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Answer key: Unit 12

permanent stone houses. Along the shores of Siberia, These ideas are not simply based on what the Inuit
they lived in villages made up of wooden houses. themselves have observed; there’s increasingly strong
Summer housing for many Inuit was a skin tent, while in scientific evidence that the Arctic, this desert of
the winter igloos, houses made of snow, were common. snow, ice and killing cold wind, is thawing. Glaciers
are receding; coastlines are receding and other large
Wherever they live today, the Inuit are involved in the
bodies of fresh water are no longer there. Autumn
modern world. They have wholeheartedly adopted
freezes are coming later and the winters are not as cold.
much of its technology, as well as its clothing, and the
design of their living spaces. Their economic, religious For years, what the Inuit elders and hunters understood
and governmental institutions have also been heavily about the Arctic climate, known as ‘traditional
influenced by the cultures of their near neighbours in knowledge’, was largely disregarded by the Western
Europe and America. world. It was often dismissed as anecdotal and
unreliable by scientists who visited the area with their
4 1 educated adults recording devices and their theories. Some even
2 physical surroundings viewed the Inuit as ignorant about a land which they’ve
3 (daily) weather markers inhabited for thousands of years. But more recently,
4 disturbing accounts scientists have begun paying attention to what the
5 (strong) scientific evidence Inuit are reporting. According to geophysicist George
6 coastlines Hobson, traditional Inuit knowledge was just waiting to
7 deep understanding be passed down. He says this deep understanding of
8 adapt the land and its wildlife have enabled the Inuit people
to survive in the harsh Arctic environment.
CD 2 Track 18
For thousands of years, the Inuit have lived by rules
Professor: Today I’m going to be looking at some of
that require them to respect animals and the land.
the ways in which climate change is affecting the life
They’ve adapted to the cold climate as they hunted
and culture of the Inuit people. I suppose it would be seals, walruses and whales. Siloah Atagoojuk, an elderly
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true to say that in today’s world most educated adults Inuit woman who lives in the city of Iqaluit, doesn’t want
are aware of global warming and climate change. But
to pretend she knows more than anyone else – nor
how many of us living in modern cities, cities with a
does she try to blame anyone for the change in her
seemingly inexhaustible supply of electricity into our
environment. She’s simply worried. Her world is not as it
homes and places of work, how many of us are actually
used to be and her people may not have the capacity to
affected by these phenomena in our daily lives? The
adapt to it. She says that the Inuit have known all along
Inuit, however, are being affected in a very real way,
that there would be a time when the Earth would be
on a daily basis, by a frightening deterioration in their
destroyed or would destroy itself. She believes that this
physical surroundings. They see melting ice sheets,
process has begun.
changing tides, and notice the thinning of the polar
bear population. They see how the daily weather
markers on which they’ve relied for thousands of years
are becoming less predictable as their fragile climate Vocabulary
changes. In the past, if there was a ring around the Prepositions following verbs
moon, it meant a change of weather in the next few
days. Now such signs mean nothing. 1 1 on 2 on 3 on 4 into 5 to 6 for
But these are just the most immediately visible 2 1 to in 2 in on 3 on in 4 in on 5 in on
indications of the changes taking place. Talk to the Inuit 6 with to 7 in on 8 for to
elders and hunters who depend on the land and you’ll
hear disturbing accounts of deformed fish, diseased
caribou and baby seals left by their mothers to starve.
In the last year or so, robins have appeared where
robins have never been seen before. Interestingly,
there’s no word for ‘robin’ in the Inuit language.

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