Terminated Dinosaur Era Reading Answers

Terminated Dinosaur Era
A.
Day after day, we hear about how anthropogenic development is causing global warming. According to an increasingly vocal minority, however, we should be asking ourselves how much of this is media hype, and how much is based on real evidence. It seems – as so often is the ease – that it depends on which expert you listen to, or which statistics you study.
B.
Yes, it is true that there is a mass of evidence to indicate that the world is getting warmer, with one of the world’s leading weather predictors stating that air temperatures have grown an increase of just under half a degree Celsius since the beginning of the twentieth century. And while this may not sound like anything worth losing sleep over, the interna­tional press would have us believe that the consequences could be devastating. Other ex­perts, however, are of the opinion that what we are seeing is just part of a natural upward and downward swing that has always been part of the cycle of global weather. An analysis of the views of major meteorologists in the United States showed that less than 20% of them believed that any change in temperature over the last hundred years was our own fault – the rest attributed it to natural cyclical changes.
C.
There is, of course, no denying that we are still at a very early stage in understanding weather. The effects of such variables as rainfall, cloud formation, the seas and oceans, gases such as methane and ozone, or even solar energy are still not really understood, and therefore the predictions that we make using them cannot always be relied on.
Dr James Hansen, in 19BH, was predicting that the likely effects of global warming would be a raising of the world temperature which would have disastrous consequences for mankind: “a strong cause arid effect relationship between the current climate and human alteration of the at­mosphere”. He has now gone on record as stating that using artificial models of climate as a way of predicting change is all but impossible. In fact, he now believes that, rather than getting hotter, our planet is getting greener as a result of the carbon dioxide increase, with the prospect of increasing vegetation in areas which in recent history have been frozen wastelands.
D.
In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that as our computer-based weather models have become more sophisticated, the predicted rises in temperature have been cut back. In addi­tion, if we look at the much-reported rise in global temperature over the last century, a close analysis reveals that the lion’s share of that increase, almost three quarters in total, occurred before man began to “poison” his world with industrial processes and the accom­panying greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of the twentieth century.
E.
So should we pay any attention to those stories that scream out at us from billboards and television news headlines, claiming that man, with his inexhaustible dependence on oil-based machinery and ever more sophisticated forms of transport is creating a nightmare level of greenhouse gas emissions, poisoning his environment and ripping open the ozone layer?
Doubters point to  scientific evidence, which can prove that, of all the greenhouse gases, only two per cent come from man-made sources, the rest resulting from natural emissions. Who, then, to believe: the environmentalist exhorting us to leave the car at home, to buy re-usable products packaged in recycled paper and to plant trees in our back yard? Or the sceptics, including, of course, a lot of big businesses who have most to lose, when they tell us that we are making a mountain out of a molehill? And my own opinion? The jury’s still out as for as I am concerned!

Questions 1-5
The reading passage has five paragraphs, A-E.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct numbers, i-viii, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Controversy over anthropogenic global warming
ii. Early predictions and new realizations
iii. How natural variables affect climate predictions
iv. The role of industries in global warming
v. Misleading media narratives about climate change
vi. Positive effects of carbon dioxide emissions
vii. Human influence on global temperature: fact or fiction?
viii. Natural sources of greenhouse gases

Questions 6-10
Complete the summary below. 
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. 

The global warming debate includes contrasting views. Some attribute it to human activities like industrialization, while others believe it is part of a natural 6. __________. Though temperature has increased by half a degree Celsius since the 20th century, many meteorologists blame 7. __________ changes rather than human actions. Uncertainty in predicting climate arises from limited knowledge about 8. __________, such as rainfall and solar energy. Early predictions suggested 9. __________ consequences of warming, but more recent studies indicate 10. __________ benefits like increased vegetation in previously frozen areas.

Questions 11-13

Match the sentences with the correct ending A-H.

Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

List of endings       
A leads to reliable predictions
B is variable
C does not say what he believes the causes of global warming are
D there is a significant link between the climate now, mid man’s changing of the atmosphere
E global warming is not man-made, but the result of natural cyclical changes.
F  It is nearly impossible to predict weather change using artificial models
G is not very developed yet
H you should not speak to experts