Trees
are useful to man in three very important ways: they provide him with wood and
other products;they give
him shade;and they
help to prevent drought and floods.
Unfortunately,
in many parts of the world, man has not realized that the third of these
services is the most important. In his eagerness to draw quick profit from the
trees, he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he
has lost the best friends he had.
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. When the empire fell to
pieces, the country found itself faced by floods and starvation.
Even
though a government realizes the importance of a plentiful supply of trees, it
is difficult for it to persuade the villager to see this. The villager wants
wood to cook his food with, and he can earn money by making charcoal(木炭) or selling wood to the townsman(城市居民). He is
usually too lazy or too careless to plant and look after trees. 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 villager’s sons and grandsons 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
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.
1.The
purpose that the writer wrote this article 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 man live a better life.
2. In the
writer’s opinion, _________, or the forests will slowly disappear.
A.
measures must be taken
B. people
shouldn’t draw benefit from the tree
C.
government must realize the serious results
D. unless
no trees are cut down.
3.According
to the article we know 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
4.In the
last two paragraphs 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 become desert slowly
D. floods will make the land become desert