CELPIP Reading Part 3Reading for Information Practice

A. Some coastal deserts receive almost no rain, yet cool ocean air regularly carries fog across their dunes. The mist contains suspended droplets, but most are too small to fall as useful precipitation. Certain beetles exploit this dependable moisture source by collecting fog directly on the surface of their bodies. Their behaviour is most valuable before daytime heat raises evaporation and disperses the low cloud. This combination helps explain why the meeting of coastal fog and an extremely dry desert cannot be understood from one feature alone or from one brief observation.

B. A beetle seeking water climbs an exposed ridge and turns its body toward the incoming damp wind. It then raises its rear section, creating a steep route from its back toward its head. This head-down posture allows growing droplets to move toward the mouth under gravity rather than remaining scattered. The animal may interrupt the position when wind becomes too forceful or blowing sand makes the ridge unsafe. For fog collection behaviour of desert beetles, relationships among these features matter because a change in one may influence several others within the same setting over time.

C. Tiny surface differences on the beetle's outer covering encourage droplets to gather at particular points. As separate beads merge, their increasing weight helps them overcome resistance and begin moving. Channels and slopes across the hardened wing covers guide the collected water forward to the waiting mouthparts. The process depends on both surface structure and posture; neither feature is as effective when considered alone. Viewed together, details about surface features that guide droplets toward the mouth connect visible characteristics with processes that are less immediately obvious to an ordinary observer at first.

D. Fog collection provides modest drinks rather than storing a large reserve inside the beetle's shell. Its success changes with wind direction, droplet density, temperature, and the animal's access to exposed ground. Engineers have studied the general principle when developing meshes and panels intended to capture water from mist. These human devices imitate selective collection and drainage, although their materials and scale differ greatly from a beetle. Within fog collection behaviour of desert beetles, the result is a system in which structure, timing, and local conditions remain closely connected throughout continuing development.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.