The forgotten Forests Reading Answers

Oct 1, 2022

The forgotten forests Reading Answers has 13 questions that have to be answered in 20 minutes. Reading Answers comprises question types, namely-.complete the notes, complete the flowchart and true/false/not given. Candidates are required to complete the notes using no more than two words for each answer, complete the flowchart using only one word and write true/false/not given on the basis of the given cue and information in the passage.

Candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question.

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Reading Passage Question

Found only in the Deep South of America, longleaf pine woodlands have dwindled to about 3 percent of their former range, but new efforts are under way to restore them.

The beauty and the biodiversity of the longleaf pine forest are well-kept secrets, even in its native South. Yet it is among the richest ecosystems in North America, rivalling tallgrass prairies and the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest in the number of species it shelters. And like those two other disappearing wildlife habitats, longleaf is also critically endangered.

In longleaf pine forests, trees grow widely scattered, creating an open, parklike environment, more like a savanna than a forest. The trees are not so dense as to block the sun. This openness creates a forest floor that is among the most diverse in the world, where plants such as many-flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies and pineland bog-buttons grow. As many as 50 different species of wildflowers, shrubs, grasses and ferns have been catalogued in just a single square metre.

Once, nearly 92 million acres of longleaf forest 1ourished from Virginia to Texas, the only place in the world where it is found. By the turn of the 2lst century, however, virtually all of it had been logged, paved or farmed into oblivion. Only about 3 percent of the original range still supports longleaf forest, and only about 10,000 acres of that is uncut old-growth—the rest is forest that has regrown after cutting. An estimated 100,000 of those acres are still vanishing every year. However, a quiet movement to reverse this trend is rippling across the region. Governments, private organisations (including NWF) and individual conservationists are looking for ways to protect and preserve the remaining longleaf and to plant new forests for future generations.

Figuring out how to bring back the piney woods also will allow biologists to help the plants and animals that depend on this habitat. Nearly two-thirds of the declining, threatened or endangered species in the southeastern United States are associated with longleaf. The outright destruction of longleaf is only part of their story, says Mark Danaher, the biologist for South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest. He says the demise of these animals and plants also is tied to a lack of fire, which once swept through the southern forests on a regular basis. “Fire is absolutely critical for this ecosystem and for the species that depend on it,” says Danaher.

Name just about any species that occurs in longleaf and you can find a connection to fire. Bachman’s sparrow is a secretive bird with a beautiful song that echoes across the longleaf flatwoods. It tucks its nest on the ground beneath clumps of wiregrass and little bluestem in the open under-story. But once fire has been absent for several years, and a tangle of shrubs starts to grow, the sparrows disappear. Gopher tortoises, the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi, are also abundant in longleaf. A keystone species for these forests, its burrows provide homes and safety to more than 300 species of vertebrates and invertebrates ranging from eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes to gopher frogs. If fire is suppressed, however, the tortoises are choked out. “If we lose fire,” says Bob Mitchell, an ecologist at the Jones Centre, “we lose wildlife.”

Without fire, we also lose longleaf. Fire knocks back the oaks and other hardwoods that can grow to overwhelm longleaf forests. “They are fire forests,” Mitchell says. “They evolved in the lightning capital of the eastern United States.” And it wasn’t only lightning strikes that set the forest aflame. “Native Americans also lit fires to keep the forest open,” Mitchell says. “So did the early pioneers. They helped create the longleaf pine forests that we know today.”

Fire also changes how nutrients flow throughout longleaf ecosystems, in ways we are just beginning to understand. For example, researchers have discovered that frequent fires provide extra calcium, which is critical for egg production, to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Frances James, a retired avian ecologist from Florida State University, has studied these small black-and-white birds for more than two decades in Florida’s sprawling Apalachicola National Forest. When she realised female woodpeckers laid larger clutches in the first breeding season after their territories were burned, she and her colleagues went searching for answers. “We learned calcium is stashed away in woody shrubs when the forest is not burned,” James says. “But when there is a fire, a pulse of calcium moves down into the soil and up into the longleaf.” Eventually, this calcium makes its way up the food chain to a tree-dwelling species of ant, which is the red-cockaded’s favourite food. The result: more calcium for the birds, which leads to more eggs, more young and more woodpeckers.

Today, fire is used as a vital management tool for preserving both longleaf and its wildlife. Most of these fires are prescribed burns, deliberately set with a drip torch. Although the public often opposes any type of fire—and the smoke that goes with it—these frequent, low-intensity burns reduce the risk of catastrophic con1agrations. “Forests are going to burn,” says Amadou Diop, NWF’s southern forests restoration manager. “It’s just a question of when. With prescribed burns, we can pick the time and the place.”

