The Ring Cycle – IELTS Reading Answers

With diligent practice, the IELTS Reading Module can be the top-scoring category for aspirants. To score well, you must understand how to approach and answer the different question types in the Reading Module. The Ring Cycle is a real Reading test passage that appeared in the exam. By solving and reviewing Sample Reading Questions from past IELTS papers, you can ensure that your Reading skills are up to the mark. Take the practice test The Ring Cycle below and try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com.

Not sure how to answer IELTS Reading Matching Headings questions? Check out the video below for the latest tips and strategies!

The Ring Cycle IELTS Reading Passage 

A.  You can't always see the forest for the trees in the scientific weeds. However, the wood itself can occasionally hold the key to climate change. Imagine a record of the amount of sunlight, rain, and frost that occurs each year, updated with near-perfect accuracy almost everywhere south of the tundra and north of the tropics, and accessible for review not only at any time during life but, quite frequently, for centuries after death. Of course, the tree's annual growth rings serve as the register. When you compare the rings of young trees with those of old forest giants, you can determine how the seasons have changed over many years. Old cathedral rafters and tree rings can be combined to create an even longer chronology --- and a science called dendrochronology.

B.  By carefully overlapping the patterns of wide and narrow rings in fortunately older timber specimens, scientists have successfully constructed long tree rings. Dendrochronologists are those researchers who focus on the development of tree rings. In addition, there are approximately 12 or more chronologists with a combined age of more than 5,000 years. These annual records of how the trees responded to their growth conditions are an environmental history from the trees' point of view. They are typically made in a small area using a single species of tree.

C. Dendrochronologists have historically tended to think locally because tree-ring chronologies are built on a regional scale. However, there are now quite a few chronologies available for study as a result of dendrochronology's success as a field of study on a global scale. It is possible to compare the records from different areas year by year because the chronologies are dated absolutely. Recently, a study of 383 modern chronologies that were collected from a wide region of northern Eurasia, North America, and Europe was published. Majority density of the late wood of the growth rings in each year was associated with the temperature in the growing season and this was observed by the authors, Keith, Briffa, and the colleagues. Their investigation went back 600 years, to AD 1400, and produced a reconstruction of a summer temperature record using a vast grid of precisely dated ring densities.What they discovered was that, according to historical accounts and dated acid layers in the Greenland ice record, the years with extremely low density and cool summers were directly correlated with large explosive eruptions. Since the compressed snowfall of tens of thousands of years is contained within kilometres of Greenland ice, the ice record can be interpreted in a manner similar to that of tree rings. To demonstrate what else tree rings can tell us, I'll use this study as an example.
 
D. A year-by-year estimate of temperatures is given in the study, along with the dates of some significant volcanoes. The explanation is simple: as volcanic eruptions add dust and aerosol to the atmosphere, they reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the earth's surface. In northern conifers, this cooling causes variations in the density of growth rings. The results from the conifer density record can be put to the test because there are numerous other records.

E.  For instance, we can examine the behaviour of European oak during the same 600-year period. Had oak reacted similarly to the conifers? The "oak chronology" is the mean of eight localised oak chronologies that were studied in a region that stretched from Ireland to Poland. It depicts the typical growth pattern of hundreds of millions of oak trees. This comparison reveals that, in some instances—such as in 1602, 1740, and 1816—the oaks clearly react to the eruptions of volcanoes, but not always. It is immediately clear that the conifers only provide a portion of the story. Only a small number of the declines in oak growth can be linked to the conifer record. In years when the conifers were unaffected, the oaks were quite capable of taking more stress. The purpose of this, however, is not to debate the merits of global cooling; rather, it is to demonstrate the capabilities of dendrochronology.

