The Climate Changers Reading Answers

Dec 6, 2022

The Climate Changers Reading Answers is taken from Cambridge 11 Test 1, Reading Passage 3. The Climate Changers Reading Answers is an IELTS reading passage on the changing nature of the climate due to human activities. This The Climate Changers Reading Answers passage contains 14 questions. Three question types of The Climate Changers are: Choose the correct answer, Complete the summary, True/false. Candidates need to understand the brief and important points of the IELTS reading passage of passage to answer all three types of questions. To understand how to answer the questions of the passage, check IELTS reading sample papers with explanations.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Climate Changers Reading Answers

The romantic notion that early humans lived in harmony with their environment has taken quite a battering lately. Modem humans may have started eliminating other species right from the start; our ancestors stand accused of wiping out megafauna – from giant flightless birds in Australia to mammoths in Asia and the ground sloth of North America – as they spread across the planet. Even so, by around 6,000 years ago there were only about 12 million people on earth – less than a quarter of the current population of Great Britain. That’s a far cry from today’s 6.6 billion, many of us guzzling fossil fuels, churning out greenhouse gases, and messing with our planet’s climate like there’s no tomorrow. So it may seem far-fetched to suggest that humans have been causing global warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least 7,000 years ago.
Yet that’s the view of retired climate scientist William Ruddiman, formerly of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Ancient farmers were pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere long before recorded history began, he says. Far from causing a catastrophe, however, early farmers halted the planet’s descent into another ice age and kept Earth warm and stable for thousands of years. Could a few primitive farmers really have changed the climate of the entire globe? If you find this hard to believe, you’re not the only one. Ruddiman’s idea has been hugely controversial ever since he proposed it in 2003. ‘Most new ideas, especially controversial ones, die out pretty fast. It doesn’t take science long to weed them out,’ he says. Yet five years on, his idea is still not dead. On the contrary, he says the latest evidence strengthens his case. ‘It has become clear that natural explanations for the rise in greenhouse gases over the past few thousand years are the ones that are not measuring up, and we can reject them,’ he claims.
There is no doubt that the soaring levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we see in the atmosphere today – causing a 0.7° C rise in average global temperature during the 20th century – are the result of human activities. In the late 1990s, however, Ruddiman started to suspect that our contribution to the global greenhouse began to become significant long before the industrial age began. This was when an ice core drilled at the Vostok station in Antarctica revealed how atmospheric C02 and methane levels have changed over the past 400,000 years. Bubbles trapped in the ice provide a record of the ancient atmosphere during the past three interglacials.
What we see is a regular pattern of rises and falls with a period of about 100,000 years, coinciding with the coming and going of ice ages. There are good explanations for these cycles: periodic changes in the planet’s orbit and the axis of rotation alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. We are now in one of the relatively brief, warm interglacial periods that follow an ice age. Within this larger pattern, there are regular peaks in methane every 22,000 years that coincide with the times when the Earth’s orbit makes summers in the northern hemisphere warmest. This makes sense because warm northern summers drive strong tropical monsoons in southern Asia that both encourage the growth of vegetation and cause flooding, during which vegetation rotting in oxygen-poor water will emit methane. Around the Arctic, hot summers thaw wetlands for longer, again promoting both vegetation growth and methane emission.
In recent times, however, this regular pattern has changed. The last methane peak occurred around 11,000 years ago, at about 700 parts per billion (ppb), after which levels began to fall. But instead of continuing to fall to what Ruddiman says should have been a minimum of about 450 ppb today, the atmospheric methane began to climb again 5,000 years ago. Working with climate modellers Stephen Serves and John Kutzbach, Ruddiman has shown that if the levels of these gases had continued to fall rather than rising when they did, ice sheets would now cover swathes of northern Canada and Siberia. The world would be heading into another ice age. So why did both methane and C02 rise over the past few thousand years? In other words, why has this interglacial period been different from previous ones? Could humans be to blame?
Agriculture emerged around the eastern Mediterranean some 11,000 years ago, then shortly afterward in China and several thousand years later in the Americas. Farming can release greenhouse gases in various ways: clearing forests liberates lots of stored carbon as the wood rots or is burned, for instance, while flooded rice paddies release methane just as wetlands do. To find out more about early farming, Ruddiman began to dig around in studies of agricultural history. These revealed that there was a sharp rise in rice cultivation in Asia around 5,000 years ago, with the practice spreading across China and south-east Asia. Here at least was a possible source for the unexpected methane rise.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-3 - Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D

