The IELTS exam pushes the candidates to practice a lot on different English language aspects. You can get good scores if you practice well. Let’s practice beneath the canopy reading answers for IELTS preparation.
IELTS Reading Answers
Part One
The world’s tropical rainforests comprise some 6% of the Earth’s land area and contain more than half of all known life forms or a conservative estimate of about 30 million species of plants and animals. Some experts estimate there could be two or even three times as many species hidden within these complex and fast- disappearing ecosystems, scientists will probably never know for certain, so vast is the amount of study required.
Time is running out for biological research. Commercial development is responsible for the loss of about 17 million hectares of virgin rainforest each year – a figure approximating 1% of what remains of the world’s rainforests.
Part Two
The current devastation of once impenetrable rainforest is of particular concern because, although new tree growth may in time repopulate felled areas, the biologically diverse storehouse of flora and fauna is gone forever. Losing this bountiful inheritance, which took millions of years to reach its present highly evolved state, would be an unparalleled act of human stupidity.
Chemical compounds that might be extracted from yet-to-be-discovered species hidden beneath the tree canopy could assist in the treatment of disease or help to control fertility. Conservationists point out that important medical discoveries have already been made from material found in tropical rainforests.
The drug aspirin, now synthesized, was originally found in the bark of a rainforest tree. Two of the most potent anti-cancer drugs derived from the rosy periwinkle were discovered in the 1950s in the tropical rainforests of Madagascar.
Part Three
The rewards of discovery are potentially enormous, yet the outlook is bleak. Timber-rich countries mired in debt, view potential financial gain decades into the future as less attractive than short-term profit from logging. Cataloging species and analyzing newly-found substances takes time and money, both of which are in short supply.
The developed world takes every opportunity to lecture countries that are the guardians of the rainforest. Rich nations exhort them to preserve and care for what is left, ignoring the fact that their wealth was in large part due to the exploitation of their own natural world.
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Part Four
It is often forgotten that forests once covered most of Europe. Large tracts of forest were destroyed over the centuries for the same reason that the remaining rainforests are now being felled – timber. As well as providing material for housing, it enabled wealthy nations to build large navies and shipping fleets with which to continue their plunder of the world’s resources.
Besides, it is not clear that developing countries would necessarily benefit financially from extended bioprospecting of their rainforests. Pharmaceutical companies make huge profits from the sale of drugs with little return to the country in which an original discovery was made.
Part Five
Also, cataloging tropical biodiversity involves much more than a search for medically useful and therefore commercially viable drugs. Painstaking biological fieldwork helps to build immense databases of genetic, chemical, and behavioral information that will be of benefit only to those countries developed enough to use them.
Reckless logging itself is not the only danger to rainforests. Fires lit to clear land for further logging and for housing and agricultural development played havoc in the late 1990s in the forests of Borneo. Massive clouds of smoke from burning forest fires swept across the southernmost countries of South-East Asia choking cities and reminding even the most resolute advocates of rainforest clearing of the swiftness of nature’s retribution.
Part Six
Nor are the dangers entirely to the rainforests themselves. Until very recently, so-called “lost” tribes – indigenous peoples who have had no contact with the outside world – still existed deep within certain rainforests. It is now unlikely that there are any more truly lost tribes. Contact with the modern world inevitably brings with it exploitation, loss of traditional culture, and, in an alarming number of instances, complete obliteration.
Forest-dwellers who have managed to live in harmony with their environment have much to teach us about life beneath the tree canopy. If we do not listen, the impact will be on the entire human race. Loss of biodiversity, coupled with climate change and ecological destruction will have profound and lasting consequences.
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Questions Related to IELTS Reading Passage
Question Number One
Following are a few statements given from the passage above. You have to check the answers from the passage and write them correctly.
#1. Conservationists point out that important medical discoveries have already been made from material found in _______________.
Answer: tropical rainforests
#2. Loss of biodiversity, coupled with climate change and _________________ will have profound and lasting consequences.
Answer: ecological destruction
#3. The drug aspirin was originally found in the bark of a ______________ tree.
Answer: rainforest
#4. The world’s tropical rainforests comprise some __________ of the Earth’s land area.
Answer: 6%
Question Number Two
Look at the statements below and after reading them, write TRUE or FALSE in front of them.
TRUE – If the statement agrees with the information that is given above in the passage.
FALSE – If the statement disagrees with the information that is given above in the passage.
#1. Fires lit to clear land for further logging and for housing and agricultural development played havoc in the late 1990s in the forests of Borneo.
Answer: TRUE
#2. Painstaking biological fieldwork helps to build immense databases of genetic, chemical, and behavioural information.
Answer: TRUE
#3. Some experts estimate there could be two or even three times as many species hidden within these complex and fast- disappearing ecosystems.
Answer: TRUE
#4. Pharmaceutical companies make huge profits from the sale of drugs.
Answer: TRUE
#5. Reckless logging itself is the only danger to rainforests.
Answer: FALSE
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Conclusion
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