F.  Consider the year 1816, which is known as the "year without a summer" due to the extreme cold and subsequent crop failures. It has long been understood that Tambora's enormous 1815 eruption, which was located to the east of Java, was the main reason for the cooling. However, in the years leading up to 1816, there was a lot more activity. Bald cypress trees in Tennessee exhibit a significant growth anomaly with growth rings that are up to 400 percent wider than average in the years after a significant earthquake that struck Eastern America in 1811–1812. However, there is a layer of volcanic acid in several Greenland and Antarctic ice cores from 1809–10 and 1815–16. We therefore have a combination of at least two volcanic eruptions, including Tambora, which is widely regarded as the largest in the last 10,000 years, and a highly unusual earthquake in a region of the USA not typically affected by earthquakes. We start to see a combination of three unusual elements in less than ten years — an exceptional earthquake, an exceptional volcanic eruption, and an exceptional cold. According to Briffa, the period between 1810 and 20 was the coldest in the last millennium. Given that 'General Winter' is famously credited with stopping Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, one wonders if a natural sequence of events actually played a role in altering the course of modern history.

G. It goes without saying that the case of 1816 and the years immediately prior to and following it are recent and well-documented. Dendrochronology, on the other hand, enables us to examine the effects of such events globally and geographically. Where there is no historical or instrumental record, we can question the trees. Dendrochronology can reconstruct abrupt environmental events further back in time and may even shed light on much darker periods in human history. In the Dark Ages, were political forces the only factors at play, or did violent natural disasters also have an impact, tipping the scales by lowering the temperature and darkening the skies? It goes without saying that the case of 1816 and the years immediately prior to and following it are recent and well-documented. Dendrochronology, on the other hand, enables us to examine the effects of such events globally and geographically. Where there is no historical or instrumental record, we can question the trees. Dendrochronology can reconstruct abrupt environmental events further back in time and may even shed light on much darker periods in human history. In the Dark Ages, were political forces the only factors at play, or did violent natural disasters also have an impact, tipping the scales by lowering the temperature and darkening the skies?

The Ring Cycle Reading Questions

Questions 1-4

1. What did the expansion of research to the European oak lead to?

A. It supplemented the knowledge gained from studying conifers.
B. It went against every conclusion drawn from the research on conifers.
C. The results were identical to those for conifers.
D. It demonstrated how much the world has cooled since 1400 AD.

2. Which of the following was the result of eruption at Tambora?'

A. Agriculture output significantly decreased.
B. An earthquake occurred in North America.
C. The polar ice caps partially melted.
D. A war's outcome was altered.

3. Studying tree rings can lead to the discovery of?

A. Completely new era in human history.
B. Documentation of alleged events.
C. The way in which earlier societies treated the environment.
D. The truth about the nature of religious belief.

4. A suitable title for this passage would be

A. How earthquakes and volcanoes affected history 
B. How trees affect the climate of the world 
C. How trees have impacted human history
D. The historical significance of trees

Questions 5-10 

List of headings

i. Taking a look at a specific decade
ii. studying ice-covered trees
iii. combining research from several sources
iv. Records from various species are compared.
v. Dendrochronology: what it is
vi. Climate affected by a war
vii. How trees record volcanic activity is demonstrated
viii. A special document from earlier eras and locations
ix.  Thousands of years have been covered by the local records
x. Formation of the tree rings

Example:
Paragraph A Answer v

5. Paragraph B
6. Paragraph C
7. Paragraph D
8. Paragraph E
9. Paragraph F
10. Paragraph G

Questions 11-13

A. It offers a thorough record of the weather in any location on earth.
B. It involves examining the ring structures of trees of various ages.
C. An old piece of wood that was cut can be included in the record.
D. According to studies, all trees of the same type have an equal number of rings.
E. It has been studied as a science for more than 5,000 years.
F. The earliest records mainly concern one kind of tree in one location.

The Ring Cycle IELTS Reading Answer Explanation

Let’s now review the answers to the questions from the passage in the reading section, The Ring Cycle IELTS Reading Answers, and assess your improvement for a high IELTS Reading band score.

1. Answer: ix
Answer location: Paragraph B; Lines 1 – 2
Answer explanation: Dendrochronologists, scientists who study tree rings, have built long tree-ring records by overlapping ring patterns in older timber, creating chronologies dating back over 5,000 years.

2. Answer: iii
Answer location: Paragraph C; Line 4
Answer explanation: An analysis of 383 modern chronologies from Europe, northern Eurasia, and North America was recently published.

3. Answer: vii
Answer location: Paragraph D; Lines 2 – end
Answer explanation: Volcanoes release dust and aerosols that reflect sunlight, cooling the Earth’s surface, causing variations in tree ring density, which can be cross-checked with other records.

