Loading question...
You are in free guest mode. Timed Practice Revision List Attempt History Progress Tracking Create a free account to unlock these tools
Prev Next
CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63139 Easy The Forks in Winnipeg

Read the following passage.

A. The Forks is a busy public space in the centre of downtown Winnipeg, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet, and its grounds are open all year. Visitors find an interpretive park, historic and new buildings, a skateboard park and a historic port. At its centre is Oodena Celebration Circle, an outdoor amphitheatre where sacred events take place and powwows are held in the summer months. More than four million people come each year, and over 1,200 people work on the site.

B. People have gathered here for at least 6,000 years. Archaeological digs between 1989 and 1994 uncovered a 6,000-year-old hearth, or fireplace, holding catfish bones and stone tool flakes, along with later camps of bison hunters. By the time of the fur trade, Nakoda (Assiniboine), Cree, Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) and Dakota people visited the site. Elders say that many nations met here for trade, healing, politics and even battle, and that no one nation could claim the place for itself. Many call it the birthplace of the Métis Nation, and it lies on Treaty No. 1 territory.

C. Fur traders from Europe reached The Forks in the 18th century. In 1738 La Vérendrye had Fort Rouge built where the two rivers join, and the rival fur companies later used the site to store and ship their supplies. After Manitoba became part of Canada in 1870, the government put up two immigration sheds here, each holding up to 500 people, and Winnipeg became known as the Gateway to the Canadian West. Starting in 1886, railway companies filled the land with stations and rail yards.

D. The Forks changed again in the 1980s, when two corporations were founded to redevelop the district, and it emerged as a tourist destination in the late 1980s. Buildings from the railway era were kept and given new uses. The Forks Market occupies the former horse stables of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Great Northern railways, and the Johnston Terminal, once a railway warehouse, now houses shops and offices. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened at The Forks in 2014. Over about 35 years, an abandoned rail yard has become the leading destination in Winnipeg.

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.
Shelters built by the government for arriving settlers could each take in as many as five hundred people.

- 2.
Local business owners first suggested turning the old railway land into a public space.

- 3.
The remains of a fire pit from thousands of years ago were found at the location.

- 4.
A building where the railway once stored goods is now used by stores and businesses.

- 5.
La Vérendrye arranged for a fort to go up at the meeting point of the rivers in the late 1730s.

- 6.
Over a thousand people have jobs at the location.

- 7.
Horses were once kept in the building that now holds the market.

- 8.
Winnipeg earned a nickname as the doorway to the West.

- 9.
Several structures left over from the railway period were saved and put to different purposes.

With a free account: Retry and compare every attempt.
Be the first! No community answers here yet. Submit yours and help others learn.
Saving...