Diop is spearheading a new NWF effort to restore longleaf. “It’s a species we need to go back to,” he says. Educating landowners about the advantages of growing longleaf is part of the program, he adds, which will soon be under way in nine southern states. “Right now, most longleaf is on public land,” says Jerry McCollum, president of the Georgia Wildlife Federation. “Private land is where we need to work,” he adds, pointing out that more than 90 percent of the acreage within the historic range of longleaf falls under this category.

Interest among private landowners is growing throughout the South, but restoring longleaf is not an easy task. The herbaceous layer—the understory of wiregrasses and other plants – also needs to be re-created. In areas where the land has not been chewed up by farming, but converted to loblolly or slash pine plantations, the seed bank of the longleaf forest usually remains viable beneath the soil. In time, this original vegetation can be coaxed back. Where agriculture has destroyed the seeds, however, wiregrass must be replanted. Right now, the expense is prohibitive, but researchers are searching for low-cost solutions.

Bringing back longleaf is not for the short-sighted, however. Few of us will be alive when the pines being planted today become mature forests in 70 to 80 years. But that is not stopping longleaf enthusiasts. “Today, it’s getting hard to find longleaf seedlings to buy,” one of the private landowners says. “Everyone wants them. Longleaf is in a resurgence.”

Solution with Explanation
Questions 1-5:
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Forest fire ensures that:

Birds can locate their 1 ________ in the ground.

Answer: Nests
Supporting Sentence: It tucks its nest on the ground beneath clumps of wiregrass and little bluestem in the open under-story.
Keywords: beneath clumps, wiregrass, the bluestem, under story
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 6, line 3
Explanation: The third line of paragraph 6 states, "It tucks its nest on the ground beneath dumps of wiregrass and small bluestem in the open understory." These lines suggest that birds nest in the open understory beneath patches of wiregrass and small bluestem, suggesting that they are able to locate their nest in the ground.

The burrows of a species of 2 ________ provide homes to many other animals.

Answer: Tortoises
Supporting Sentence: Gopher tortoises, the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi, are also abundant in longleaf.
Keywords: longleaf, abundant, Gopher tortoises, native land
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 6, line 5
Explanation: The sixth paragraph's fifth line, which states that Gopher tortoises, the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi, are likewise common in longleaf, contains a reference to tortoises. Its burrows serve as homes and refuge for more than 300 species of vertebrates and invertebrates, from gopher frogs to eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes, making it a keystone species for these woods. These lines show that there are many tortoises in the longleaf and that many creatures live in their burrows.

Hardwoods such as 3 ________ can grow and outnumber long-leaf trees.

Apart from fires lit by lightning:

Answer: Oaks
Supporting Sentence: Without fire, we also lose longleaf. Fire knocks back the oaks and other hardwoods that can grow to overwhelm longleaf forests.
Keywords: fire, long leaf, forests, hardwoods
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 7, 1st and 2nd line
Explanation: The first two sentences of the seventh paragraph reveal that if there is no fire, longleaf is also lost. Oaks and other hardwoods that could overtake longleaf forests are knocked back by fire. Since fire won't burn the oaks and hardwoods that develop to bury the longleaf forests, we may realise that longleaf will be gone without fire. This prevents hardwood, like oaks, from taking over.

Fires are created by 4 ________ and settlers.

Answer: Native Americans
Supporting Sentence: “Native Americans also lit fires to keep the forest open,” Mitchell says.
Keywords: lit fires, forest
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 7, line 6
Explanation: Mitchel states in the sixth line of paragraph 7 that native Americans also burned fires to keep the forest open, implying that, in addition to lightning-caused fires, native Americans lit fires to keep the forests open.

Fires deliberately lit are called 5 ________

Answer: prescribed burns
Supporting Sentence: Most of these fires are prescribed burns, deliberately set with a drip torch.
Keywords: fires, burns, drip torch
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 9, line 2
Explanation: According to the second sentence of the ninth paragraph, the majority of these fires are purposefully started with a drop torch as part of prescribed burns. According to these lines, intentional fires were referred to as prescribed burns.

