The Need for Bushfires Reading Answers

Mar 15, 2024

The Need for Bushfires Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. The Need for Bushfires Reading Answers have a total of 14 IELTS questions in total. This topic has 4 questions in which we have to fill up the black choosing appropriate words. The next 6 questions we have to choose the correct option. The next say whether the statement is true or false. The next 4 questions are True or false.

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 need for bushfires 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 Need for Bushfires

The plant communities that grow on the arid sandy soils of the south-western Australia depend on fire for their survival. The land here is nutrient deficient and in summer so baked by the sun that a forest of tall trees cannot grow. Instead there

is a low bush mixed with a scatter of trees, few of which are above 20 feet high. It is a wonderland with flowers of great beauty to botanists, very few of which have been seen growing in the wild before. For this one corner of the continent contains no less than 12,000 different variety of plant species and 87 per cent of them grow nowhere else in the world.

This individuality stems from the fact that, 50 million years ago, Australia was partly covered by a shallow sea that separated the western continent part from the rest. As Australia gradually warmed, this sea dried up, but it left behind a wide chunk of sand, so that the western corner is cut off by desert and its ancient isolation is still visible. Fire has regularly destroyed this land throughout its recent geological history. The plants have evolved with it, so now they are able to survive this destruction and use it to their own advantage. The eucalypts or gum trees that grow there often take the peculiar form called mallee, Species that elsewhere become normal-looking trees, grow here in such a peculiar way that they are thought to be a completely different breed.

Instead of a single trunk that only has branches, they have a massive rootstock from

which rise half a dozen thin trunks of a similar height. It looks as if they had been cut/trimmed to size. When fire sweeps through mallee, the slender trunks are totally burnt and destroyed. But the rootstock, bears a ring of strong buds from which new stems rapidly sprout. They grow more quickly than the old, partly because the ground has been fertilised by the ash of other plants recently, and partly because, there are few survivors having well-established root systems competing for those nutrients. The bottlebrush related to the eucalypts produces exceptional clusters of bright red flowers at the end of its stems, which attract indigenous birds. But it will not shed any seed unless there is a fire. So, examining a bottlebrush can reveal how long it is since fire passed. You just have to count the number of clusters of seeds still attached along the branch.

The banksia, a tree from protea family, also relies on fire. It takes about one year for the seeds to mature. Like the bottlebrush some banksias will not shed their seeds unless there is an incidence of fire. Indeed, it is impossible to remove them from the

plant because they are held in hard woody capsules. But as the flames burn the branches, the intense heat open the capsules. By releasing their seeds only after a fire, the banksias make sure that they fall on well-cleaned, brightly lit ground which

was fertilised with ash recently. This country also headquarters 'grass tree', which is neither exactly a grass nor a tree. It's a distant relative of lilies. But it's long narrow leaves make it look like grass, and they are born in a great shock on the top of the stem that is just like the trunk of a tree and has about 10 feet height.

However, the core of this trunk is not timber, but fibre and what looks like a bark, is in fact the compacted bases of leaves, which are shed annually. A copious flow of gum keep the bases glued together and create heat insulation Since the plant sheds one ring of leaves in a year, counting the rings gives proof of its age.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 15-18

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER.

The S-W part of Australia is called.............. for botanists.

Answer: WONDERLAND
Supporting statement: “....... Instead there is a low bush mixed with a scatter of trees, few of which are above 20 feet high. It is a wonderland with flowers of great beauty to botanists.........”
Keywords: wonderland, flowers
Keyword Location: para 1, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the S-W part of australia contains a lot of tree and bushes. They are called wonderland.

....... of different kinds of plants in S-W part of Australia can only be found in that area.

Answer: 87%
Supporting statement: “....... For this one corner of the continent contains no less than 12,000 different variety of plant species and 87 per cent of them grow nowhere else in the world. .........”
Keywords: variety, world
Keyword Location: para 1, line 6
Explanation: It is given that there are 87% of different species are only found in those part of the Australia.

.... divided the Australian continent once upon a time.

Answer: SHALLOW SEA
Supporting statement: “........This individuality stems from the fact that, 50 million years ago, Australia was partly covered by a shallow sea that separated the western continent part from the rest.........”
Keywords: partly, continent
Keyword Location: para 2, line 2
Explanation: It is given that the shallow sea was the reason for the division of the Australian content.