One of the claims Ruddiman makes is that

population growth is responsible for global warming.
people have affected the climate for thousands of years.
his ideas are not in the least bit controversial.
so far scientists have been wrong about global warming.

Answer: B. people have affected the climate for thousands of years.

Supporting sentence: Humans have been causing global warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests

Keywords: causing global warming, burning and cutting forests

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, last sentence

Explanation: One of the claims Ruddiman makes is that people have affected the climate for thousands of years. It is clear from the 1st paragraph of the reading passage. It says that humans have been affecting the climate for ages. The cutting of forests has led to Global Warming. This is a major cause of climate change.

What information did the research at Vostok reveal for the first time?

that methane levels stabilised about 11,000 years ago
that Antarctic ice contains methane bubbles
that the methane levels increased about 5,000 years ago
that we are now living in a warm interglacial period

Answer: C. that the methane levels increased about 5,000 years ago

Supporting sentence: The atmospheric methane began to climb again 5,000 years ago.

Keywords: methane levels, increased, 5,000 years ago

Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: Vostok reveals for the first time that methane levels increased about 5,000 years ago. It is explained that methane’s atmospheric level started increasing again around 5000 yrs. ago. This information was revealed first time by the Vostok station in Antarctica.

The climate changers of the title are

modern humans.
climate modelers.
primitive farmers.
natural causes.

Answer: C. primitive farmers.

Supporting sentence: So it may seem far-fetched to suggest that humans have been causing global warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least 7,000 years ago.

Keywords: global warming ever since, ancestors started burning and cutting forests7,000 years ago

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, last sentence

Explanation: The climate changers of the title are undoubtedly primitive farmers. In the keyword, it is explained that primitive farmers burned and cleared forests to convert them into fields. The phrase “ancestors started burning and cutting forests” denotes that the task of affecting the environment started much earlier. Our ancestor indicates primitive farmers as the sole occupation at that time was farming.

Questions 4-8 Complete the summary.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

To many people the controversial idea that our 4___________ were responsible for global warming appears 5___________ . Yet Ruddiman believes that high levels of carbon dioxide and methane – both 6___________ , or greenhouse, gases – were being released into the Earth’s atmosphere in times prior to 7___________ . However, Ruddiman claims that this

had a positive effect, as it may well have saved us from another 8__________.

Question 4:

Answer: Ancestors

Supporting sentence: Modem humans may have started eliminating other species right from the start; our ancestors stand accused of wiping out megafauna – from giant flightless birds in Australia to mammoths in Asia and the ground sloth of North America – as they spread across the planet.

Keywords: ancestors. accused of, wiping out

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: It is expressed that ancestors wiped out megafauna in the process of converting forests into fields. Our ancestors stand accused of wiping out megafauna. Modem people may have planned to start eliminating other species and to end them from their roots. Similarly, our ancestors too can be claimed to be accused of wiping out the megafauna, mammoths, and ground sloth.

Question 5:

Answer: Far–fetched

Keywords: quarter of the current population of Great Britain, guzzling fossil fuels, churning out greenhouse gases and messing with our planet’s climate, far-fetched to suggest, causing global warming

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, last sentence

Explanation: In this statement, it is narrated that our ancestors were not the only ones who caused harm to our environment. They were only a population of 12 million. Today we are 6.6 billion. We are degrading our flora more than our ancestors. 6,000 years ago, when there were only about 12 million people on earth and it is less than a quarter of the current population of Great Britain, which is far from 6.6 billion, many used to guzzle fossil fuels and churn out greenhouse gases that pollute the environment.

