CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Moose: Giants of the Northern Forest

Paragraph A

Few animals are as closely linked with the Canadian wilderness as the moose. The largest member of the deer family, it is found across most of the country’s forested regions, from the Atlantic provinces to the Yukon. A full-grown bull can stand around two metres tall at the shoulder and weigh well over 500 kilograms, yet it can move almost silently through thick bush. Its unusually long legs allow it to step over fallen trees and wade through snow that would stop smaller animals. The English name was borrowed from an Algonquian language, and it is often said to mean “twig eater,” a fair description of how the animal spends much of its time. Despite their size, moose generally live alone, apart from mothers with young calves.

Paragraph B

A moose’s diet changes with the seasons. In summer, it feeds heavily on leaves and on plants that grow in lakes, ponds and marshes, wading in up to its shoulders and sometimes putting its head completely underwater to reach them. These water plants supply minerals, such as sodium, that are hard to find in other foods. Moose are also strong swimmers and will cross wide rivers and lakes without hesitation. When winter arrives and the water freezes, they switch to a much tougher diet of twigs, buds and bark from trees and shrubs such as willow, birch and balsam fir.

Paragraph C

Only male moose grow antlers. Each spring, a new set begins to grow, covered in a soft, blood-rich skin known as velvet. By late summer the antlers have reached full size, and the bull rubs the velvet off against trees. In the fall breeding season, males use their antlers to display their strength and, at times, to fight rivals. Once the season is over, the antlers drop off, usually in early winter. Calves are born in late spring, most often one at a time, although twins are not unusual. A calf stays close to its mother for about a year, until she drives it away shortly before her next calf is born.

Paragraph D

Moose have long been important to people in Canada. For many Indigenous communities, they provided meat, hides for clothing and shelter, and materials for tools. Today, moose also present challenges. Collisions with vehicles are a serious danger, because a moose’s long legs mean that a car often strikes the animal below its heavy body, which can then crash into the windshield. Dark fur makes moose hard to see at night, which is why many highways have warning signs and, in some places, fencing, and drivers are urged to take extra care after dark. Moose were not originally found on the island of Newfoundland; a small number were brought there a little over a century ago, and their population has since grown very large.