Question

Man is eager to draw quick profit from the trees. Two thousand years ago a rich and powerful country cut down its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire. It gained the empire but, without its trees, its soil became hard and poor, which resulted in floods and starvation.

Even though a government realizes the importance of a plentiful supply of trees, it is difficult for it to persuade its villagers to see this. The villagers want wood to cook their food with, and they can earn money by making charcoal (木炭) or selling wood in the town. So unless the government has a good system of control, or can educate the people, the forests will slowly disappear.

This does not only mean that the villagers’ children and grandchildren have fewer trees. The results are even more serious. For where there are trees their roots break the soil up — allowing the rain to sink in and also hold the soil, thus preventing it from being washed away easily, but where there are no trees, the soil becomes hard and poor. The rain falls on hard ground and flows away on the surface, causing floods and carrying away with it the rich topsoil, in which crops grow so well. When all the topsoil is gone, nothing remains but a worthless desert.

50. The purpose of writing the passage is to ______.

A. tell people the use of wood                B. tell people the function of tree roots

C. warn that man mustn’t destroy forests any more

D. explain how trees help to prevent drought and floods

51. In the writer’s opinion, ______, or the forests will gradually disappear.

A. measures must be taken                   B. people shouldn’t draw benefit from trees

C. government must realize the serious results    D. unless trees never be cut down

52. From the passage we learn it is ______ to prevent the forests from slowly disappearing.

A. necessary but impossible                  B. necessary but difficult

C. impossible and unimportant                D. difficult and impossible

53. In the last paragraph the writer wanted to make it clear that ______.

A. where there are no trees, the soil becomes poor but soft

B. where there are many trees, there are more floods

C. where there are no trees, the land might slowly become desert

D. floods will make the land become desert

Answer 1

 CABC