4. Answer: vi
Answer location: Paragraph F; Last line
Answer explanation: The defeat of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian invasion is famously attributed to ‘General Winter’.

5. Answer: i
Answer location: Paragraph F; Line 7
Answer explanation: The period 1810-20 was the coldest in the last millennium, combining an exceptional earthquake, volcanic eruption, and cold.

6. Answer: viii
Answer location: Paragraph G; Line 1
Answer explanation: The year 1816 and surrounding years are recent and well documented.

7. Answer: B
Answer location: Paragraph B; Line 1
Answer explanation: Dendrochronologists have constructed long tree-ring records by overlapping wide and narrow rings in older timber.

8. Answer: C
Answer location: Paragraph G; Line 7
Answer explanation: Preserved wood is beginning to provide circumstantial evidence.

9. Answer: F
Answer location: Paragraph B; Last line
Answer explanation: Tree-ring records are normally made from a single species in a restricted area and show yearly growth responses to conditions.

10. Answer: A
Answer location: Paragraph E; Lines 5 – 6
Answer explanation: Oaks respond to volcanic events in some cases (e.g., 1602, 1740, 1816) but less clearly than conifers, which tell only part of the story.

11. Answer: A
Answer location: Paragraph F; Lines 1 – 2
Answer explanation: The ‘year without a summer’ (1816) was caused by the Tambora eruption in 1815, leading to cold and crop failures.

12. Answer: B
Answer location: Paragraph G; Lines 2 – 3
Answer explanation: Dendrochronology allows investigation of such events globally, even in areas without historical records.

13. Answer: D
Answer location: Paragraph G; Line 4
Answer explanation: Dendrochronology is nearly the only way to reconstruct abrupt environmental events from the distant past, shedding light on dark historical moments.

Tips to Solve the Question Types in The Rainmaker Design IELTS Reading Answers

Let us check out some quick IELTS Exam Preparation Tips for Band Score of 8+ to answer the three types of questions in the Reading Answers.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)

IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions test your ability to understand details and make distinctions between similar ideas. Mastering these questions helps you quickly find precise information in the passage.

1. Read the question carefully — understand what exactly it asks before looking at the options.
2. Underline keywords in the question and options to focus your search in the passage.
3. Scan the passage for these keywords or their synonyms to find the relevant section quickly.
4. Eliminate clearly wrong options to narrow down your choices.
5. Be cautious of similar options; sometimes more than one looks correct, so check details carefully.

Matching Headings

IELTS Reading Matching Headings require you to find the main idea or theme of paragraphs or sections. This skill tests your understanding of overall meaning rather than specific details.

1. Read all headings first to get an overview before reading the passage.
2. Look for main idea or topic sentences in each paragraph or section — these often summarize the paragraph’s content.
3. Avoid choosing headings that are too specific or too general; aim for ones that capture the paragraph’s overall idea.
4. Use paraphrasing skills — the heading won’t use the exact words from the paragraph but similar meaning.
5. Don’t rush; cross out headings once matched to avoid repeating them.

Matching Features

IELTS Reading Matching features asks you to link specific characteristics or facts to people, places, or things mentioned in the passage. This tests your ability to locate and connect detailed information.

1. Identify the features clearly — underline keywords or characteristics in the question.
2. Scan the passage for names, dates, or specific details linked to those features.
3. Pay attention to pronouns and synonyms as features might be described indirectly.
4. Match only one feature to one option unless the instructions say otherwise.
5. Double-check your answers by rereading the relevant passage sections to confirm accuracy.

Mastering passages like “The Ring Cycle - IELTS Reading Answers” can significantly boost your Reading IELTS band score. Regular practice with real exam-style questions not only improves speed and accuracy but also builds your confidence. Keep exploring different IELTS Reading passages and refine your techniques to ensure success on test day.

Check More IELTS Reading Answers

Also check:

• IELTS Reading recent actual test
• IELTS Academic Reading test papers with answers pdf
• How to Improve IELTS Reading in 7 Days
• IELTS Exam Reading Answer Sheet (PDF)
• IELTS Academic Reading Practice Question with Answers