given in the passage

Grant’s discovery questions Darwin's theory.

Answer: False
Supporting sentence: On the Daphne major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos islands, and Uninhabited Organic corn where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researchers knee- Peter and Rosemary Grant Have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought, and competition for food biologist add Princeton University, the grants no under recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can't raise the birds lineages hack through time.
Keywords: Darwin's theory, Grant’s discovery.
Keyword location: Paragraph A, 2nd line
Explanation: Peter and Rosemary Grant are on the Daphne Island, one of the most barren islands in the Galapagos, where cacti and plants seldom ever rise above a researcher's knee and uninhabited organic corn grows. The grants don't fully recognise many of the individual birds on the island and can't raise the birds' lineages through time, according to a Princeton University biologist who has spent more than three decades observing Darwin's finches react to the challenges of storms, drought, and food competition. So, the statement is False.

The cactus finches are less affected by food than the medium-ground Finch.

Answer: Not given
Explanation: There is no available information in the passage which can be used to prove the validation of the above said statement.

In 2002 and 2003, all the birds were affected by the drought.

Answer: True
Supporting sentence: Then in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck.
Keywords: drought, 2002 and 2003
Keyword location: Paragraph F, 7th line
Explanation: The seventh line of paragraph F clarifies that almost all the birds died and their nests got destroyed for the drought that occurred in the year of 2002 and 2003. Therefore, the sentence is True.

The discovery of Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos was the same as that of the previous studies.

Answer: False
Supporting sentence: On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffery Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new man-made twist in Finch evolution.
Keywords: Andrew Henry, Jeffrey Podos
Keyword location: Paragraph H, 1st line
Explanation: Line 1 of paragraph H says that Andrew Hendry from McGill University and Jeffery Podos from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have uncovered a novel man-made twist in the evolution of Finch on the populated island of Santa Cruz, which is located near Daphne major. Hence, it is a False statement.

It is shown that the revolution in finches on Santa Cruz is like clear response to human intervention.

Answer: True
Supporting sentence: The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the finches’ survival, no longer made any difference. Now an intermediate bill can do fine, Hendry says.
Keywords: Human population
Keyword location: Paragraph I, 4th line
Explanation: The fourth line of paragraph I suggests that the revolution of finches on Santa Cruz made the path of the expansion of human population with the sources of perishable foods.