The trees in trouble reading answers are given in this article for your IELTS preparation. You can go through the passage and try to answer the questions given after that on the trees in trouble IELTS reading.
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IELTS Reading Answers
Part One
Big trees are incredibly important ecologically. For a start, they sustain countless other species. They provide shelter for many animals, and their trunks and branches can become gardens, hung with green ferns, orchids, and bromeliads, coated with mosses and draped with vines. With their tall canopies* basking in the sun, they capture vast amounts of energy. This allows them to produce massive crops of fruit, flowers, and foliage that sustain much of the animal life in the forest.
Part Two
Only a small number of tree species have the genetic capacity to grow big. The mightiest are native to North America, but big trees grow all over the globe, from the tropics to the boreal forests of the high latitudes. To achieve giant stature, a tree needs three things: the right place to establish its seedling, good growing conditions, and lots of time with low adult mortality*. Disrupt any of these, and you can lose your biggest trees.
Part Three
In some parts of the world, populations of big trees are dwindling because their seedlings cannot survive or grow. In southern India, for instance, an aggressive non-native shrub, Lantana Camara, is invading the floor of many forests.
Lantana grows so thickly that young trees often fail to take root. With no young trees to replace them, it is only a matter of time before most of the big trees disappear. Across much of northern Australia, gamba grass from Africa is overrunning native savannah woodlands. The grass grows up to four meters tall and burns fiercely, creating super-hot fires that cause catastrophic tree mortality.
Part Four
Without the right growing conditions, trees cannot get really big, and there is some evidence to suggest tree growth could slow in a warmer world, particularly in environments that are already warm. Having worked for decades at La Selva Biological Station in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, David and Deborah Clark and colleagues have shown that tree growth there declines markedly in warmer years.
“During the day, their photosynthesis* shuts down when it gets too warm, and at night they consume more energy because their metabolic rate increases, much as reptiles would when it gets warmer,” explains David Clark. With less energy produced in warmer years and more being consumed just to survive, there is even less energy available for growth.
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Part Five
The Clarks’ hypothesis, if correct, means tropical forests would shrink over time. The largest, oldest trees would progressively die off and tend not to be replaced. According to the Clarks, this might trigger a destabilization of the climate; as older trees die, forests would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere, prompting a vicious cycle of further warming, forest shrinkage, and carbon emissions.
Part Six
Big trees face threats from elsewhere. The most serious is increasing mortality, especially of mature trees. Across much of the planet, forests of slow-growing ancient trees have been cleared for human use. In western North America, most have been replaced by monocultures of fast-growing conifers.
Siberia’s forests are being logged at an incredible rate. Logging in tropical forests is selective but the timber cutters usually prioritize the biggest and oldest trees. In the Amazon, my colleagues and I found the mortality rate for the biggest trees had tripled in small patches of rainforest surrounded by pasture land. This happens for two reasons.
First, as they grow taller, big trees become thicker and less flexible: when winds blow across the surrounding cleared land, there is nothing to stop their acceleration. When they hit the trees, the impact can snap them in half. Second, rainforest fragments dry out when surrounded by dry, hot pastures and the resulting drought can have devastating consequences: one four-year study has shown that death rates will double for smaller trees but will increase 4.5 times for bigger trees.
Part Seven
Particular enemies of large trees are insects and disease. Across vast areas of western North America, increasingly mild winters are causing massive outbreaks of bark beetles. These tiny creatures can kill entire forests as they tunnel their way through the inside of trees.
In both North America and Europe, fungus-causing diseases such as Dutch elm disease have killed off millions of stately trees that once gave beauty to forests and cities. As a result of human activity, such enemies reach even the remotest corners of the world, threatening to make the ancient giants a thing of the past.
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. ___________ is an aggressive non-native shrub
Answer: Lantana camara
#2. Particular enemies of large trees are __________________.
Answer: insects and disease
#3. Across much of ______________, gamba grass from Africa is overrunning native savannah woodlands.
Answer: northern Australia
#4. The _____________ means that the tropical forests would shrink over time.
Answer: Clark’s hypothesis
#5. Logging in _______________ is selective but the timber cutters usually prioritize the biggest and oldest trees.
Answer: tropical forests
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. In some parts of the world, populations of big trees are dwindling because their seedlings cannot survive or grow.
Answer: TRUE
#2. Only a small number of tree species have the genetic capacity to grow big.
Answer: TRUE
#3. The tiny creatures can kill entire forests as they tunnel their way through the inside of trees.
Answer: TRUE
#4. Big trees are not important ecologically.
Answer: FALSE
#5. In both North America and Europe, fungus-causing diseases such as Dutch elm disease have killed off millions of stately trees.
Answer: TRUE
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Conclusion
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