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阅读理解

　　LONDON(Reuters)－Ecotourism(生态旅游)is causing a lot of damage to wildlife and may be endangering the survial(生存)of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers．

　　Biologists and conservationists(自然环境保护论者)are worried because polar bears, dolphins, penguins and other creatures are getting stressed and losing weight and some are dying．

　　Evidence(证据)is growing that many animals do not react well to tourists in their backyard．”New Scientist magazine said．

　　The immediate effects researchers have noticed are changes in behavior, heart rates, or stress hormone levels but they fear it could get much worse and over the long term“could endanger the survival of the very wildlife they want to see”．

　　Although money produced through ecotourism, which has been growing at about 10～30 percent a year, has major benefits for poor countries and people living in rural areas, the Swiss－based World Conservation Union and some governments fear not all projects are audited(审计)and based on environmentally friendly policies, according to the magazine．

　　“The transmission(传播)of disease to wildlife, or small changes to wildlife health through disturbance of daily life or increased stress levels, while not obvious to the casual observer, may translate to lower survival and breeding．”said Philip Seddon, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand．

　　Scientists have noticed that bottleneck dolphins along the nortbeastem coast of New Zealand become nervously excited when tourist boats arrive, Similar changes in behavior have been observed in polar bears and yellow- eyed penguins in areas visited by ecotourists are producing smaller babies．

　　Conservationists are now calling for more research into the effect of ecotourism on animals and say the industry must be developed carefully．They also want studies done before new ecotourism projects are started．

　　“The animal's welfare should be very important because without them there will be no ecotourism．”said Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland in New Zealand．

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阅读理解

　　Can storms in Africa cause asthma(哮喘)in the Caribbean(加勒比)? Islanders point to the desert insects that land on beaches after a 5,000-kilometer flight across the Atlantic．If they can use winds to get from one continent to another, so can clouds of dust that carry disease．

　　Scientists think that as Africa becomes drier, dust from expanding deserts is being blown away into Caribbean islands．A study in Barbados shows that asthma has increased 17 times since Africa’s drought(干旱)began in 1973．

　　Other forms of life are suffering, too．Among them are the Caribbean’s famous coral reefs(珊瑚礁), which began dying in large numbers in the 1900s．Eugene Shinn of the U．S．Geiological Sudrvey(USGS)in Florida went to the virgin Islands to study the reefs．The tests he and his colleagues carried out showed that the coral was dying of disease caused by Africa microbes(微生物)from across the ocean．

　　William Sprigg of the University of Arizona is studying the problem as part of a major UN project．He says that dust is causing problems in the U．S．, too．

　　“We are just beginning to collect the evidence of airborne(空气传播的)dust influences on human health,” he told The Washington Post．

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