Read the following passage.
A. The polar bear is the largest land carnivore, and it depends on sea ice, which it uses as a hunting platform. In Hudson Bay, most or all of the ice melts by mid to late summer, so the whole western Hudson Bay population is forced ashore for two to four months in summer and early fall. On land the bears cannot hunt seals; they live mainly on their fat stores and stay inactive most of the time. In Manitoba, polar bears may not be hunted, even by Indigenous people.
B. Out on the ice, polar bears feed mainly on ringed seals and, less often, bearded seals. They catch seals that surface at breathing holes, creep up on seals lying on the ice, or break into the snow lairs where ringed seals give birth. Smell is their chief hunting sense: a bear can detect a breathing hole covered by 90 centimetres or more of ice and snow up to a kilometre away. If it cannot feed, a polar bear can slow its metabolism to save energy at any time of year, a change that starts after seven to 10 days without food. Young bears in their first year on their own are still learning to hunt, and larger bears often take their catch.
C. Scientists have followed this population for decades; the Canadian Wildlife Service has studied polar bear ecology since 1961. Researchers estimate its size with mark-recapture studies and aerial surveys, and long-term work has documented a fall of more than 25 per cent in its numbers, with some periods of stability. The survival of female bears of all ages was linked to the timing of ice break-up and freeze-up, but the same did not hold for males. Declines in the body condition of females and in reproduction have also been recorded in western Hudson Bay.
D. Some questions have been hard to settle. When scientists reported a decline in the Manitoba part of the range, local knowledge holders suggested that many bears had instead moved north along the Kivalliq coast of Nunavut. Later aerial surveys found no such shift and placed about 95 per cent of the summer bears in Manitoba. Recent counts are harder to read. Different methods produced estimates of 806, 949 and 1,030 bears for 2011, and a 2016 aerial survey gave 842. Because the confidence limits of most of these estimates overlap, the differences between them are not statistically significant.
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: Look at paragraph B: smell is the chief hunting sense of polar bears. A bear can pick up a breathing hole under 90 centimetres or more of ice and snow. So it finds seals it cannot see.
Passage Reference: Smell is their chief hunting sense: a bear can detect a breathing hole covered by 90 centimetres or more of ice and snow up to a kilometre away.
Tips: More than one place describes these hunters going after seals. Ask which one explains how they locate a seal they cannot see.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, bears cannot hunt seals while they are on land. But the paragraph never explains which sense they use to find them.
- C: The third paragraph reports survey methods, survival and body condition. The senses of the bears are not part of it.
- D: Paragraph D is about disputed counts and a possible shift in range, not about how a bear tracks its food.
- E: How a bear finds seals under the snow, by smell, is explained in paragraph B.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: In Manitoba, polar bears may not be hunted, even by Indigenous people.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A says polar bears may not be hunted in Manitoba, even by Indigenous people. It gives the rule only. No reason is offered, and visitors or tourism are not mentioned anywhere in the passage.
Tips: The statement gives a reason for the rule, to protect tourism. Check whether the text gives any reason for the rule at all.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The Manitoba hunting rule sits at the end of paragraph A. But the paragraph stops at the rule and offers no purpose for it.
- B: In paragraph B, the writer describes how bears hunt seals. People hunting bears does not come up there.
- C: The third paragraph is about research on numbers, survival and condition, with no laws on hunting.
- D: Paragraph D names Manitoba as the place where most summer bears were counted. It says nothing about tourists.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Later aerial surveys found no such shift and placed about 95 per cent of the summer bears in Manitoba.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, local knowledge holders thought many bears had moved north to the Kivalliq coast instead of declining. Later aerial surveys found no such shift. So the scientists showed that this local explanation was wrong.
Tips: Paragraph C also mentions aerial surveys. Find the paragraph where a local idea is checked and rejected.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A explains why the bears come ashore each summer. It reports no disagreement about where they went.
- B: The second paragraph covers hunting methods and hungry periods, not a local theory that was tested.
- C: Aerial surveys and a fall in numbers appear in paragraph C. But there is no rival explanation from local people and no test of one.
