The Forgotten Forest – IELTS Recent Actual Test 7 Reading passage 1

The Forgotten Forest là một bài đọc thuộc dạng Academic trong IELTS Reading với 13 câu hỏi đi kèm. Bài viết dưới đây sẽ cung cấp cho bạn đáp án, thông tin chi tiết và chiến thuật hiệu quả để hướng tới Band 9!

1. The Forgotten Forest Reading IELTS

1.1 Reading passage 

Found only in the Deep South of America, longleaf pine woodlands have dwindled to about 3 percent of their former range, but new efforts are under way to restore them.

A. THE BEAUTY AND THE BIODIVERSITY of the longleaf pine forest are well-kept secrets, even in its native South. Yet it is among the richest ecosystems in North America, rivaling tallgrass prairies and the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest in the number of species it shelters. And like those two other disappearing wildlife habitats, longleaf is also critically endangered.

B. In longleaf pine forests, trees grow widely scattered, creating an open, parklike environment, more like a savanna than a forest. The trees are not so dense as to block the sun. This openness creates a forest floor that is among the most diverse in the world, where plants such as many-flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies and pineland bog-buttons grow. As many as 50 different species of wildflowers, shrubs, grasses and ferns have been cataloged in just a single square meter.

C. Once, nearly 92 million acres of longleaf forest flourished from Virginia to Texas, the only place in the world where it is found. By the turn of the 2lst century, however, virtually all of it had been logged, paved or farmed into oblivion. Only about 3 percent of the original range still supports longleaf forest, and only about 10,000 acres of that is uncut old-growth—the rest is forest that has regrown after cutting. An estimated 100,000 of those acres are still vanishing every year. However, a quiet movement to reverse this trend is rippling across the region. Governments, private organisations (including NWF) and individual conservationists are looking for ways to protect and preserve the remaining longleaf and to plant new forests for future generations.

D. Figuring out how to bring back the piney woods also will allow biologists to help the plants and animals that depend on this habitat. Nearly two-thirds of the declining, threatened or endangered species in the southeastern United States are associated with longleaf. The outright destruction of longleaf is only part of their story, says Mark Danaher, the biologist for South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest. He says the demise of these animals and plants also is tied to a lack of fire, which once swept through the southern forests on a regular basis. “Fire is absolutely critical for this ecosystem and for the species that depend on it,” says Danaher.

E. Name just about any species that occurs in longleaf and you can find a connection to fire. Bachman’s sparrow is a secretive bird with a beautiful song that echoes across the longleaf flatwoods. It tucks its nest on the ground beneath clumps of wiregrass and little bluestem in the open under-story. But once fire has been absent for several years, and a tangle of shrubs starts to grow, the sparrows disappear. Gopher tortoises, the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi, are also abundant in longleaf. A keystone species for these forests, its burrows provide homes and safety to more than 300 species of vertebrates and invertebrates ranging from eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes to gopher frogs. If fire is suppressed, however, the tortoises are choked out. “If we lose fire,” says Bob Mitchell, an ecologist at the Jones Center, “we lose wildlife.”

F. Without fire, we also lose longleaf. Fire knocks back the oaks and other hardwoods that can grow up to overwhelm longleaf forests. “They are fire forests,” Mitchell says. “They evolved in the lightning capital of the eastern United States.” And it wasn’t only lightning strikes that set the forest aflame. “Native Americans also lit fires to keep the forest open,” Mitchell says. “So did the early pioneers. They helped create the longleaf pine forests that we know today.”

G. Fire also changes how nutrients flow throughout longleaf ecosystems, in ways we are just beginning to understand. For example, researchers have discovered that frequent fires provide extra calcium, which is critical for egg production, to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Frances James, a retired avian ecologist from Florida State University, has studied these small black-and-white birds for more than two decades in Florida’s sprawling Apalachicola National Forest. When she realised female woodpeckers laid larger clutches in the first breeding season after their territories were burned, she and her colleagues went searching for answers. “We learned calcium is stashed away in woody shrubs when the forest is not burned,” James says. “But when there is a fire, a pulse of calcium moves down into the soil and up into the longleaf.” Eventually, this calcium makes its way up the food chain to a tree-dwelling species of ant, which is the red-cockaded’s favorite food. The result: more calcium for the birds, which leads to more eggs, more young and more woodpeckers.

