Research Simulation-Inuit ** PARCC PRACTICE

  • Due No due date
  • Points 5
  • Questions 5
  • Time Limit None

Instructions

Read the passage from the article “Inuit” by Carol White. Then answer the questions. 

1 In one of the most remote places in the world, the Canadian Arctic, a people have survived over a thousand of years. They are the Inuit. For the Inuit, the Arctic is a place teeming with life. Depending on how far north they live, the Inuit find everything from caribou herds and polar bears to beluga whales. The Inuit have adapted themselves to the various regions they inhabit. At one time they were considered to be among the healthiest people in the world. This is no longer the case; the Inuit lifestyle has changed dramatically over the past decades. The arrival of southerners and modern technology resulted in big changes to the Inuit diet and way of life.

2 Today, the Inuit are rediscovering their rich heritage and they are learning to govern themselves in a modern world.

Way of Life

3 When you live in an environment that has few plants, there is a very good chance you will become a hunter. The Inuit pride themselves on being great hunters. The Inuit had lots of sea and land animals to hunt. The most important of these were the caribou and the seal. These two animals provided the Inuit with food. Their skin was used for clothing, blankets, tents and boats and their oil was used for cooking and lamps. Bones, ivory and wood were used to make tools. Other animals the Inuit hunted were the walrus, whale, polar bear, musk ox, fox and wolf.

Food

4 Because edible plants are scarce in the Arctic, the Inuit ate mostly meat they got from hunting. They ate animals such as caribou, seals, walruses, polar bears, arctic hares, musk oxen, birds such as ptarmigan, and fish such as arctic char, salmon and whitefish. In the summer they also gathered berries and other edible plants.

Clothing

5 Seal or walrus intestine is waterproof, and the Inuit scraped, cleaned, soaked and dried the intestines to make waterproof clothing. This kept the people dry, which was important since water freezes quickly in the North. People can get into a lot of trouble if they get wet in the Arctic and then freeze. Besides waterproof clothing, the Inuit also made parkas of caribou fur to wear in the cold winter.

6 At one point, scientists in Canada did a study to find out what the warmest winter clothes were. This included clothes that were sewn out of cloth, wool and other fabrics. The caribou jacket was the warmest by far. Even in winter, Inuit could not sleep with their jackets on because they got so hot that they would sweat. Sweat is dangerous in a cold climate because, like water, it freezes.

Shelter

7 At one time the Inuit had a summer home and a winter home. In the summer, the Inuit often lived in tents that they made from caribou hides with wooden frames. In the winter many Inuit lived in sod homes. They would dig a hole in the ground and pile rocks and sod all around the outside to make walls. Pieces of wood or whalebone were used as a frame for the roof, which the Inuit then covered with sod. In both the tents and the sod houses the Inuit built raised platforms at the back for sleeping.

8 The Inuit are famous for their igloos. An igloo is built of blocks of snow shaped into a dome. They were mostly used as temporary shelter during winter hunting trips. The igloo is one of the Inuit’s best inventions. It is warm and easy to construct. Most Inuit today have settled in villages and live in houses.

Selected text only from Inuit community article from The Kids’ Site of Canadian Settlement, by Carol White. Copyright © Government of Canada. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government of Services Canada (2013).

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