When temperature slowly rose in Australia, the sea disappeared and leaves behind area.

Answer: SAND / DESERT
Supporting statement: “........Australia gradually warmed, this sea dried up, but it left behind a wide chunk of sand, so that the western corner is cut off by desert and its ancient isolation is still visible. ........”
Keywords: wide, isolation
Keyword Location: para 2, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the sea had disappeared due to the increase in the temperature. The extinction of sea led to leaving of sand in the area.

Questions 19-20

Choose the correct letter - A, B, C or D.

What is unusual about the land in S-W Australia?

cut off from the rest of the continent
nutrient deficient soil
many endangered plants
unchanged soil for many years

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “........The land here is nutrient deficient and in summer so baked by the sun that a forest of tall trees cannot grow. I........”
Keywords: baked, forest
Keyword Location: para 1, line 2
Explanation: It is given that the land there was nutrient deficient.

What is the importance of fire to S-W Australia ?

it's an annual problem
it caused permanent damage to soil few years ago
vegetation depends on it
it keeos the land isolated

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “......The plant communities that grow on the arid sandy soils of the south-western Australia depend on fire for their survival...........”
Keywords: depend, survival
Keyword Location: para 1, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the fire is very important to grow the plants in the arid and sandy soils.

Questions 21-23

Choose the correct letter - A, B, C or D.

Mallee is a .....

type of a tree with multiple appendages rising from the ground
a tree with strong base above ground
part of a tree under the surface
burnt remains of a tree

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “........The eucalypts or gum trees that grow there often take the peculiar form called mallee, Species that elsewhere become normal-looking trees, grow here in such a peculiar way that they are thought to be a completely different breed.........”
Keywords: trees, breed
Keyword Location: para 2, line 7
Explanation: It is given that the malee is tree that has multiple stems rising from the ground.

How fire effect the bottlebrush tree?

only grow in the ash left after a fire incident
birdlife likes the burnt plant
fire prevents birds by keeping them away
fire helps the tree in releasing its seeds

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “....... The bottlebrush related to the eucalypts produces exceptional clusters of bright red flowers at the end of its stems, which attract indigenous birds. But it will not shed any seed unless there is a fire.........”
Keywords: exceptional, indigenous
Keyword Location: para 3, line 8
Explanation: It is given that the bottlebrush needs fire to grow. Without fire the tree will not shed its seeds.

How fire effect banksia growth?

fire carries seed to less fertile areas
the ash from the fire destroys oxygen in the ground
high intensity heat force the seed cases to open.
fire destroys other plants

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “........The banksia, a tree from protea family, also relies on fire. It takes about one year for the seeds to mature........”
Keywords: fire, year
Keyword Location: para 4, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the banksia is a tree from protea family. It needs fire to open the cases of seeds.

Questions 24-28

Do the following statements agree with the given information ?

TRUE - if the statement agrees
FALSE - if the statement contradicts
NOT GIVEN - if there is no information

Majority of the plants are familiar to botanists in S-W Australia Subtitles/closed

Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement: “.......It is a wonderland with flowers of great beauty to botanists, very few of which have been seen growing in the wild before.........”
Keywords: botanist, growing
Keyword Location: para 1, line 5
Explanation: It is given that there are majority of plants were not familiar with the botanists.

Eucalyptus in S-W Australia has a different appearance than others

Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “....... The eucalypts or gum trees that grow there often take the peculiar form called mallee, Species that elsewhere become normal-looking trees, grow here in such a peculiar way that they are thought to be a completely
different breed..........”
Keywords: grow, breed
Keyword Location: para 2, line 7
Explanation: It is given that the eucalypts had a different form called mallee. They looked so different that they were expected to be from different breed.

Fire affects Eucalyptus in S-W Australia -

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no instance in the passage that says that fire affects eucalyptus in S-W australia.

You can tell the age of a bottlebrush by looking at it -

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no statement in the passage that supports this line.

The physical composition of grass tree is different from how it looks —

Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “........This country also headquarters 'grass tree', which is neither exactly a grass nor a tree. It's a distant relative of lilies.........”
Keywords: exactly, grass
Keyword Location: para 4, line 7
Explanation: It is given that the grass tree is a distant relative of lilies. Hence the physical composition of grass tree is different from how it looks.

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