本文介绍了美国著名的生物学家Edward Wilson 的著作The Future of Life中的一些有关如何开发、利用和保护自然资源的情况。

    Edward Wilson is America’s, if not the world’s, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world’s natural resources(资源). How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.

    Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment (环境) protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today’s Walden Pond with that of Thoreau’s day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Van the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?

Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.

At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may well read and act on the ideas in this book.

We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about ______

A. the environment for plants

B. the biodiversity of our earth

C. the wastes of natural resources

D. the importance of human values

How many species are most important to our present food supply?

A. Twenty.   B. Eighty.    C. One hundred     D. Ten thousand.

Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to _______.

A. learn how to farm scientifically

B. build homes for some dying species

C. make it clear what to eat

D. use more species for food

We can infer that the text is _______

A. a description of natural resources  

B. a research report

C. a book review

D. an introduction to a scientist.


本文介绍了美国著名的生物学家Edward Wilson 的著作The Future of Life中的一些有关如何开发、利用和保护自然资源的情况。
Edward Wilson is America’s, if not the world’s, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world’s natural resources(资源). How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.
Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment (环境) protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today’s Walden Pond with that of Thoreau’s day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Van the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?
Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.
At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may well read and act on the ideas in this book.
【小题1】 We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about ______

A.the environment for plants
B.the biodiversity of our earth
C.the wastes of natural resources
D.the importance of human values
【小题2】How many species are most important to our present food supply?
A.Twenty.B.Eighty.C.One hundredD.Ten thousand.
【小题3】Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to _______.
A.learn how to farm scientifically
B.build homes for some dying species
C.make it clear what to eat
D.use more species for food
【小题4】 We can infer that the text is _______
A.a description of natural resources
B.a research report
C.a book review
D.an introduction to a scientist.


B
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to represent all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on Earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his words,“the worst came to the worst.” Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above zero degrees Celsius. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high—security doors.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below zero Celsius. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most secure gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was permitted use of Spitsbergen. New Scientist says the plan won United Nations approval in October at a meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
55.The project is meant to_______.
A.increase the world’s food production in the future
B.carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes
C.protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters
D.build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds
56.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
A.The government of Norway will perform the project alone.
B.Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousand years ago.
C.Spitsbergen is chosen because it is away from the threat of unclear war forever.
D.Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.
57.We can infer from the text that_______.
A.People will get newly?developed seeds from the center every year
B.The storage center will greatly promote the development of world agriculture
C.Norway meant to have built the storage centre more than 20 years ago
D.There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before
58.What is probably the best title of the passage?
A.Noah’s Ark(诺亚方舟) of Plant Seeds in Plan.      B.The Best Place to Store Seeds.
C.Concerns of World Food Supply.                 D.A New Way to Feed the World.

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