The Little Ice Age — IELTS Reading Answers

Paragraph B

“The climatic events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. They are the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming”

Paragraph B calls the Little Ice Age events 'the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming', so its heading links past climate to today's warming.

Paragraph D

“This book is a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries, and some of the ways in which people in Europe adapted to them”

Paragraph D calls the book 'a narrative history of climatic shifts... and some of the ways in which people in Europe adapted to them', so its heading is that history.

Paragraph E

“The increased productivity from farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock and offered effective protection against famine”

Paragraph E explains that 'increased productivity from farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock' and protected them from famine, so its heading is about farming gains.

Paragraph F

“The unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming”

Paragraph F says land clearance 'released vast quantities of carbon dioxide... triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming', so its heading concerns human effects on climate.

“For the time before records began, we have only 'proxy records' reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, supplemented by a few incomplete written accounts”

Before records began, climate is reconstructed 'largely from tree rings and ice cores'; the first gap takes 'tree rings' (C).

“For the time before records began, we have only 'proxy records' reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, supplemented by a few incomplete written accounts”

The second proxy source paired with tree rings is 'ice cores', option B, in the same sentence.

“The Little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts, few lasting more than a quarter-century, driven by complex and still little understood interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean”

The Little Ice Age was not a deep freeze but 'an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts', so A fills the gap.

“The seesaw brought cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds, then switched abruptly to years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent Atlantic storms, or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves”

The seesaw brought 'frequent Atlantic storms', so the gap for a weather extreme takes 'storms' (H).

“The seesaw brought cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds, then switched abruptly to years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent Atlantic storms, or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves”

The contrasting phase included 'summer heat waves', so 'heat waves' (G) is the second extreme listed.

Many Europeans started farming abroad.

“Global temperatures began to rise slowly after 1850, with the beginning of the Modern Warm Period. There was a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers and others, to which the famine caused by the Irish potato blight contributed, to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa.”

After 1850, during the Modern Warm Period, 'intensive European farming methods expanded across the world', so C matches farming abroad.

The cutting down of trees began to affect the climate.

“Global temperatures began to rise slowly after 1850, with the beginning of the Modern Warm Period The unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming”

Land clearance released CO2 and triggered 'humanly caused global warming' after 1850, in the Modern Warm Period, so C.

Europeans discovered other lands.

“Part One describes the Medieval Warm Period, roughly 900 to 1200. During these three centuries, Norse voyagers from Northern Europe explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America”

During the Medieval Warm Period 'Norse voyagers... explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America', which is discovering other lands — A.

Changes took place in fishing patterns.

“By 1400, the weather had become decidedly more unpredictable and stormier, with sudden shifts and lower temperatures that culminated in the cold decades of the late sixteenth century. Fish were a vital commodity in growing towns and cities, where food supplies were a constant concern.”

Colder, stormier conditions of the Little Ice Age meant 'changes in water temperatures forced fishing fleets to work further offshore', matching B.