Read the following passage.
A. Pier 21 is best known as the place where nearly one million immigrants first stepped onto Canadian soil. From 1928 to 1971 it operated as an immigration depot on the Halifax harbourfront, and it has often been called the "Gateway to Canada." Most of the people who landed there came from Europe. The building was never grand; it was a plain and practical shed. The journalist Joe Schlesinger, who came through it himself, likened the pier to the narrow neck of an hourglass, where crowds met for a short time before being dispersed across the country.
B. The pier was built to handle growing numbers. By the 1920s about a quarter of all immigrants to Canada were coming via Halifax, where they entered through the modest Pier 2, and officials realized that a new facility was needed. Pier 21 opened officially in March 1928. Inside, staff processed large numbers of passengers rapidly, checking their citizenship and health and providing quarantine, detention and customs services, before newcomers went on to board trains. The welcome had limits: when the pier opened, Canadian law still excluded Chinese immigrants and refused entry to most people of African ancestry.
C. World events decided how busy the pier would be. Arrivals fell sharply during the Great Depression, and in 1939 the Department of National Defence took over the building, and roughly 500,000 Canadian servicemen and women left from it for the Second World War. Much of the pier was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1944. After the war, some 48,000 war brides and 22,000 of their children came to Canada, most of them through Pier 21. In 1951 alone the pier received almost 94,000 arrivals. When air travel overtook shipping in the 1960s, the numbers dropped, and the pier closed in March 1971.
D. After it closed, the building served as home to the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute and later to artists' studios, while its condition deteriorated. In the late 1980s a group of volunteers formed the Pier 21 Society to save it. The pier became a national historic site in 1996 and reopened as a museum on July 1, 1999. In 2011 it became Canada's national immigration museum, which tells a story stretching back more than 400 years. The museum has two exhibits, and staff at the Scotiabank Family History Centre help visitors trace their own families' arrival.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: B
Why this is correct: Inside the pier, paragraph B explains, staff processed passengers rapidly, checking their citizenship and health. Staff who check health are workers making sure that arriving travellers are well, so the statement matches.
Passage Reference: Inside, staff processed large numbers of passengers rapidly, checking their citizenship and health and providing quarantine, detention and customs services, before newcomers went on to board trains.
Tips: Look for a list of jobs done for people getting off the ships. Check that 'health' is one of them.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A tells us how many immigrants landed and where most of them came from. But it says nothing about checks made on them.
- C: Paragraph C follows soldiers, war brides and falling numbers over the years. It does not describe what staff did with passengers.
- D: The fourth paragraph mentions staff at the Family History Centre. But they help museum visitors with research today, not new arrivals with health checks.
- E: Notice that paragraph B lists the jobs done inside the pier, and checking each passenger's health is one of them.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: The museum has two exhibits, and staff at the Scotiabank Family History Centre help visitors trace their own families' arrival.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, the writer says staff at the Scotiabank Family History Centre help visitors trace their own families' arrival. Tracing a family's arrival means finding out how relatives reached the country, so the statement matches.
Tips: 'Today' points to what the building is used for now. Look for a service that helps people learn about their 'relatives'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A explains how many immigrants arrived and what the building looked like. It offers no service for people researching their families.
- B: In paragraph B we learn how passengers were processed long ago. The paragraph says nothing about help given to the people who come to the museum now.
- C: The third paragraph mentions war brides and their children arriving, but it says nothing about anyone researching those families later.
- E: Notice that paragraph D names the Scotiabank Family History Centre, where staff help visitors trace how their families arrived.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Much of the pier was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1944.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: it says much of the pier was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1944. 'Wrecked a large part' matches 'much of the pier was destroyed', and 1944 falls in the 1940s.
Tips: Scan for a year in the 1940s. Check that the same sentence mentions fire and the pier being put back up.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A calls the building a plain and practical shed, but it does not mention any damage to it.
- B: Paragraph B explains why the pier was built and when it opened in 1928. There is no fire in that part of the story.
- D: The fourth paragraph says the building's condition got worse after it closed. That is slow decline over years, not a fire.
- E: Notice that paragraph C reports the fire and the rebuilding together in one short sentence, with the year 1944.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: The welcome had limits: when the pier opened, Canadian law still excluded Chinese immigrants and refused entry to most people of African ancestry.
