The Little Ice Age Reading Answers

Justin

4 min read

Updated On Feb 09, 2023

The Little Ice Age
Answers

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The Little Ice Age

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Find the practice test with The Little Ice Age PDF here.

Answers

Question Number	Answer	Explanation
1	II	In paragraph B, the writer discusses the climatic events of the Little Ice Age and how it ‘did more than help shape the modern world’. They are the ‘deeply important context’ for the ‘current unprecedented global warming’. So, the answer is II (The relevance of the Little Ice Age today).
2	VII	Paragraph D talks about a ‘narrative history’ (a study) ‘of climatic shifts’ during the ‘past ten centuries’ (a thousand years), and some of the ‘ways in which people in Europe adapted to them’. So, the answer is VII (A study covering a thousand years).
3	IX	Paragraph E relates that after facing continent-wide famine, the revolution (gradual agricultural revolution in northern Europe) involved intensive commercial farming and the growing of animal fodder on land not previously used for crops. The ‘increased productivity from farmland’ made some countries ‘self-sufficient in grain and livestock’ (enough food) and ‘offered effective protection against famine’. So, the answer is IX (Enough food at last).

Question Number

Answer

Explanation

In paragraph B, the writer discusses the climatic events of the Little Ice Age and how it ‘did more than help shape the modern world’. They are the ‘deeply important context’ for the ‘current unprecedented global warming’. So, the answer is II (The relevance of the Little Ice Age

today).

VII

Paragraph D talks about a ‘narrative history’ (a study) ‘of climatic shifts’ during the ‘past ten centuries’ (a thousand years), and some of the ‘ways in which people in Europe adapted to them’. So, the answer is VII (A study covering a thousand years).

Paragraph E relates that after facing continent-wide famine, the revolution (gradual agricultural revolution in northern Europe) involved intensive commercial farming and the growing of animal fodder on land not previously used for crops. The ‘increased productivity from farmland’ made some countries ‘self-sufficient in grain and livestock’ (enough food) and ‘offered effective protection against famine’. So, the answer is IX (Enough food at last).

4	IV	Paragraph F mentions that as the land-hungry farmers began to migrate, the Little Ice Age gave way to a new climatic regime (human effect on climate). ‘Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell’ before the newcomers’ axes between 1850 and 1890, as intensive European farming methods expanded. Moreover, the ‘unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere’, triggering for the first time ‘humanly caused global warming’. ‘Temperatures climbed more rapidly’ in the twentieth century as the ‘use of fossil fuels proliferated’ and ‘greenhouse gas levels continued to soar’. So, the answer is IV (Human impact on the climate).
5	B	Paragraph C relates how reconstructing the climate changes of the past is extremely difficult, because ‘systematic weather observations’ (documentation of past weather conditions) ‘began only a few centuries ago’ (limited), in Europe and North America. Records from India and tropical Africa are ‘even more recent’ (limited). For the time before records began, we have only ‘proxy records’ (sources of knowledge about conditions) reconstructed largely from ‘tree rings’ and ‘ice cores’, supplemented by ‘a few incomplete written accounts’. So, the answer is B (ice cores).
6	C	Paragraph C informs how ‘reconstructing the climate changes of the past’ is ‘extremely difficult’, because ‘systematic weather observations’ (documentation of past weather conditions) ‘began only a few centuries ago’ (limited), in Europe and North America. Records from India and tropical Africa are ‘even more recent’ (limited). For the time before records began, we have only ‘proxy records’ (sources of knowledge about conditions) reconstructed largely from ‘tree rings’ and ‘ice cores’, supplemented by ‘a few incomplete written accounts’. So, the answer is C (tree rings).
7	A	Paragraph B states that the Little Ice Age was ‘far from a deep freeze’ (consistent freezing), rather it ‘was an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts’, which was driven by complex and still little understood ‘interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean’. So, the answer is A (climatic shifts).
8	H	Paragraph B states that the Little Ice Age ‘was an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts’, which was driven by ‘interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean’.This seesaw brought cycles of ‘intensely cold winters’ (very cold winters) and frequent ‘Atlantic storms’. So, the answer is H (storms).
9	G	Paragraph B states that the Little Ice Age ‘was an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts’, which was driven by ‘interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean’. The seesaw brought cycles of ‘intensely cold winters’, then switched abruptly to years of ‘early summer rains’,‘frequent Atlantic storms’, or (yet other saw) to ‘periods of droughts’ (no rain at all) and ‘summer heatwaves’. So, the answer is G (heat waves).
10	C	In paragraph F, the writer brings out the fact that with the beginning of the ‘Modern Warm Period’, there was a vast ‘migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers’ (European farmers) to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa (abroad). Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell before the newcomers’ axes as ‘intensive European farming methods’ expanded across the world. So, the answer is C (Modern warm period).
11	C	In paragraph F, the writer informs that with the beginning of the ‘Modern Warm Period’, many European farmers migrated and began farming by ‘clearing millions of hectares of forest and woodland’ (cutting down of trees). The unprecedented land clearance ‘released vast quantities of carbon dioxide’ into the atmosphere, ‘triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming’ (affect the climate). So, the answer is C (Modern warm period).
12	A	Paragraph D suggests that during the ‘Medieval Warm Period’, roughly 900 to 1200, ‘Norse voyagers from Northern Europe’ (Europeans) ‘explored the northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America’. So, the answer is A (Medieval warm period).
13	B	Paragraph E points out that in ‘the Little Ice Age’, ‘fish’ (like dried cod and herring) were a vital commodity in growing towns and cities and were already the staples of the European fish trade. But ‘changes in water temperatures’ forced ‘fishing fleets to work further offshore’ (changes in fishing pattern ). So, the answer is B (Little ice age).

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