H. Today, fire is used as a vital management tool for preserving both longleaf and its wildlife. Most of these fires are prescribed burns, deliberately set with a drip torch. Although the public often opposes any type of fire—and the smoke that goes with it—these frequent, low-intensity burns reduce the risk of catastrophic conflagrations. “Forests are going to burn,” says Amadou Diop, NWF’s southern forests restoration manager. “It’s just a question of when. With prescribed burns, we can pick the time and the place.”

I. Diop is spearheading a new NWF effort to restore longleaf. “It’s a species we need to go back to,” he says. Educating landowners about the advantages of growing longleaf is part of the program, he adds, which will soon be under way in nine southern states. “Right now, most longleaf is on public land,” says Jerry McCollum, president of the Georgia Wildlife Federation. “Private land is where we need to work,” he adds, pointing out that more than 90 percent of the acreage within the historic range of longleaf falls under this category.

J. Interest among private landowners is growing throughout the South, but restoring longleaf is not an easy task. The herbaceous layer—the understory of wiregrasses and other plants – also needs to be re-created. In areas where the land has not been chewed up by farming, but converted to loblolly or slash pine plantations, the seed bank of the longleaf forest usually remains viable beneath the soil. In time, this original vegetation can be coaxed back. Where agriculture has destroyed the seeds, however, wiregrass must be replanted. Right now, the expense is prohibitive, but researchers are searching for low-cost solutions.

K. Bringing back longleaf is not for the short-sighted, however. Few of us will be alive when the pines being planted today become mature forests in 70 to 80 years. But that is not stopping longleaf enthusiasts. “Today, it’s getting hard to find longleaf seedlings to buy,” one of the private landowners says. “Everyone wants them. Longleaf is in a resurgence.”

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1.2 Questions

Questions 1-5

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Forest fire ensures that:

• Birds can locate their 1 ________ in the ground.
• The burrows of a species of 2 ________ provide homes to many other animals.
• Hardwoods such as 3 ________ can grow and outnumber long-leaf trees.

Apart from fires lit by lightning:

• Fires are created by 4 ________ and settlers.
• Fires deliberately lit are called 5 ________

Questions 6-9

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

How to increase the number of cockaded woodpeckers

Calcium stored in 6 ________

↓

Shrubs are burned

↓

Calcium released into 7 ________

↓

Travel up to the leaves

↓

8 ________ are eaten

↓

Number of 9 ________ increases

↓

More cockaded woodpeckers

Questions 10-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading passage 1.

In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information,
• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information and
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information provided in the passage.

10. The sparse distribution of longleaf pine trees leads to the most diversity of species.
11. It is easier to restore forests converted to farms than forests converted to plantations.
12. The cost to restore forest is increased recently.
13. Few can live to see the replanted forest reach its maturity.

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2. The Forgotten Forest Answers

3. The Forgotten Forest Explanation

Questions 1-5

Question 1: Keywords: birds, locate, ground
→ Trong đoạn E có nhắc đến “Bachman’s sparrow”, là một loài chim khá khó phát hiện vì giọng hót ngân vang khắp nơi. Tổ của chúng được làm dưới đất, cụ thể là bên dưới các bụi cỏ. Vậy nên từ điền cần là danh từ thể hiện hành vi “làm tổ” trên mặt đất.
ĐÁP ÁN: nests

Question 2: Keywords: burrow, provide homes, other animals
→ Cũng ở đoạn E, “Gopher tortoises” được mô tả là loài bản địa đặc trưng của khu vực này. Điều đặc biệt là hang của chúng lại là nơi cư trú cho hơn 300 loài khác nhau, cả động vật có xương sống lẫn không xương sống.
ĐÁP ÁN: tortoises

