The given saving the soil reading answers with explanation will help you to figure out to locate the keyword in the paragraph and provide a respective answer.
14. Minerals
Keywords: Bacteria, microorganisms, plant remains
Location: Paragraph B - Line 4 to 6
Explanation: A single gram of healthy soil might contain 100 million bacteria, as well as other microorganisms such as viruses and fungi, living amid decomposing plants and various minerals
15. Carbon
Keywords: food, antibiotics, storing, climate
Location: Paragraph B - Line 9 to 11
Explanation: Soil is also an ally against climate change: as microorganisms within soil digest dead animals and plants, they lock in their carbon content, holding three times the amount of carbon as does the entire atmosphere.
16. Water
Keywords: prevents, damage, property and infrastructure, holds
Location: Paragraph B - Line 11 to 13
Explanation: Soils also store water, preventing flood damage: in the UK, damage to buildings, roads and bridges from floods caused by soil degradation costs £233 million every year.
17. Agriculture
Keywords: main factor, degradation, humans
Location: Paragraph C - Line 5 to 9
Explanation: Agriculture is by far the biggest problem……Humans tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil gradually becomes less fertile.
18. C
Keywords: nutrients, unused, harvested crops
Location: Paragraph C - Line 7 to 8
Explanation: When the plants die and decay these nutrients are returned directly to the soil. Humans tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil gradually becomes less fertile.
19. E
Keywords: synthetic fertilisers, Haber-Bosch
Location: Paragraph D - Line 3
Explanation: A solution came in the early 20th century with the Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing ammonium nitrate. Farmers have been putting this synthetic fertiliser on their fields ever since.
20. A
Keywords: addition, mixture, Pius Floris
Location: Paragraph E - Line 7 to 10
Explanation: When they applied Floris’s mix to the desert-like plots, a good crop of plants emerged that were not just healthy at the surface, but had roots strong enough to pierce dirt as hard as rock.
21. D
Keywords: idea, zero, degradation
Location: Paragraph G - Line 7
Explanation: We need ways of presenting the problem that bring it home to governments and the wider public’, says Pamela Chasek at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, in Winnipeg, Canada. The idea of zero net soil degradation may help governments to be more aware of soil-related issues.
22. E
Keywords: motivation, soil-improvement project
Location: Paragraph E - Line 1 to 3
Explanation: He came to realise that the best way to ensure his trees flourished was to take care of the soil, and has developed a cocktail of beneficial bacteria, fungi and humus to do this.
23. C
Keywords: explanation, soil, healthy, before, farming
Location: Paragraph C - second part - Line 3.
Explanation: Humans tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil gradually becomes less fertile. In the past we developed strategies to get around the problem, such as regularly varying the types of crops grown, or leaving fields uncultivated for a season.
24. Yes
Keywords: ways, collecting information, soil degradation
Location: Paragraph F - Lines 6 to 8
Explanation: Researchers from nine countries are working together to create a map linked to a database that can be fed measurements from field surveys, drone surveys, satellite imagery, lab analyses and so on to provide real-time data on the state of the soil.
25. G
Keywords: soil, safe, near future
Location: Paragraph G - Lines 2 to 4
Explanation: Chasek and her colleagues have proposed a goal of ‘zero net land degradation’.
26. F
Keywords: difficult, overview, soil degradation
Location: Paragraph F - Lines 2 to 4.
Explanation: To assess our options on a global scale we first need an accurate picture of what types of soil are out there, and the problems they face. That’s not easy. For one thing, there is no agreed international system for classifying soil.
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