PART C. READING (20 POINTS)

Read the following passage and choose the best answer to each of the following questions.
THE WORLD MELTS UNDER THEIR FEET

While scientists debate the causes of climate change and the likely (51)…………of

global warming, the Inuit (the native people of the Arctic tundra) are watching their world disappear before their eyes, as the ice (52) …………. The Inuit live in small settlements along the (53)…………of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and northernmost Russia, and rely on hunting and fishing to survive. Inuit hunters forecast the weather by looking for warning signs in the clouds, the ocean (54)…………, and in animal behavior. In such a

(55)…………climate, this knowledge can mean the difference between life and death. In

recent years, however, weather conditions have become unpredictable. Thunderstorms in a region where it was once too cold for them are not (56)…………. Winters are milder

and summers last longer, altering the natural (57)…………of the animals the Inuit hunt,

causing their numbers to (58)…………. The Inuit can no longer rely on the same hunting

grounds, and movement over the ice can be (59) ………… because it is thinning and

breaking up at an alarming rate. Some scientists predict that the Arctic could be ice-free (60) ………… 50 years. Whatever the consequences of this for the planet as a whole, it

would certainly mean the end of the Inuit way of life.

(Mastermind Use of English)

While scientists debate the causes of climate change and the likely (51)…………of global warming