Question 3: Keywords: hardwoods, take over
→ Đoạn F cho biết rằng lửa có vai trò kiểm soát sự phát triển của những cây “hardwoods” như “oaks”. Những cây này nếu không bị lửa kìm hãm sẽ phát triển mạnh và làm thay đổi cấu trúc của rừng.
ĐÁP ÁN: oaks

Question 4: Keywords: fire, created, settlers
→ Ở đoạn F cũng đề cập rằng người Mỹ bản địa đã từng đốt lửa để giữ cho khu rừng được thông thoáng, không bị rậm rạp. Đây là hành vi có chủ đích nhằm quản lý hệ sinh thái rừng.
ĐÁP ÁN: Native Americans

Question 5: Keywords: fires, deliberately lit
→ Đoạn G giải thích rằng ngày nay phần lớn các vụ cháy là do con người tạo ra một cách có kiểm soát, gọi là “prescribed burns”, nhằm duy trì hệ sinh thái.
ĐÁP ÁN: prescribed burns

Questions 6-9

Question 6: Keywords: cockaded woodpeckers, calcium
→ Đoạn F mô tả rằng khi không có cháy rừng, lượng canxi sẽ bị giữ lại trong các bụi cây thân gỗ – “woody shrubs”. Đây là lý do mà chim gõ kiến không nhận đủ canxi khi không có cháy.
ĐÁP ÁN: shrubs

Question 7: Keywords: calcium, released
→ Khi có cháy rừng, đoạn F nói rõ một lượng canxi sẽ di chuyển từ bụi cây xuống đất – “moves down into the soil” – và sau đó tiếp tục lên cây thông.
ĐÁP ÁN: soil

Question 8: Keywords: eaten
→ Theo đoạn F, chuỗi di chuyển của canxi tiếp tục từ cây lên loài kiến sống trên cây, vốn là món ăn yêu thích của chim gõ kiến. Vì thế, loài “ants” chính là mắt xích tiếp theo trong chuỗi thức ăn.
ĐÁP ÁN: ants

Question 9: Keywords: number, increases
→ Kết quả của lượng canxi dồi dào chính là “more eggs” và từ đó số lượng chim gõ kiến non cũng tăng lên – tất cả đều được nêu rõ ở đoạn F.
ĐÁP ÁN: eggs

Questions 10-13

Question 10: Keywords: sparse distribution, most diversity
→ Đoạn B mô tả rừng thông lá dài có thảm thực vật mọc thưa, tạo thành không gian mở như công viên. Sự lộ thiên này làm điều kiện ánh sáng thuận lợi hơn và hỗ trợ đa dạng sinh học phát triển mạnh – là “one of the most diverse plant communities in the world”.
ĐÁP ÁN: TRUE

Question 11: Keywords: easier, restore, forests, farms
→ Trong đoạn J, các vùng chưa bị biến thành đất nông nghiệp thì hạt giống của rừng vẫn còn tồn tại trong đất, nên việc phục hồi dễ dàng hơn. Nhưng với những vùng đã bị canh tác nông nghiệp, chi phí để phục hồi sẽ cao hơn. Điều này chứng minh ý ngược lại với câu hỏi.
ĐÁP ÁN: FALSE

Question 12: Keywords: cost, restore forest, increasing
→ Không có đoạn nào nói rằng chi phí phục hồi đang “tăng lên”, nên không thể xác định đúng sai.
ĐÁP ÁN: NOT GIVEN

Question 13: Keywords: few, live, replanted forest, maturity
→ Câu cuối bài nói rõ rằng chỉ có rất ít người hiện tại có thể sống đến lúc rừng phục hồi hoàn toàn – mất khoảng 70 đến 80 năm. Điều này trùng khớp hoàn toàn với nội dung câu hỏi.
ĐÁP ÁN: TRUE

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