The Changing Face of Farming in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand
Read The Changing Face of Farming in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, an IELTS Reading practice passage. The landscape of the rural Canterbury plains in the South Island of New Zealand has been changing since Europeans first arrived in the country some 200 years ago, but in recent decades the…
Passage preview
The landscape of the rural Canterbury plains in the South Island of New Zealand has been changing since Europeans first arrived in the country some 200 years ago, but in recent decades the speed of change has increased dramatically. Today it is terms such as 'mechanisation' 'intensification' and 'conversion' that you'll hear on a typical farm. Modern agriculture's rhythms are urgent, its scale corporate. Driving across the Canterbury plains today, there are futuristic grain research stations and slick billboards promoting harvest-boosting technologies.
Vocabulary from this passage
10 words worth learning before you sit the test, each with the sentence it appears in.
- congested adjective
So heavily crowded with vehicular traffic or people as to hinder or entirely prevent freedom of movement
Due to the booming global tourism industry, the once-quiet rural thoroughfares have become heavily congested.
- cosmopolitan adjective
Composed of or including people from many different international countries; exhibiting profound cultural diversity
The regular influx of seasonal migrant workers introduces an unexpectedly cosmopolitan element to the isolated community.
- degradation noun
The destructive condition or process of biological or environmental ruin, resulting in lowered quality or vitality
Decades of intensive chemical irrigation have directly contributed to the degradation of lowland soil quality.
- diversify verb
To deliberately enlarge or vary the range of commercial products or agricultural operations to spread financial risk
Agricultural seed companies actively seek to diversify their crop selection to mitigate potential economic failures.
- indigenous adjective
Originating or occurring naturally in a particular geographical place; ecologically native to a specific environment
The aggressive expansion of commercial dairy farming has severely threatened the indigenous flora of the region.
- intensification noun
The deliberate action of making agricultural or industrial production more intense to maximize output and efficiency
The intensification of farming practices has led to increased crop yields but raised severe environmental concerns.
- lament verb
To express passionate grief, sorrow, or profound regret about a changing situation or vanishing tradition
The older generation of regional farmers frequently laments the rapid disappearance of traditional agricultural practices.
- prosperity noun
The established state of being financially successful and economically secure within a community or nation
The unprecedented shift toward high-yield dairy production brought sudden prosperity to the struggling rural town.
- public perception noun
The collective, often subjective, opinion or foundational understanding that the general population holds regarding an issue
There frequently exists a massive gap between scientific reality and public perception regarding agricultural water usage.
- reversal of fortunes noun
A major, often dramatic change in socioeconomic circumstances, typically from extreme hardship to sudden wealth
The agricultural region experienced a dramatic reversal of fortunes following the introduction of a new export commodity.