12/30 comparative writing The reading passage listed three pieces of potential reasons in an attempt to explain what caused the Little Ice Age, however, the speaker didn't agree with these arguments and rebuted them with his own opinion. Firstly, the reading material noted that the large amount of cold freshwater melted from former glaciers had disrupted the Gulf Stream, which resulted in the cooling climate. In contrast, the lecture in the listening argued that the cooling effect would only occured in the North region, like Europe and North America,if the hypothesis of ocean currents indeed validated, but it actually happened in some other parts on the earth, like New Zealand and South Africa, too. Moreover, the author of the reading stated that volcanic eruption could be the cause since the large amount of dark clouds of dust would cover a huge area and block the sunlight, which decrease the temperatures ultimately. On the contrary, the listening rebuted the statement by pointing out that if it did happen in such a huge extension there must be someone noticed the unusual phenomenon, for example the grey or brown snow, and recorded it. Unfortunately no such document was found yet, and thus, the theory seemed not so reliable. Furthermore, the passage asserted that the decline of human population may contribute to the cooling of the climate because the expanded forest would absorb more carbon dioxide and decrease the green house effect. Likewise, the listening holded a opposed view that there was no such long time for the extreme low global temperatures to keep, since the human population could be recoved fquickly and the trees would be cut down soon after that.