Sustainable management is seen as a practical and economical way of protecting species from dying out. Instead of depending on largely ineffective laws against poaching (偷猎), it gives local people a good economic reason to preserve plants and animals. In Zimbabwe, for instance, there is a sustainable management project to protect elephants. Foreign tourists pay large sums of money to kill these animals for sports. This money is then given to the inhabitants of the area where the hunting takes place. In theory, locals will be encouraged to protect elephants, instead of poaching them because of the economic benefit involved.

This sounds like a sensible strategy, but it remains to be seen whether it will work. With corruption in these developing countries, some observers are skeptical that the money will actually reach the people it is intended for. Others wonder how effective the locals will be at stopping poachers.

There are also questions about whether sustainable management is practical when it comes to protecting forests. In theory, the principle should be the same as with elephants --- allow logging companies to cut down certain number of trees, but not so many as to completely destroy the forest.

Sustainable management of forests requires controls on the number of trees which are cut down, as well as investment in replacing them. Because almost all tropical forests are located in countries which desperately need funds from logging, there are few regulations and motive to do this.

One solution might be to confirm wood comes from sustainably managed forests. In theory, consumers would buy only this wood and so force logging companies to go "green" or go out of business. Unfortunately, unrestricted logging is so much more profitable that wood prices from managed forests would cost up to five times more --- an increase that consumers, no matter how "green", are unlikely to pay.

Which of the following statements is true in understanding the "sustainable management"?

A. Sustainable management is usually used in commercial units.

B. Sustainable management is more powerful than laws.

C. We will probably meet many problems in the course of applying sustainable management.

D. It is likely that sustainable management will replace the laws in protecting living things.

The example of Zimbabwe is mentioned in the first paragraph is to ________.

A. prove that sustainable management is ineffective

B. explain what sustainable management is

C. show that tourism there is booming

D. illustrate that people there are good at making money with elephants

The phrase "go green" in Paragraph 5 probably means _______.

A. a company begins to make money instead of being in red

B. making the forests always green in color

C. operating in ways which do not damage the environment

D. starting from the very beginning

What is the passage mainly about?

A. What environmental protection mainly include.

B. The feasibility (可行性) of sustainable management in environmental protection.

C. Different people’s attitudes towards sustainable management.

D. How people can protect animals and plants.

What attitude does the author take towards the sustainable management?

A. Positive.   B. Pessimistic.             C. Negative.              D. Uncertain.


AVERAGE RESOURCES
620 m3 water
If we put fresh water and sea water together, we can each have 620 m3 water. But remember, sea water is too salty for us to drink if the factories don’t process it first. So, 620 m3 is little. Saving water in daily use is important.
0.5 hectares of forests
There are 3.869 billion hectares(公顷) of forests on Earth. But we are losing them mainly because we cut trees too much. If we calculate(计算)at the size of a football field, we are losing 343,000 football fields every day, or 1,431 per hour, or 24 per minute!
1.5 centimeters long corals(珊瑚)
All the corals that we have now spread for about 100,000 km in 109 countries. But each of us can only have such a little piece, because seas are getting polluted and corals are dying.
33 stars
According to the latest report, there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. Each of us can have 33 of them. Unfortunately, we cannot see most of the 200 billion stars from Earth. We can only see about 6,000 stars. If we don’t use telescopes or we have bad weathers, we can only see about 2,000 stars.
90kg rice
On average, we harvest 0.54 billion tons of rice each year round the world and each of us can have 90 kg. Asia produces and eats 90% of all the rice. How long will it take you to eat up this 90 kg rice?
1 iceberg
Luckily, we still have icebergs to share when Earth gets warmer and warmer. Each of us can have an iceberg of 170m×170m×170m. Up to 10% of Earth surface is covered by ice. There is 31,000,000km3 of ice on Earth in all.
【小题1】On average we each probably have ________ fresh water in the world.
A.over 620m3B.more than 620m3C.far less than 620m3D.only 620m3
【小题2】We are losing the forests on Earth mainly because of________.
A.the man-made damageB.the climate change
C.the construction of many football fieldsD.the environmental pollution
【小题3】When we don’t use telescopes or the weather is bad, we can see ________ stars from Earth.
A.all the stars B.about 2,000C.about 200 billionD.about 6,000
【小题4】According to the table above, we each can only have _____ because of pollution.
A.less water B.fewer icebergs C.fewer corals D.less rice

Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.

"Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape," thundered a magazine article last year. Species are being driven to die out at record rates, and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface, dead.

