Night Work on the Halifax Piers

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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Viewpoints ID: #63236 Medium Night Work on the Halifax Piers

Read the following article from a website.

Halifax council is considering limits on the loudest cargo work at the port between eleven at night and six in the morning. Residents of the new apartment towers beside the old piers have filed more than nine hundred noise complaints since January, most about cranes stacking containers and rail cars banging together. The port employs about four hundred people on its night shifts. The port says night work keeps goods moving, and council will hold a public hearing next month.

Kerensa Rizzo, a public-health researcher, says the evidence on lost sleep is strong. “Children who live within a few blocks of the piers score lower on attention tests, and their families visit clinics for sleep problems far more often,” she said. “A night of broken sleep follows a child into the classroom the next day. Teachers see it before parents do.” Rizzo wants noise limits set pier by pier, with exceptions only for fresh food that cannot wait until morning.

Bartosz Rakowski, who manages a container terminal, says tides and train schedules leave little room to move work into daylight. “Ships arrive when the tide lets them, not when it suits a bylaw. We cannot ask the ocean to wait,” Rakowski said. “If we stop unloading at night, containers pile up on the dock and stores wait days for their stock.” He says the terminal is willing to buy quieter electric cranes and rubber pads for the rail yard.

Hanneke Quist, a provincial trade analyst, says the city needs numbers before rules. “Nobody has measured what a night limit would cost the region in lost shipments,” she said. “Study that first, and allow exceptions for harvest season and winter storms. Rules written in a hurry are hard to undo,” Quist said. Yaroslav Rudnicki, who speaks for a residents’ group near the piers, says trust is the real problem. “The port measures its own noise and reports its own delays,” he said. “Let an independent auditor check both, and publish the results every month,” Rudnicki said.

Using the drop-down menu (▾), choose the best option according to the information given on the website.

This article is about 1.

a plan to build towers beside the piersa proposal to limit port noise at nighta strike by workers at the container terminala study of grocery prices in the region

.

According to Kerensa Rizzo, children near the piers 2.

sleep well once windows are closedare often sick from diesel fumesfind it hard to focus in classhardly notice the noise at night

.

Paragraph three mainly gives 3.

a researcher’s evidence about children’s sleepan analyst’s call to study costs firstplans for building more apartment towers nearbya manager’s case for unloading after dark

.

Yaroslav Rudnicki’s concerns would likely be supported by 4.

a finding that the port’s own noise reports were wronga study of tide times at the Halifax piersrecords of lost shipments during stormstest scores of children living near the port

.

This article shows that 5.

the port has agreed to new quiet hourschildren’s sleep matters more than shippingthere is little agreement on what to do firstthe noise complaints have mostly stopped

The following is a comment by a visitor to the website page. Complete the comment by choosing the best option to fill in each blank.

I moved into one of the new towers by the piers last year, and I knew the port was there, but I did not expect the noise at three in the morning. I was not surprised that residents have filed 6.

more than nine hundrednearly three hundredabout ninetytwo thousand

complaints since January, because half my building has written to the city at least once. The researcher’s idea of allowing exceptions only for 7.

medicinemailfuelfresh food

that cannot wait seems fair to me. I was glad to hear the terminal manager offer quieter cranes and rubber 8.

wallspadsfenceswheels

for the rail yard, because those changes would help right away. The trade analyst also makes sense when she asks for exceptions during 9.

election timeharvest seasontourist seasonschool holidays

and winter storms, when ships cannot always keep to a schedule. If council’s quiet hours really start at 10.

ninetenmidnighteleven

, I might finally sleep through until my alarm.

AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.

Correct Answer: a proposal to limit port noise at night

Why this is correct: Council is considering limits on the loudest cargo work at the port at night. All four speakers respond to that idea.

Passage Reference: Halifax council is considering limits on the loudest cargo work at the port

Tips: An option can use the right place and still describe the wrong event. Ask what decision the people quoted are arguing for or against.