CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Inuksuit: Stone Messengers of the Arctic

Paragraph A

Across the treeless tundra of Canada’s Arctic, travellers may come upon a pile of stones standing alone on a ridge or a shoreline. These structures, known as inuksuit (singular: inuksuk), have been built by Inuit and their ancestors for centuries, and they are found across the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. The name comes from Inuktitut and is often translated as “to act in the capacity of a human.” The meaning makes sense in a landscape with few natural landmarks: an inuksuk stands in for a person, telling those who pass that someone has been there before them. Most are made from whatever rocks lie close at hand, stacked carefully without mortar, and they range from a few small stones to structures taller than a person.

Paragraph B

Inuksuit served many practical purposes. Some marked travel routes or pointed toward a safe crossing, while others showed where fish were plentiful or where meat had been stored for later. Hunters also built lines of them to help steer herds of caribou toward places where other hunters were waiting. Because each inuksuk was placed with a purpose, people who grew up on the land learned to read them, and the way the stones were arranged could carry a message for those who understood it. Not every inuksuk was practical, however. Some marked places of spiritual importance, and certain sites were approached only with great respect.

Paragraph C

Many people outside the North picture an inuksuk as a stone figure with legs and outstretched arms. Strictly speaking, that human-shaped figure has its own name, inunnguaq, meaning “in the likeness of a person,” and it is only one of many forms. It is, however, the form that has become most familiar to the wider world, and large versions now stand in parks and on waterfronts in southern cities. When Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Games’ emblem, a figure named Ilanaaq, the Inuktitut word for “friend,” was based on this shape. Not everyone welcomed the choice. Some Inuit felt that the design confused an inunnguaq with a true inuksuk and turned a meaningful structure into a logo.

Paragraph D

Today, the inuksuk has become a symbol of the North itself. When the territory of Nunavut was created in 1999, an inuksuk was placed at the centre of its flag. Its popularity has brought new problems, though. Hikers in parks across the country now stack their own small stone figures along trails, sometimes by the dozen. Park staff often take these down, partly because they can lead other hikers astray and partly because moving rocks disturbs the plants and small creatures that live beneath them. Many Inuit elders also stress that old inuksuit should never be knocked down or rebuilt, since doing so can erase information that guided people for generations.