This is a short reading passage to practice sentence completion questions for IELTS preparation . It’s quite an easy passage to give you all a chance to practice.
Life on Earth
Life on Earth started around 3.8 billion years ago and has since evolved and diversified through the process of natural selection to be adapted to almost every environment possible. There are currently an estimated 1.9 million animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth.
Life can be found in every nook and cranny/niche of the globe, from the extreme environments of deep sea hydrothermal vents and the freezing conditions of the Polar Regions to the lush habitats found at the equator.
Looking back through time, by means of the fossil and phylogenetic record, we can see that the Earth has been home to many more species than are alive today. Taking a historical perspective shows that life is constantly evolving, with the success and dominance of different groups waxing and waning over time.
The diversity of life is truly amazing, but all living organisms do share certain similarities. All living organisms can replicate, and the replicator molecule is DNA. As well, all living organisms contain some means of converting the information stored in DNA into products used to build cellular machinery from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.
Questions 1-4
Complete the sentences. Choose no more than three words and / or a number from the passage for each answer.
- The world has been developed and changed by ……………………………… for over 3.8 billion years.
- The past history of the species that used to exist on earth can be found through the …………………………………………. record.
- The coming and going of specific groups and species can illustrate to us that life is forever ………………………………………. .
- Without ……………………, life forms would not be able to replicate.
ANSWERS
Click to get the answers: Answers
- natural selection
- developed and changed = evolved and diversified
- it is not possible to have “the natural selection”
- it is not possible to have “natural selection process”
- fossil and phylogenetic (spelling must be correct)
- past history = looking back through time
- evolving
- coming and going = waxing and waning
- forever = constantly
- DNA
- life forms = living organisms
All reading exercises on ieltsliz.com have been written by myself to help you develop skills for IELTS. These lessons are not practice tests, they are exercises for students.
