The Cause of the Next Ice Age Reading Answers

Mar 20, 2024

The Cause of the Next Ice Age Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. The Cause of the Next Ice Age Reading Answers have a total of 14 IELTS questions in total. This topic has 5 questions in which you have say whether statement is true or false. In the rest of the questions you have to fill up the black choosing appropriate words from the paragraphs.

Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS Reading practice papers, which feature topics such as The Cause of the Next Ice Age Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading practice questions and answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Cause of the Next Ice Age?

If you look at a globe, you'll see that the latitude of much of Europe and Scandinavia is the same as that of Alaska and permafrost -locked parts of northern Canada and central Siberia. Yet Europe has a climate more similar to that of the United States than northern

Canada or Siberia. It turns out that our warmth is the result of ocean currents that bring warm surface water up from the equator into northern regions that would otherwise be so cold that even in summer they'd be covered with ice. The current of greatest concern is often referred to as the Great Conveyor Belt which includes what we call the Gulf Stream. This is mostly driven by the force created by differences in water temperatures and salinity.

The North Atlantic Ocean is saltier and colder than the Pacific. As a result, the warm water of the Great Conveyor Belt evaporates out of the North Atlantic leaving behind saltier waters which are cooled by the cold continental winds off the northern parts of North America. Salty, cool waters settle to the bottom of the sea, most at a point a few

hundred kilometres south of the southern tip of Greenland, producing a whirlpool of falling water that's 5 to 10 miles across. This falling column of cold, salt-laden water pours itself to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it forms a great undersea river forty times larger than all the rivers on land combined, flowing south down to and around the southern tip of Africa where it finally reaches the Pacific Amazingly, the water is so deep and so dense that it often doesn't surface in the Pacific for as much as a thousand years after it first sank in the North Atlantic off the coast of Greenland.

The out-flowing undersea river of cold, salty water makes the level of the Atlantic fractionally lower than that of the Pacific, drawing in a strong surface current of warm, fresher water from the Pacific to replace the outflow of the undersea river. This warmer, fresher water slides up through the South Atlantic, loops around North America where it's known as the Gulf Stream, and ends up off the coast of Europe. By the time it arrives near Greenland, it's cooled off and evaporated enough water to become cold and salty and sink to the ocean floor, providing a continuous feed for that deep-sea river flowing to the Pacific. These two flows - warm, fresher water in from the Pacific, which then grows salty and cools and sinks to form an exiting deep sea river - are known as the Great Conveyor Belt.

Prior to the last decades it was thought that the periods between glaciations and warmer times in North America, Europe, and North Asia were gradual. We knew from the fossil record that the Great Ice Age period began a few million years ago and during those years there were times when for hundreds or thousands of years North America, Europe, and Siberia were covered with thick sheets of ice yea round. In between these icy times, there were periods when the glaciers thawed, bare land was exposed, forests grew, and land animals (including early humans) moved into these northern regions.

Most scientists figured the transition time from icy to warm was gradual lasting dozens to hundreds of years and nobody was sure exactly what had caused it. Recently however, scientists have been shocked to discover that the transitions from ice age-like weather to contemporary-type weather usually took only two or three years. Something was flipping the weather of the planet back and forth with a rapidity that was startling.

What brought on this sudden effect was that the warm-water currents of the Great Conveyor Belt had shut down. Once the Gulf Stream was no longer flowing, it only took a year or three for the last of the residual heat held in the North Atlantic Ocean to dissipate into the air over Europe and then there was no more warmth to moderate the northern latitudes.

When the summer stopped in the north, the rains stopped around the equator. At the same time that Europe was plunged into an Ice Age, the Middle East and Africa were ravaged by drought and wind-driven firestorms. If the Great Conveyor Belt, which includes the Gulf Stream, were to stop flowing today, the result would be sudden and dramatic. Winter would set in for the eastern half of North America and all of Europe and Siberia and never go away. Within three years, those regions would become uninhabitable and nearly two billion humans would starve, freeze to death or have to relocate. Civilization as we know it probably couldn't withstand the impact of such a crushing blow.

Most scientists involved in research on this topic agree that the culprit is global warming, which melts the icebergs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and thus flushes cold, fresh water down into the Greenland Sea from the north diluting its salinity. When a critical threshold is reached, the climate will suddenly switch to an ice age that could last minimally 700 or so years, and maximally 100,000 years. No one knows when it will happen but what's almost certain is that if nothing is done about global warming, it will have, sooner rather than later.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 14 - 18

Read the passage and look at the statements below.

In boxes 14 - 18 on your answer sheet write:

TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the text

Another name for the Great Conveyer Belt is the better known name the Gulf Stream.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement:“........The current of greatest concern is often referred to as the Great Conveyor Belt which includes what we call the Gulf Stream. This is mostly driven by the force created by differences in water temperatures and salinity..........”
Keywords: salinity, create
Keyword Location: para 1, line 6
Explanation: The passage states that the Great Conveyor Belt includes the Gulf Stream but does not equate the two names.

The surface of the Atlantic Ocean is higher than the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement:“.........The North Atlantic Ocean is saltier and colder than the Pacific. As a result, the warm water of the Great Conveyor Belt evaporates out of the North Atlantic leaving behind saltier waters which are cooled by the cold continental winds off the northern parts of.........”
Keywords: saltier, parts
Keyword Location: para 2, line 1
Explanation: The passage mentions that the out-flowing undersea river of cold, salty water makes the level of the Atlantic fractionally lower than that of the Pacific. It draws in a strong surface current of warm, fresher water from the Pacific.

