CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Gros Morne National Park and Its Landscapes

Paragraph A

Stretching along the west coast of the island of Newfoundland, Gros Morne National Park protects more than 1,800 square kilometres of mountains, coastline, forest and bog. The park was established in 1973 and takes its name from Gros Morne, a mountain that rises above the surrounding landscape. Unlike many national parks, it was not created around an empty wilderness. Several small fishing communities, some settled long before the park existed, sit along its shoreline as pockets surrounded by park land, and their residents continue to live, work and raise families there. In 1987, UNESCO added Gros Morne to its list of World Heritage Sites, recognizing both its striking scenery and the remarkable story its rocks tell about the history of the planet.

Paragraph B

The park’s most famous geological feature is the Tablelands, a broad, flat-topped mass of rock in its southern section. From a distance, it looks more like a desert than anything one would expect in Atlantic Canada: its slopes are largely bare, and its surface has weathered to a rusty, yellowish-brown colour. The explanation lies deep underground. The Tablelands are made largely of rock from the earth’s mantle, the layer that normally lies many kilometres below the surface, beneath the crust. Hundreds of millions of years ago, as ancient continents collided, this material was pushed upward and eventually left exposed. The rock is unusually rich in certain metals and poor in the nutrients most plants require, so only a few hardy species survive on it, while the hills nearby are green and forested. Because exposed mantle rock is so rare, the Tablelands have long helped scientists understand how the plates that form the earth’s surface move.

Paragraph C

Farther north, Western Brook Pond offers a very different kind of scenery. During the last ice age, glaciers carved a deep, narrow valley here, leaving cliffs that rise hundreds of metres straight out of the water. At first, the valley was open to the sea, much like the fjords of Norway. Once the enormous weight of the ice was gone, however, the land slowly rose, and the valley was cut off from the ocean. Today the “pond” is a freshwater lake fed by streams and waterfalls tumbling from the plateau above. There is no road to the water’s edge. To reach the dock, visitors follow a trail of about three kilometres across bogs and low forest, after which they can join a boat tour that travels deep into the gorge.

Paragraph D

Not all of the park’s challenges come from its landscape. Moose, which are not native to Newfoundland, were brought to the island by people, and a small group released in 1904 started today’s population. With plenty of food and few natural predators, they multiplied rapidly, and Newfoundland now has one of the densest moose populations in North America. In parts of Gros Morne, moose ate so many young balsam fir and other seedlings that some areas of forest, especially those damaged by insects or storms, failed to grow back. In response, Parks Canada began reducing the number of moose in the park, in part by allowing a limited hunt by licensed hunters. Small fenced plots that keep moose out have shown how quickly young trees can return once the animals are no longer feeding on them.