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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #60158 Easy Cave and Basin: the hot springs where Canada's national parks began

Read the following passage.

A. In the fall of 1883, three Canadian Pacific Railway workers, Frank McCabe and the brothers Tom and William McCardell, came upon a mist-filled cave on the slopes of Sulphur Mountain in Banff. They descended into it through a vent hole at the top, using a felled tree. William McCardell compared the cave to a fantastic dream from the Arabian Nights. The three men saw a chance to make money from the warm mineral water. They put up a fence around their find and built a log cabin near the entrance to the cave.

B. The railway workers were not the first people to find these springs. Archaeological evidence shows that people lived in the Bow Valley about 10,000 years ago, and First Nations have long told stories about the cave and its warm waters. Many Indigenous nations still see the site as a sacred place, and cultural ceremonies are held there today. The water begins as rain and snow on Sulphur Mountain. Some of it filters down through cracks in the rock to a depth of about 3 kilometres, where it becomes hotter before it comes back up. Its smell of rotten eggs comes from bacteria that break down sulphur minerals in the water.

C. The three men wrote to the government in 1883 to claim the hot springs. The government needed money to finish the railway west, and it saw that the waters could attract tourists, so it denied their claim. In 1885, after a legal battle over ownership, it set aside a reserve of 26 square kilometres around the springs, and in 1887 the reserve became the first national park in Canada. In 1886 a tunnel was blasted into the cave so that visitors could walk in. A stone bathing pavilion and a large outdoor pool followed in 1914, and from 1915 to 1917 a First World War internment camp stood at the site.

D. The pool closed in 1992 because of maintenance problems, and bathing is no longer allowed. The springs are home to the Banff Springs snail, an endangered species found in only a few hot springs in the area. The hot water also wears away at the buildings and their foundations, so they need constant attention. After major renovations, the site reopened in 2013, and in 2017 it had 267,951 visitors. Today they find exhibits, short films and a boardwalk through the marsh. In 1981 Cave and Basin was designated a national historic site as the birthplace of Canada's national parks.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
The three workers found the cave while they were out hunting on the mountain.

- 2.
Humans had made the Bow Valley their home long before the three workers arrived.

- 3.
The government turned down the three men's request to own the springs.

- 4.
The protected area was made bigger in the late 1880s mainly to save wild animals.

- 5.
Swimming in the pool has not been possible since the early 1990s.

- 6.
The spring water gets warm far below the surface of the mountain.

- 7.
The workers got inside the cave by climbing down a tree trunk.

- 8.
The men hoped the warm water they had found would make them some money.

- 9.
The site was given official status in the early 1980s for its role in starting Canada's parks.

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