The last time the Great Conveyer Belt shut down it caused the deaths of thousands.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: The passage does not provide information on how the arrival of cooler water in the Pacific Ocean affects its weather.

The arrival of cooler water in the Pacific Ocean affects the weather there too.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: The passage does not provide information on how the arrival of cooler water in the Pacific Ocean affects its weather.

Global warming has caused the North Atlantic Ocean to become less salty.

Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement:“........Most scientists involved in research on this topic agree that the culprit is global warming, which melts the icebergs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and thus flushes cold, fresh water down into the Greenland Sea
from the north diluting its salinity. ..........”
Keywords: icepack, salinity
Keyword Location: para 7, line 2
Explanation: The passage mentions that global warming melts icebergs and Arctic ice packs, flushing cold, fresh water into the Greenland Sea from the north, diluting its salinity.

Questions 19 - 20

Complete each of the following statements (Questions 19 - 20) with words taken from Reading Passage 2.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19 - 20 on your answer sheet.

The author points out the reason why Europe like other countries of the same latitude.

Answer: PERMAFROST - LOCKED
Supporting statement:“........If you look at a globe, you'll see that the latitude of much of Europe and Scandinavia is the same as that of Alaska and permafrost -locked parts of northern Canada and central Siberia..........”
Keywords: alaska, central
Keyword Location: para 1, line 1
Explanation: The author points out that Europe has a climate more similar to that of the United States than northern Canada or Siberia, despite being at similar latitudes, due to ocean currents preventing it from being as cold as permafrost-locked parts.

The author likens the north - south flow of the Great Conveyer Belt to a

Answer: UNDERSEA RIVER
Supporting statement:“.........This falling column of cold, salt-laden water pours itself to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it forms a great undersea river forty times larger than all the rivers on land combined.........”
Keywords: great, river
Keyword Location: para 2, line 6
Explanation: The author likens the north-south flow of the Great Conveyor Belt to a great undersea river flowing from the North Atlantic to the Pacific.

Questions 21 - 23

Complete each of the following statements (Questions 21 - 23) with words taken from Reading Passage 2. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19 - 23 on your answer sheet.

Scientist can date the last great Ice Age thanks to

Answer: FOSSIL RECORD
Supporting statement:“.........We knew from the fossil record that the Great Ice Age period began a few million years ago and during those years there were times when for hundreds or thousands of years North America, .........”
Keywords: million, hundred
Keyword Location: para 4, line 3
Explanation: The author mentions that scientists knew from the fossil record that the Great Ice Age period began a few million years ago.

Lately there has been a discovery that the change from today's temperate style weather to ice age weather was in fact a fast change.

Answer: STARTLING
Supporting statement:“......... Something was flipping the weather of the planet back and forth with a rapidity that was startling..........”
Keywords: forth, rapidity
Keyword Location: para 5, line 4
Explanation: The author mentions the discovery that the transitions from ice age-like weather to contemporary-type weather usually took only two or three years as startling.

The author identifies the for the possible shutting down of the Great Conveyer Belt as being global warming.

Answer: CULPRIT
Supporting statement:“........Most scientists involved in research on this topic agree that the culprit is global warming, which melts the icebergs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and thus flushes cold..........”
Keywords: icepack, flushes
Keyword Location: para 7, line 1
Explanation: The author mentions global warming as the culprit for the possible shutting down of the Great Conveyor Belt.

Questions 24 - 26

Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER from Reading Passage 2, answer the following questions.

Write your answers in boxes 24 - 26 on your answer sheet.

What do the sinking waters create on the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean?

Answer: WHIRLPOOL
Supporting statement:“.......Salty, cool waters settle to the bottom of the sea, most at a point a few hundred kilometres south of the southern tip of Greenland, producing a whirlpool of falling water that's 5 to 10 miles across...........”
Keywords: whirlpool, across
Keyword Location: para 4, line 1
Explanation: The passage mentions a whirlpool of falling water that's 5 to 10 miles across, produced by sinking cold, salty waters in the North Atlantic.

How long can it take for water leaving the surface near Greenland to travel through the Great Conveyer Belt to the surface of the Pacific Ocean?

Answer: 1000 YEARS
Supporting statement:“..........the water is so deep and so dense that it often doesn't surface in the Pacific for as much as a thousand years after it first sank in the North Atlantic off the coast of Greenland.........”
Keywords: surface, coast
Keyword Location: para 2, line 9
Explanation: The passage mentions that the water often doesn't surface in the Pacific for as much as a thousand years after sinking in the North Atlantic.

If the Great Conveyer Belt stopped, what would be the maximum amount of time for it to stop heating northern Europe?

Answer: 3 YEARS
Supporting statement:“........Most scientists figured the transition time from icy to warm was gradual lasting dozens to hundreds of years and nobody was sure exactly what had caused it...........”
Keywords: warm, caused
Keyword Location: para 2, line 3
Explanation: The passage mentions that once the Gulf Stream was no longer flowing, it only took a year or three for the last of the residual heat held in the North Atlantic Ocean to dissipate into the air over Europe.

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