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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63092 Medium L'Anse aux Meadows: Norse site in Newfoundland

Read the following passage.

A. L'Anse aux Meadows, on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, is the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America outside Greenland. Archaeologists in the 1960s uncovered turf-walled buildings, a forge, and artifacts that match Viking Age styles from Scandinavia and Greenland. Radiocarbon dates place the occupation around the year 1000. The site showed that Norse explorers reached the continent centuries before Columbus, supporting parts of the Vinland sagas while leaving many details still debated among historians.

B. Excavations revealed workshops where iron nails were smelted and wood was worked, suggesting a short-lived base for ship repair rather than a large farming colony. Few animal bones from domestic cattle appear compared with Greenland farms, which hints at limited livestock. Indigenous peoples already lived in the region, and contact may have been brief and tense. After only a few years, the Norse appear to have abandoned the camp and sailed away.

C. Today Parks Canada protects the reconstructed sod buildings and a visitor centre that explains the digs. UNESCO listed the site as a World Heritage property for its outstanding evidence of early transatlantic contact. Costumed interpreters demonstrate crafts in summer, and boardwalks keep feet off fragile ground. Scholars still compare saga place-names with coastal geography to guess how far south Vinland voyages may have gone.

D. Climate in the North Atlantic around the year 1000 was relatively favourable for sea travel, though storms remained deadly. Navigation relied on coastal landmarks and hard-won experience rather than modern instruments. Later European fishers and settlers reshaped Newfoundland without knowing the Norse had camped there first. The site remains a touchstone for Canadian school lessons on early exploration and contact.

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.
L'Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside Greenland.

- 2.
Workshops there suggest a short-lived ship-repair base more than a big farm colony.

- 3.
UNESCO lists the site as a World Heritage property.

- 4.
The Norse built a permanent city of stone castles that still stands fully intact.

- 5.
Occupation dates cluster around the year 1000.

- 6.
Parks Canada protects reconstructed sod buildings and a visitor centre.

- 7.
Indigenous peoples were absent from the region when the Norse arrived.

- 8.
The camp seems to have been abandoned after only a few years.

- 9.
Norse sailors used GPS receivers to find Newfoundland.

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