Questions 6-9:
Complete the flow-chart below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

How to increase the number of cockaded woodpeckers

Calcium stored in 6 ________

Answer: Shrubs
Supporting Sentence: “We learned calcium is stashed away in woody shrubs when the forest is not burned,” James says.
Keywords: calcium, stashed, woody shrubs, forest
Keyword Locations: 5th line, paragraph 8
Explanation: As mentioned in the fifth line of paragraph 8, James claims that they discovered calcium is stored in woody shrubs when the forest is not destroyed. These lines show that when forests are not burned, calcium is safely deposited in woody bushes.

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Shrubs are burned

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Calcium released into 7 ________

Answer: Soil
Supporting Sentence: “But when there is a fire, a pulse of calcium moves down into the soil and up into the longleaf.”
Keywords: fire, calcium, longleaf, moves down
Keyword Locations: 6th line, paragraph 8
Explanation: According to the sixth sentence of paragraph 8, "But when there is a fire, a pulse of calcium goes down into the earth and up into the longleaf." According to these lines, when forests begin to fire, a pulse of calcium is released into the soil and moves up to the leaves.

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Travel up to the leaves

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8 ________ are eaten

Answer: Ant
Supporting Sentence: Eventually, this calcium makes its way up the food chain to a tree-dwelling species of ant, which is the red-cockaded’s favourite food.
Keywords: calcium, food chain, tree dwelling, red-cockaded
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 8, line 7
Explanation: According to the eighth paragraph's seventh line, the red-preferred cockaded's diet, a species of ant that lives in trees, eventually consumes this calcium. These lines suggest that after the calcium is released into the soil, it moves up into the longleaf, moving its way up the food chain to an ant species that lives in trees, which is the preferred meal of the red-cockaded.

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Number of 9 ________ increases

Answer: eggs
Supporting Sentence: The result: more calcium for the birds, which leads to more eggs, more young and more woodpeckers.
Keywords: calcium, birds, woodpeckers, result
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 8, last line
Explanation: The final line of paragraph 8 shows the outcome: more calcium for the birds, which results in more eggs, younger woodpeckers, and more woodpeckers. According to these lines, if there is more calcium available for the birds, there will be an increase in the number of eggs, which will result in more woodpeckers.

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More cockaded woodpeckers

Questions 10-13:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, 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

The sparse distribution of longleaf pine trees leads to the most diversity of species.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: This openness creates a forest floor that is among the most diverse in the world, where plants such as many-flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies and pineland bog-buttons grow.
Keywords: diverse, forest, flowered grass, pitcher plants, flytraps, bog-buttons
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 3,3rd line
Explanation: In paragraph 3, it is stated that longleaf pine woods have trees that are widely spaced out, providing an open, park-like setting that resembles a savanna more than a forest. The trees don't cover the sun in such a way that they do. It is because of this openness that the forest floor is home to some of the most diverse plant life in the world, including many-flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies, and pineland large buttons. In just one square metre, as many as 50 different types of ferns, grasses, shrubs, and wildflowers have been recorded. These lines show that the longleaf pine forests' sparse distribution of longleaf pine trees promotes the diversification of species to the greatest extent.

It is easier to restore forests converted to farms than forests converted to plantations.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: Interest among private landowners is growing throughout the South, but restoring longleaf is not an easy task.
Keywords: landowners, south, restoring, longleaf
Keyword Locations: Paragraph 11, 1st line
Explanation: It is clear from the first line of paragraph 11 that it is difficult to restore longleaf. It's also necessary to recreate the herbaceous layer, which is the understory of wiregrasses and other plants. The longleaf forest's seed bank typically survives underground in regions where the land has not been destroyed by farming but rather transformed into loblolly or slash pine plantations. These lines suggest that recovering longleaf pine forests is a challenging endeavour. Because the herbaceous layer and other plants must be rebuilt, and because land has been torn up by farming but converted to pine plantations, the seed bank stays viable under the soil. Forest restoration is therefore challenging.

The cost to restore forests has increased recently.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: No such relevant information has been found in the reading passage.

Few can live to see the replanted forest reach its maturity.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: Few of us will be alive when the pines being planted today become mature forests in 70 to 80 years.
Keywords: pines, planted, mature forests
Keyword Locations: Last Paragraph, 2nd line
Explanation: It was mentioned in the last paragraph that reintroducing longleaf pine is difficult for the faint of heart; yet, few of us will be alive when the pines planted today develop into mature forests in 70 to 80 years. We are aware that restoring longleaf pine is not a task for the gullible. Some individuals, though, will still be living when mature forests made of today's planted pines are created. As a result, only a minority of people in the restoration initiative will witness the newly planted forest mature.