IELTS Reading Practice Test: Fill In The Blank Questions | Depletion of Natural Resources

Here is a passage for the IELTS reading test. Solve the questions and find the strategy for solving the passage at the end of the page.

Pointers to Keep in Mind:

Time is of the essence in the academic reading test, so always make sure you finish solving the exercise in 6 mins.
Do not take external help, this exercise is to help you evaluate your skills for the IELTS reading test.
Do not look at the answers section until you have finished answering the questions yourself in the IELTS reading practice test.
There are 5 parts to the exercise, all are compulsory.
Spend the 5 mins finding the answer. Allocate 1 min to finding the answer to one question type.
After having found all the answers in the general reading test, fill the answer sheet in the last minute.

The Growing Implications that Causes the Depletion of Natural Resources

A. Population Growth

The population of the world is presently 6.2 billion human beings and for the past fifty years, has increased more rapidly than ever before in history. At the time of Christ, the world population was about 300 million people. By 2050, the world population is expected to increase another astounding fifty per cent and is expected to level off at about 9 billion people. Our problem is that we do too much.

We take too much out of the ground and we discard too much into the environment. Therefore, the key to understanding the root cause of our problem is to ask why?. The root cause of all our environmental problems is not our doings, but that fact that we have over-populated our planet.

B. Mass Extinction

Mankind is presently causing and witnessing the greatest mass extinction event that has ever occurred in the history of life on our planet. If established trends continue, one-half of all the species that presently existed will be gone in the next several decades.

This rate of destruction of life is even greater than the mass extinction caused by a giant meteor collision that occurred sixty-five million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. Our present mass extinction is being fueled by human activity which destroys the habitats of plant and animal life.

C. RainForests Destruction

Rain forests, today, are rapidly disappearing in all areas of the world and their depletion, without considering anything else, rivals that of the disappearance of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago.

Every year, Brazil chops down an area of forest the size of the state of Nebraska. In addition to the disappearance of Amazon basin rainforest, many other forests are being cut down as well. In Indonesia, Zaire, Papua-New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, rain forests are disappearing at an alarming rate and there is no end in sight to the devastation.

The primary reason for rainforest demise is their deliberate destruction to make way for farms that will only be used for several years. After that, the exposed soil is depleted of nutrients and will no longer support crops or other plant life and animal life. The farmers responsible for this crime against nature, then move on to do the same thing deeper in the rainforest.

D. Global Warming

Global warming, while still a controversial topic is being recognized by more and more scientists as a problem that must be dealt with. The evidence in this regard is real and with each passing day, becomes clearer and more compelling.

Glaciers throughout the world are receding, the Arctic and Antarctica ice packs are disintegrating, global sea levels are rising, world average temperatures are increasing, storms such as hurricanes and cyclones are becoming more numerous and severe, climates are changing, and animals and plant life are shifting their ranges in response to shifts in climate.

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