Why this is correct: In paragraph B, the writer says Canadian law was still strict when the pier opened. It excluded Chinese immigrants and refused entry to most people of African ancestry. Those are groups kept out by law, just as the statement says.
Tips: Find when the pier first opened. Check whether the same place says who the law did not let in.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A says most people who landed came from Europe. It tells us who arrived, not who was refused entry.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it says arrivals fell during the Great Depression. But fewer arrivals is not the same as a legal ban on certain groups.
- D: The fourth paragraph covers the museum, its exhibits and its opening days. No rule about who could enter appears there.
- E: Notice that paragraph B ends by saying the welcome had limits, and it names the groups that the law kept out.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In the late 1980s a group of volunteers formed the Pier 21 Society to save it.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: in the late 1980s a group of volunteers formed the Pier 21 Society to save the building. Its condition had worsened. Volunteers are unpaid helpers, and a society is an organization.
Tips: Find what happened to the building after it closed. Check who stepped in to save it, and whether they were paid.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A names Joe Schlesinger, but he only compared the pier to an hourglass. He did not start a group to protect it.
- B: Paragraph B says officials realized in the 1920s that a new facility was needed. That was about building the pier, not rescuing it.
- C: The third paragraph ends with the pier closing in March 1971. What happened to the empty building after that is not covered there.
- E: Notice that paragraph D names the Pier 21 Society and says the volunteers who formed it wanted to save the building.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The building was never grand; it was a plain and practical shed.
Why this is correct: The building was never grand, paragraph A tells us, and was a plain and practical shed. Plain means simple, and practical means built for use, so the statement matches.
Tips: Skip the facts about numbers and work done inside. Look for describing words that tell you how the building looked.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Paragraph B describes the work done inside the building, such as customs and quarantine, but not what the building looked like.
- C: The rebuilding of the pier after a fire does come up in paragraph C. The paragraph gives no picture of the building's style.
- D: The fourth paragraph says the building's condition worsened after 1971. That is about damage, not about its plain design.
- E: Notice that paragraph A calls the pier a plain and practical shed and says it was never grand.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: When air travel overtook shipping in the 1960s, the numbers dropped, and the pier closed in March 1971.
Why this is correct: The proof is in paragraph C: when air travel overtook shipping in the 1960s, the numbers dropped. Flying is air travel and sailing is travel by ship, so fewer people came through the pier.
Tips: Find the sentence that compares two ways of travelling.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A gives the years the pier operated, from 1928 to 1971. But it does not explain why its use came to an end.
- B: Paragraph B explains why the pier was needed in the 1920s, when the number of arrivals was growing, not shrinking.
- D: The fourth paragraph starts after the pier closed and describes the museum. It does not say why traffic had fallen.
- E: Notice that paragraph C links the drop in numbers to air travel overtaking shipping in the 1960s.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The journalist Joe Schlesinger, who came through it himself, likened the pier to the narrow neck of an hourglass, where crowds met for a short time before being dispersed across the country.
Why this is correct: Here, paragraph A mentions the journalist Joe Schlesinger, who came through the pier himself. He likened it to the narrow neck of an hourglass. An hourglass is a sand timer, and its narrow neck is the thin middle.
Tips: Find where someone compares the pier to an everyday object. Check that this person was a reporter who had arrived there too.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Paragraph B describes how staff processed passengers quickly, but it reports no comparison between the pier and an object.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it counts the soldiers, war brides and children who passed through. But nobody there describes the pier with an image.
- D: The fourth paragraph talks about the museum's exhibits and research centre, not about a comparison made by a journalist.
- E: Notice that paragraph A names the journalist and gives his hourglass comparison in its final sentence.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: After the war, some 48,000 war brides and 22,000 of their children came to Canada, most of them through Pier 21.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: some 48,000 war brides and 22,000 of their children came to Canada. Most of them came through Pier 21. It gives their numbers, but it never says which country the brides came from.
Tips: Here, paragraph C gives numbers for the war brides. Check whether it ever names their home country.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it says most people who landed came from Europe. But it does not single out soldiers' wives or name Britain.
- B: The second paragraph names groups kept out by law when the pier opened, not the homeland of women who married soldiers.
- C: Notice that paragraph C counts the war brides and their children, yet it leaves out where the women had lived before.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer describes the museum and its research centre today. War brides do not appear there.
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