Read the following passage.
A. The Atlantic puffin is a compact black and white seabird with a greyish white face. In the breeding season an adult has a striking orange, yellow and bluish bill and bright orange feet. After breeding, it sheds the colourful plates on its bill, and in winter it looks so different that people once thought it was another species. Puffins spend most of their lives at sea and come to land for only four to five months a year. Most nest on small, rugged islands, and a few choose safe spots on cliffs along mainland shores.
B. Puffins eat small marine animals, mainly fish such as capelin and sand lance. A puffin swims at the surface like a duck, then dives head first and uses its short, powerful wings to chase prey underwater. Backward-pointing spines on its tongue and the roof of its mouth hold each fish in place while it catches more. Adults carry fish crossways in their bills back to the chick, which is usually fed four to ten times a day. The Canadian record is 61 small sand lance held at one time, but together they weighed only 2.3 grams.
C. Many people travel to Newfoundland just to see puffins. The main attraction is the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, whose four islands hold North America's largest Atlantic puffin colony, with more than 260,000 pairs. The public cannot land on the islands without a permit, so visitors watch from tour boats operating from nearby communities between spring and fall. From April 1 to September 1, motorized boats must keep at least 20 metres from shore, and aircraft may not fly lower than 300 metres. The tours also give people a chance to spot icebergs and whales.
D. Puffins were once far more numerous in eastern Canada. Major declines probably began in the 1600s, when fishermen from Europe harvested them for food, and shooting, egg collecting and habitat destruction in the 1800s destroyed or depleted many colonies. Protection since the early 1900s halted most declines, and most large Canadian colonies are now provincial reserves or federal migratory bird sanctuaries. Fishing nets were still a danger: in 1980 some eight thousand puffins were killed, mainly in gill nets, in Witless Bay. Since the closure of the cod fishery in 1992, the number of seabirds caught in nets in eastern Canada has fallen greatly.
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: it says puffins eat small marine animals, mainly fish such as capelin and sand lance. Mainly means most of their food, so small fish are the biggest part of their diet.
Passage Reference: Puffins eat small marine animals, mainly fish such as capelin and sand lance.
Tips: Fish come up in more than one part of the passage. Find where fish are the puffin's own diet, and check whether they make up most of it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A describes the puffin's colours and where it nests. It does not say what the bird eats.
- C: Paragraph C is about tourists watching puffins from boats, not about their food.
- D: The fourth paragraph mentions fishing nets and the cod fishery, but those are dangers to puffins, not their meals.
- E: The puffin's main food, fish such as capelin and sand lance, is named at the start of Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: The public cannot land on the islands without a permit, so visitors watch from tour boats operating from nearby communities between spring and fall.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph C says the public cannot land on the islands without a permit. A permit is special permission, so ordinary visitors stay on the boats.
Tips: Islands appear in more than one place. Find the ones people visit, and check what they need before they may go ashore.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A says puffins nest on small, rugged islands, but it gives no rule about people going there.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it is all about how puffins catch and carry fish.
- D: The fourth paragraph says colonies are now reserves and sanctuaries, but it does not say who may land on them.
- E: The rule that the public needs a permit to land on the islands is in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Adults carry fish crossways in their bills back to the chick, which is usually fed four to ten times a day.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph B says adults carry fish crossways in their bills back to the chick. A bill is a beak, and the chick is the young bird waiting at the nest.
Tips: Find where parents feed their young. Then check how they hold the food on the way home.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The colourful bill of the breeding season appears in paragraph A, but we never learn what the bill carries.
- C: Paragraph C follows visitors as they watch the colony. Feeding the chicks is not described.
- D: Paragraph D covers threats and protection over the centuries, not how adults feed their young.
- E: Adults carrying fish in their bills back to the chick is described in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Fishing nets were still a danger: in 1980 some eight thousand puffins were killed, mainly in gill nets, in Witless Bay.