- E: The idea that bears had moved north, later rejected by aerial surveys, is found in paragraph D.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: On land the bears cannot hunt seals; they live mainly on their fat stores and stay inactive most of the time.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: the bears spend two to four months ashore and cannot hunt seals there. They live mainly on their fat stores. Fat stores are reserves that the bears carry in their own bodies.
Tips: Find the part of the year when these bears get no food. Then check what the passage says they survive on during those months.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: In paragraph B, a hungry bear can slow its metabolism. But the paragraph never says what the bear lives on during that time.
- C: Body condition comes up in a research list in paragraph C, but not how bears get through their months on shore.
- D: Paragraph D is about where the summer bears were counted and how reliable the counts are, not their food supply.
- E: Living on fat stores during the months on land is described in paragraph A.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Researchers estimate its size with mark-recapture studies and aerial surveys, and long-term work has documented a fall of more than 25 per cent in its numbers, with some periods of stability.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, long-term work has documented a fall of more than 25 per cent in this population. The text never measures any other group of polar bears. So no comparison of speed is made.
Tips: A claim about the fastest decline only works if another group is described. Look for one.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A names this population and its summer on land. But it gives no rate of decline for it or for anyone else.
- B: The second paragraph is about hunting and fasting, and it contains no population figures.
- C: The fall in numbers is reported in paragraph C. Yet only one population is measured there, so it cannot be ranked against others.
- D: In paragraph D, you see estimates for one population in 2011 and 2016. They are compared with each other, not with other groups.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: The survival of female bears of all ages was linked to the timing of ice break-up and freeze-up, but the same did not hold for males.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: the survival of female bears was linked to the timing of ice break-up and freeze-up. The same did not hold for males. So the ice timing mattered for females only.
Tips: The statement says 'one sex but not for the other'. Look for a place that compares the two sexes.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A says when the bay's ice melts, but it does not separate males from females.
- B: In paragraph B, larger bears take seals from young ones. The paragraph does not compare the sexes.
- D: The fourth paragraph deals with a disputed shift in range and uncertain counts, not survival by sex.
- E: The link between ice timing and female survival, with no such link for males, is reported in paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Later aerial surveys found no such shift and placed about 95 per cent of the summer bears in Manitoba.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, the aerial surveys found no northward shift and placed most summer bears in Manitoba. The text stops there. Nothing is said about Nunavut changing any hunting limits afterwards.
Tips: Ask whether the text goes past the survey result to say what anyone did next.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A mentions a hunting rule, but only for Manitoba, and it is not presented as a result of any survey.
- B: The second paragraph is about how bears themselves hunt, not about limits that people set.
- C: In paragraph C, the writer describes research methods and findings, with no government action taken on them.
- D: The survey result appears in paragraph D, but what happened next along the Kivalliq coast is not described.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In Manitoba, polar bears may not be hunted, even by Indigenous people.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A closes with the Manitoba rule: polar bears may not be hunted there, even by Indigenous people. The statement gives the same rule in different words.
Tips: Several places name Manitoba. Pick the one that states a rule, even for Indigenous hunters.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: In paragraph B, bears hunt seals. There are no rules about people hunting bears.
- C: The third paragraph covers research methods and results, not what the law allows.
- D: Paragraph D names Manitoba as the place where most summer bears were found, not as a place with a hunting ban.
- E: The Manitoba rule that not even Indigenous people may hunt polar bears closes paragraph A.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Because the confidence limits of most of these estimates overlap, the differences between them are not statistically significant.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph D lists several recent estimates, from 806 to 1,030 bears. It says their differences are not statistically significant. That means the gaps between the figures could be chance rather than real change.
Tips: Paragraph C also discusses numbers. Look for the paragraph that doubts whether the numbers truly differ.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A describes the yearly time on land and a hunting rule. It gives no population estimates.
- B: The second paragraph explains hunting and fasting, with no figures for the population at all.
- C: A documented fall in numbers is reported in paragraph C. Whether the figures really differ is never questioned there.
- E: The overlapping estimates, whose differences are not statistically significant, close paragraph D.
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