Name: Date: reading (10 marks) 1

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REVIEW TEST 5

NAME:  

 Date: 

 

READING (10 marks)

1  Read the article and number the main ideas (a–f) in the order that they are mentioned. 1 mark for each 

correct answer.

  a  the glaciers are melting faster than ever before 

  b  the speed at which glaciers travel 

  c  what happens when there is not enough snow 

  d  the glacial melt is causing the earth’s oceans to grow 

  e  efforts to understand what is happening to the glaciers 

  f  the development and life of a glacier 

Until recently, the world’s frozen glaciers remained unchanged for millions of years. These ice sheets start life as 

snow, turn to glaciers and eventually crash into the sea. They are essential to the world’s biodiversity. However, 

across the globe these huge masses of snow and ice are melting. The impact on our environment is already evident. 

A single glacier can move up to a metre every hour. For example, an astonishing 20,000 trillion tonnes of ice move 

across the state of Alaska every day. And this has been the case for over three million years. However, Alaska’s 

100,000 glaciers are now under threat of disappearing because they are very sensitive to the effects of climate 

change. To better understand how and why this is having such an impact on Alaska’s glaciers, in recent years parties 

of scientists have followed the melt streams that run through these slowly disappearing mountains of ice and snow.

These fast rivers of freezing water are formed as glaciers melt, and are an important measure of glacial health. 

Every glacier is in balance. The amount of snow falling in winter must equal the amount that melts in the summer. If 

that balance changes, and there is less snow than the amount that melts in the summer, the glacier will disappear. 

Right now, that is what is happening. These glaciers are melting faster than they are growing. And when a glacier 

disappears, it is gone for good. It tumbles off the mountains and into the sea, never to return.

Alaska’s glaciers are retreating at an increasing rate. Every year 19 trillion tonnes of melt water are pouring 

into the sea and not being replenished. As the glaciers melt, it is the rest of the world that is affected. Alaskan 

glaciers are melting so fast they currently account for ten per cent of the world’s rising sea levels. This is the most 

dramatic transformation the area has undergone since the last ice age and shows how global warming is changing 

our environment. Already, many of the world’s island nations are under risk of flooding. Very soon, these small, 

defenceless countries could be completely submerged.

2  Read the article again and find the words or phrases that mean the same as the words in bold below.  

1 mark for each correct answer.

 1  

Maintaining the variety of plant and animal life across the globe is essential for the future of the 

planet. 

 2  

Scientists first began measuring the differences in global weather patterns during the 20th 

century. 

 3  

Many coastal regions are in danger of being covered with water as a result of glacial melting. 

  4  The melting glaciers make up a large proportion of the world’s rising sea levels. 

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VOCABULARY (10 marks)

3  Complete the text using the words and phrases in the box. You will not need to use all the words. 

1 mark for each correct word.

climate 

change emission deforestation decade biodiversity aridity drought 

 

 

consequences effects logging subsistence graze erosion leads 

to environment

   The main causes of 

a

 

 are the need for commercial agriculture by big businesses and for 

b

 

 farming by local people. It can have many adverse 

c

 ____________. These include 

d

 

, where the land becomes very dry and there is not enough rain for plants, damage to 

animal habitats and 

e

 

, which is related to global warming. An example of big business 

agricultural development is industrial 

f

 

 where areas are cleared of trees for the large-scale 

production of, for example, palm oil or beef cattle. Subsistence farmers also clear areas of trees to 

g

 

 their cattle and to grow the crops they and their families need to live on. The 

h

 

 of this can be disastrous. Clearing land by cutting down trees and burning them 

i

 

 the destruction of the land through soil 

j

 

. This happens when the layer of soil 

that protects the ground is removed during the crop growing process. 

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (10 marks)

4  Complete the sentences using the academic vocabulary in the box. You will not need to use all the 

words. 1 mark for each correct answer.

issue area trend cause predict decade annual environment challenge

 1  

The greatest 

 facing scientists today is finding a solution to the problems caused by 

climate change.

  2  It is not possible to accurately 

 exactly when the last glacier on earth will melt.

 3  

There has been an upward 

 in people looking for alternatives to fossil fuels to heat 

their homes.

 4  

The Institute is publishing its 

 report on the effects of climate change next week. It is 

expected to be more detailed than last year’s report. 

  5  Our politicians must address this serious 

 immediately.

5  Complete the collocations related to the environment by adding the missing vowels. 1 mark for each 

correct collocation. 

 1  

We can reduce CO

2

 in the atmosphere by switching from fossil fuels to r

n

w

bl

  

n

rgy.

 2  

The increase in gr

 

nh

  

s

g

ss

s in the atmosphere is one of the main causes of 

global warming.

  3  Human activity is a major cause of cl

m

t

  ch

ng

.

 4 S

bs

st

nc

  f

rm

ng leads to soil erosion, destroying vast areas of farmland.

 5  

Further 

nv

r

nm

nt

l  d

s

st

rs are inevitable, so we must be prepared to deal with 

them when they happen.

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GRAMMAR FOR WRITING (10 marks)

6   Complete the sentences using leads to, result, due, caused, because of, or because. You will need to 

use some of these words and phrases more than once. 1 mark for each sentence.

  

1 

 

 

A loss of biodiversity is dangerous to the planet 

 it will limit new sources of food and 

medicine.

  

2 

 

 

Moving from cattle farming to producing crops may 

 in lower greenhouse gas 

emissions.

    3   Island nations may be submerged 

 rising sea levels.

    4   Burning fossil fuels 

 an increase in carbon emissions.

    5   Demand for food and energy are expected to rise 

 to the increase in the population.

    6   Dry conditions following periods of drought may 

 in forest fires.

  

7 

 

The 

damage 

 by environmental change grows every year.

    8   The climate is changing 

 human activity.

    9   Carbon emissions are rising 

 humans are burning fossil fuels.

  10   Flooding is a potential problem 

 to rising sea levels.

ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS (10 marks)

7  Complete the topic sentences using the words in the box. You will not need to use all the words. 1 

mark for each correctly completed gap.

cause 

of changing effect number 

of causing devastating leading 

 

 

 

 

three 

main due because because 

of loss results cause change

  1  Human activity is 

 the environment to change in a 

 ways.

  2  The environment is 

 in 

 ways.

 3  

Humans are the 

 climate change 

 deforestation and burning fossil 

fuels.

 4  

Rising temperatures, 

 of biodiversity and rising sea levels are the main 

 of climate change.

 5  

Human activity is having a major 

 on the environment, which will 

 

many problems for human and animal life in the future.