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph says that in 1980 some eight thousand puffins were killed, mainly in gill nets, in Witless Bay. Gill nets are fishing gear, and eight thousand birds is several thousand.
Tips: Find where fishing harms puffins. Then check that one year gives a number in the thousands.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A describes what puffins look like and where they live. No deaths are counted.
- B: In paragraph B, the writer gives a record number of fish in one bill, not a number of dead birds.
- C: Paragraph C names Witless Bay as a place for tours, but it says nothing about birds caught in nets.
- E: The loss of some eight thousand puffins in gill nets in 1980 is reported in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: After breeding, it sheds the colourful plates on its bill, and in winter it looks so different that people once thought it was another species.
Why this is correct: After breeding, the puffin sheds the colourful plates on its bill. That is how paragraph A puts it. To shed means to let something fall away, and the colourful plates are the vivid parts. The breeding season is when the young are raised.
Tips: The statement links a change in the beak to a time, 'once the young are raised'. Check that the text gives both the change and that timing.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph shows the bill holding fish, but the bill does not change colour there.
- C: Notice that paragraph C explains the rules for boats and aircraft near the colony, not changes in the bird's appearance.
- D: Paragraph D deals with losses and protection of puffin colonies, not with the bird's seasonal look.
- E: Paragraph A mentions this change: the colourful plates on the bill are shed after breeding.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: The tours also give people a chance to spot icebergs and whales.
Why this is correct: Paragraph C says the tours also give people a chance to spot icebergs and whales. Icebergs are huge pieces of floating ice.
Tips: Find where the boat trips are described. Then check what else, besides puffins, people may see from them.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph says puffins live at sea most of the year, but it does not mention ice or tours.
- B: Notice that paragraph B describes diving and feeding under the water, not sights for visitors.
- D: Paragraph D talks about the cod fishery and nets, but ice is never mentioned.
- E: Icebergs are listed in Paragraph C among the extra sights on the tours.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Major declines probably began in the 1600s, when fishermen from Europe harvested them for food, and shooting, egg collecting and habitat destruction in the 1800s destroyed or depleted many colonies.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: it says major declines probably began in the 1600s, when fishermen from Europe harvested puffins for food. Harvesting them for food means catching them to eat, and a decline means fewer birds.
Tips: Puffins eat, and they are also eaten. Find where people from Europe take puffins, not where puffins find their own meals.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph explains that people once mistook winter puffins for another species, which is not about hunting.
- B: Notice that paragraph B tells what puffins eat, not how people used puffins as food.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it describes visitors today who come only to watch the birds.
- E: In paragraph D, the writer names fishermen from Europe who harvested puffins for food as the start of the decline.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: The public cannot land on the islands without a permit, so visitors watch from tour boats operating from nearby communities between spring and fall.
Why this is correct: Paragraph C tells us that visitors watch the puffins from tour boats between spring and fall. It gives the season and the distance rules for boats, but it never says how long one tour takes.
Tips: The tours are described, but check whether any paragraph gives their length in hours.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph describes the bird and its nesting places, with no tours at all.
- B: Notice that paragraph B gives numbers about feeding chicks, but none about trips for people.
- C: The boat tours are described in Paragraph C, with their season and distance rules, but a trip's length in hours is missing.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer covers declines, nets and protection, not tourism.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: A puffin swims at the surface like a duck, then dives head first and uses its short, powerful wings to chase prey underwater.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B: it says a puffin dives head first and uses its short, powerful wings to chase prey underwater. The wings are the limbs a bird flies with, so the puffin uses them to push itself along below the surface.
Tips: Find where the puffin goes below the surface. Check what pushes it along there, and whether it also flies with that.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A covers the puffin's colours and its life at sea. How it swims is not part of it.
- C: The third paragraph mentions aircraft flying over the reserve, not puffins moving under the water.
- D: Notice that paragraph D talks about birds drowning in nets, which is not the same as how they swim.
- E: Look at paragraph B: it explains that puffins use their wings to chase prey underwater.
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