Question

【题目】Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen violently from as many as ten million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Losses are largely from poaching（偷猎） for the illegal ivory trade, and also because of the smaller living space for elephants, as people open up land for farming and development.

Killing some elephants to help save the species is one suggested strategy for preserving them. Here’s the thinking: Invite rich hunters to pay generous fees to shoot specified numbers of elephants, and use that money as sources for various conservations.

Some people claim that trophy hunting can provide generous financial support for people to conserve and restore wild elephant numbers, protect wildlife from poaching, and to help give local communities a boost in economy. Doing that, the theory goes, poor villagers won’t need to poach elephants to feed their families.

To look into the new business closely, the trophy hunting industry does not provide significant benefits to the communities where it occurs. Across Africa, there are only about 15,000 hunting-related jobs created by the business—a tiny number, especially considering that the six main game-hunting countries alone have a population of nearly 150 million.

Besides that, it is true the total income from trophy hunting is substantial. Take an unnamed area for example, the total income to wild conservancies from trophy hunting, amounted to $165,000. Six years later, this is expected to increase almost tenfold to $1,330,000. Yet after various kinds of processing fees and expenses are reduced, the local communities make an average of only ten cents a hectare (25 cents an acre) from trophy hunting. The return is so small that it justly explains locals’ lack of interest in preserving hunting areas and their continued poaching.

Answer 1

【答案】African elephants are endangered with greatly reduced numbers due to unlawful poaching and shrinking habitat. Trophy hunting, legal elephant shooting for conservation fund, is considered a solution. According to some, it helps maintain elephant population and benefits local economy. However, it turns out the business employs few people and hunt fee trickling down to local villagers and communities is minimal.

【解析】

本篇书面表达是概要写作，要求概括非洲象由于非法偷猎和栖息地缩小而濒临灭绝的现象，以及对这一现象的解决办法和实行过程中存在的问题。注意词数要求和使用自己的语言。

1、写之前，需要认真仔细地读几遍原文材料，让理解更深刻。

2、遵循原文的逻辑顺序，对重要部分的主题、标题、细节进行概括，全面清晰地表明原文信息。

3、给摘要起一个好标题，比如：可以采用文中的主题句。

4、尽量使用自己的话完成，不要引用原文的句子，篇幅控制在原文的三分之一或四分之一长。