CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Point Pelee and the Monarch Migration

Paragraph A

Point Pelee National Park, on the north shore of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario, is one of the smallest national parks in Canada, yet it attracts visitors out of all proportion to its size. Established in 1918, the park covers a narrow peninsula of sand that stretches south into the lake and ends in a sharp point, the southernmost tip of mainland Canada. Much of the peninsula is marsh, and a long boardwalk allows visitors to explore it without disturbing the plants and animals below. The park’s shape and position give it an unusual role: for birds and insects travelling north or south, it is the last piece of land before a wide crossing of open water, and countless creatures stop there to rest.

Paragraph B

Among the most famous of these travellers is the monarch butterfly. Female monarchs lay their eggs only on milkweed, and the caterpillars feed on nothing else. Milkweed contains substances that are toxic to many animals, and these stay in the monarch’s body as it grows, making both the caterpillar and the adult butterfly unpleasant to eat. The adult’s bright orange and black wings serve as a warning to birds. Most monarchs born in spring and early summer live for only a few weeks, just long enough to breed. The generation that emerges at the end of summer is different: these butterflies delay breeding and can live for eight months or more.

Paragraph C

It is this long-lived generation that gathers at Point Pelee from late August into September. Reluctant to set out over open water, the butterflies rest in the trees near the tip of the peninsula, sometimes in clusters of hundreds, until the weather is favourable, usually a light wind from the north. Then they set off across the lake. Their final destination is the mountain forests of central Mexico, thousands of kilometres away, where they spend the winter. Remarkably, none of the butterflies making this journey has ever made it before, yet they reach the same forests year after year. Park staff record the numbers they see, and the totals vary enormously from one season to the next.

Paragraph D

Monarchs face growing pressure. Milkweed was once common along roadsides and the edges of fields, but changes in farming and the spread of towns and cities have removed much of it. Extreme weather and damage to the forests where the butterflies spend the winter add to the threat, and the monarch is now listed as a species at risk in Canada. Ordinary people are helping. Gardeners plant milkweed and other wildflowers, and volunteers across the country take part in programs that count eggs and caterpillars and report sightings, giving scientists a far clearer picture of how the species is doing.