IELTS READING: Answers Underground

The alarmist narratives around resource depletion, food shortages, mass extinction, and environmental catastrophe have been ___________.

• downplayed

• trivialized

• exaggerated

• impartially portrayed

Most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are transient. What is a synonym of “transient”?

• fleeting

• permanent

• incessant

• expeditious

The funding bias towards researching problem areas skews public perception towards a more negative environmental outlook than the facts warrant.

• TRUE

• FALSE

What is TRUE about environmental groups?

• While environmental groups are often run by well-intentioned people, they share characteristics of other lobby groups with vested interests.

  
  

• Environmental groups do not need media attention, which can incentivize them to focus on scientific data and facts rather than sensationalism to raise awareness.

  
  

• The public applies the same degree of skepticism to non-environmental lobby groups, compared to how they view environmental advocacy groups.
  

The media is more inclined to focus on and report _______ rather than _______ environmental news.

• optimistic events - distorted or unbiased

  
  

• bleak narratives - skewed or objective

  
  

• bad news - positive or neutral

  
  

• promising stories - impartial or hopeful

  
  

What is NOT TRUE regarding the media coverage of the 1997-1998 El Niño phenomenon?

• It focused heavily on the negative impacts, such as damage to tourism, allergies, and loss of life.

  
  

• It significantly exaggerated the negatives and overlooked the substantial positives.

  
  

• It highlighted the economic benefits associated with the event, which are outweighed by the damages.

  
  

• It disproportionately focused on the negative impacts of El Niño, while largely overlooking the substantial economic benefits.
  

The fears about running out of disposal space are exaggerated compared to the available land area.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Even ambitious emissions reduction efforts would:

• Prevent global warming entirely.

• Eliminate the temperature increase.

  
  

• Postpone the expected temperature increase by a few years.

  
  

• Have no impact on the expected temperature increase.

  
  

The passage emphasizes the importance of:

• Being overly optimistic about the costs of climate action.

• Relying on intuition rather than facts when making decisions.

  
  

• Looking at the facts to make the best possible decisions for the future.

  
  

• Focusing solely on emissions reduction as the solution to climate change.