Question 6:

Answer: Climate –warming

Supporting sentence: Ancient farmers were pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere long before recorded history began, he says.

Keywords: Farmers, pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: High levels of carbon dioxide and methane – both are considered climate-warming agents. At that time farmers used to pump climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane and release it in the environment.

Question 7:

Answer: Recorded history

Supporting sentence: Ancient farmers were pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere long before recorded history began, he says.

Keywords: Ancient farmers, climate-warming carbon dioxide, before recorded history began

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: Ancient farmers pumped climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere much before anything can be recorded. This keyword expresses that ancient farmers have pumped a lot of climate-warming material and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere even before records were written.

Question 8:

Answer: Ice age

Supporting sentence: Far from causing a catastrophe, however, early farmers halted the planet’s descent into another ice age and kept Earth warm and stable for thousands of years

Keywords: Early farmers, into another ice age

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 3^rd sentence

Explanation: It is narrated that primitive farmers pumped climate-warming materials into the environment. Instead of causing a catastrophe, it has kept Earth warm and stable and decreased its descent into the ice age.

Questions 9-14 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

Write

TRUE, if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE, if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this

Some megafauna has been eliminated by humans in the past 100 years.

Answer: False

Supporting sentence: our ancestors stand accused of wiping out megafauna – from giant flightless birds in Australia to mammoths in Asia and the ground sloth of North America – as they spread across the planet. Even so, by around 6,000 years ago there were only about 12 million people on earth – less than a quarter of the current population of Great Britain.

Keywords: our ancestors, wiping out the megafauna, around 6,000 years ago

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: This is an incorrect statement because Our ancestors stand accused of wiping out megafauna. As mentioned in paragraph A, line 2. Our farmers were the ones who started wiping out megafauna. It started 6000 years ago. The time given in this statement is incorrect and it is not something just 100 years old. It is happening for years.

Agriculture is considered a primary cause of global warming today.

Answer: Not Given

Explanation: There is no information in the passage related to the question.

Ruddiman’s idea caused a great deal of argument among scientists.

Answer: True

Supporting sentence: Ruddiman’s idea has been hugely controversial ever since he proposed it in 2003.

Keywords: five years, the idea is still not dead

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 6^th sentence

Explanation: This statement is correct, as narrated in paragraph B. Ruddiman’s idea is very controversial since the beginning. He came up with the idea in 2003. It is considered that most new ideas, especially controversial ideas die out extremely fast. It is not that the ideas are non-scientific. But his idea did not die even after five years.

New scientific evidence proves for certain that Ruddimans' theory is correct.

Answer: False

Supporting sentence: On the contrary, he says the latest evidence strengthens his case.

Keywords: latest evidence, strengthens, his case

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 2^nd last sentence

Explanation: Ruddiman’s evidence strengthen his case but never proved he is correct. According to him, the latest evidence strengthens his case. This is completely opposite of the statement of this question. Therefore, this is a false statement as it is negating the information available in the passage.

The 20th century has seen the greatest ever increase in global temperatures.

Answer: Not Given

Explanation: There is no information in the passage related to the question.

Changes in the Earth’s orbit can affect global temperatures.

Answer: True

Supporting sentence: There are good explanations for these cycles: periodic changes in the planet’s orbit and the axis of rotation alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth.

Keywords: planet’s orbit, the axis of rotation, amount of sunlight

Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 1^st 2 sentences

Explanation: It is true that changes in Earth's orbit can affect global temperature. According to the information given in Lines 2-3 of Paragraph D, there are different factors that can affect the temperature of the earth. Among all these factors. The change in the earth’s orbit is an important factor. Along with this, the axis of rotation often has an impact on the temperature of the earth. The amount of sunlight depends on both that’s why these are responsible for the temperature.

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