But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong: things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers, seas, rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg, professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups, and the "bad news" culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.

Now the attacks are increasingly coming from left-wing environmentalists such as Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that, although the environment is improving, green groups — with profits of hundreds of mil-lions of pounds a year — are using scare tactics(谋略)to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warming — probably the biggest environmental threat — but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.

The Worldwatch Institute claims that "deforestation(沙漠化) has been accelerating over the last 30 years". But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover, but in recent decades the forest area's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures, the area of forests has remained almost steady, at about 30 per cent of total land area, since the 1940s. Forests in countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk by about 15 per cent.

Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.

Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said, "There are important examples, such as acid rain and ozone, where things aren't as bad as predicted, and that's because behavior has changed."

1.In his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, what is Lomborg's main argument?

A.Our planet is in bad shape.

B.The world's environment is improving.

C.The total amount of forests in the world is not declining.

D.Conservation efforts have been successful.

2.What is Lomborg's main accusation of environmentalists?

A.They scared people into making donations.

B.They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment.

C.They changed their behavior toward the environment.

D.They only told people bad news about the environment.

3.The underlined word "depleting" in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to "____".

A.reducing

B.limiting

C.expanding

D.accelerating

4.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A.The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly.

B.The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected.

C.It appears that the bald eagle will now survive.

D.In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased.

 

Restaurant owners should not use disposable chopsticks for the good of their health and the environment , an official of the China Cuisine Association(中国烹饪协会)said.

Bian Jiang, its secretary general, recently called on restaurant owners to say no to one-off tableware(餐具), especially wooden chopsticks. “The country produces and throws away over 45 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks every year, at a cost to the environment of about 25 million tree.” Bian said.

“That’s a heavy blow to the county’s shrinking(正在减少的) forests,” he said, “We should not turn a deaf ear to the call for environmental protection. We should stop using disposable tableware from now on.”

In order to discourage the use of wooden chopsticks and to protect wooden resources, the government put a 5% tax on them in April.

The use of disposable chopsticks has been discussed for years. Their supporters say that both restaurant owners and consumers prefer them, and that an industry has grown up around their production.

. 1.

The secretary general suggests that wooden chopsticks be stopped from being used because           .

    A. they cause a lot of pollution of the environment 

    B. the environment is no longer green  

    C. the government is not happy with that

    D. too many trees are cut

2.

 From the text we know that the idea of no disposable tableware will be           .

    A. hard to put into practice            B. welcomed by a lot of people

    C. receiving indifferent attitudes     D. rejected by some people

3.

What does the underlined word “disposable” in the first paragraph mean?

    A. Waste        B. Expensive        C. Man           D. One-use

4.

 What’s the main idea of the text?

    A. Many people support the idea of saying no to using wooden chopsticks.

    B. The government calls on people to stop using wooden chopsticks.

    C. Disposable tableware wastes a lot of forests and does damage to the

environment.

    D. People are aware of the cost of using disposable tableware

 

 

Against the supposition that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror more sunlight into space.

    This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over the next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to cause cooling.

    This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists have suggested that fire in northern regions speed up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants are released into the atmosphere and thus trap heat.

    Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone(臭氧) levels increased, and ash from the fire fell on far-off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the land within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.

    “We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Scientists tracked the change in the amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a result of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicted, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the earth.

46. According to the new findings, taking steps to prevent northern forest fires may __________.

A. result in a warming climate     

B. cause the forest fires to occur more frequently

C. lead to a longer fire season             

D. protect the forests and the environment there

47. The following are all the immediate effects after a forest fire EXCEPT __________.

A. large amounts of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere

B. the levels of ozone which is a type of oxygen increase

C. snow on the ground mirrors more sunlight back into space

D. ashes from the fire fall on the ice surface and take in more radiation from the sun

48. Earlier studies about northern forest fires __________.

A. analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate

B. indicate that forest fires will pollute the atmosphere

C. suggest that people should take measures to protect environment

D. suggest that the fires will speed up climate warming

49.The underlined phrase “soak up” in the last paragraph most probably means __________.

A. released         B. absorbed       C. created      D. distributed

50. From the passage we can draw a conclusion that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia may __________.

A. warm the climate as the supposition goes

B. allow more snow to reflect more sunlight into space and thus cool the climate

C. destroy large areas of forests and pollute the far-off sea ice

D. help to gain more energy rather than release more energy

 

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