Reading lesson on Desertification to develop ideas and vocabulary for IELTS. This lesson will provide you with ideas and vocabulary for IELTS writing task 2, speaking part 3 and the reading test.
Desertification: IELTS Environmental Topic
Before, you start your reading exercise. Let me explain a word to you relating to this topic. Desertification is a type of land degradation in which a relatively dry land region becomes increasingly arid, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem.
The questions below are called Matching Headings Questions which are common in IELTS reading. They require you to match the heading title to a paragraph in the passage. The titles are to summarise the main aim of the paragraph.
Matching Headings Reading Practice
The reading passage below has 8 paragraphs (A-H).
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list below.
Questions 1 – 8
Match each paragraph below to a title from the list. Not all letters will be used.
- I Overgrazing
- II Mass migration
- III Overpopulation
- IV Polluted drinking water
- V Famine
- VI Extinction of species
- VII Deforestation
- VIII Poverty
- IX Unsustainable agriculture techniques
- X Soil infertility
Reading Passage: Desertification Causes and Effects
Causes of Desertification
A Trees are being cut down at much larger scale than ever before to be used as fuel, to provide products we use in our daily life, or to simply create more space for agriculture to sustain growing human population. Once the trees and other vegetation in an area are gone, there is nothing left to hold the soil in place.
B Our planet’s ecosystems sustain life only when balanced. They can cope with incremental challenges and adapt but beyond a certain tipping point they collapse. A rapid increase in the number of people demands higher amounts of natural resources and expands more and more over the landscape, leading to increased desertification.
C Improper irrigation methods used in arid areas, such as canal irrigation, lead to a buildup of salt in the soil and make it difficult for crops and other plants to grow, increasing desertification. Similarly harmful is cultivation of already deteriorated lands. Through inconsiderate farming methods, farmers only speed up the process of desertification in exchange for poor quality crops with low economic value.
D In arid regions, grass and other vegetation is necessary to keep the soil in place. If such vegetation is used as feed for cattle without sustainable control, there is nothing that remains to prevent soil from blowing or washing away, and if this process occurs long enough, it can lead to desertification.
Effects of Desertification
E As desertification occurs, the soil can be blown or washed away, and valuable soil nutrients are lost. As the soil dries out, it hardens and it becomes difficult for any rainfall that does occur to penetrate below the soil’s surface. And what remains left is a lifeless pile of dust instead of a life-giving medium.
F Due to drought conditions and a loss of productive land, local people find themselves and their livestock experiencing starvation.
G Desertification events have been a major driver behind the movement of large human populations throughout history. When soils are not able to support their civilisation, people set on the move to look for better locations.
H Species that once lived in a fertile and productive climate may not survive in a newly desertified region.
- Source of passage: greentumble.com
ANSWERS
The answers are now available for this reading lesson. Click below for Answers:
Answers
Please remember that in the real IELTS test, if you are asked to write a letter, you must write the letter and not the word. Always following instructions very carefully for IELTS.
- A = VII
- Deforestation. Keywords: Trees are being cut down
- B = III
- Overpopulation. Keywords: A rapid increase in the number of people
- C = IX
- Unsustainable agriculture techniques. Keywords: Improper irrigation methods / inconsiderate farming methods
- D = I
- Overgrazing. Keywords: feed for cattle without sustainable control
- E = X
- Soil infertility. Keywords: valuable soil nutrients are lost / soil dries out / lifeless pile of dust
- F = V
- Famine. Keywords: people find themselves and their livestock experiencing starvation.
- G = II
- Mass migration. Keywords: movement of large human populations
- H = VI
- Extinction of species. Keywords: Species …………………. may not survive …
.
This reading exercise was easier than a normal Academic reading passage and is similar in level to a GT passage section 3. However, it is a great starting exercise for Academic candidates to get used to Matching Headings Questions. Now try something more difficult. See below:
