Each year, an area the size of Beijing plus Shanghai disappears from the Amazon rainforest. On September
30, 2008, Brazil announced that the rate of deforestation increased more than three times in the past year.
     The Amazon rainforest covers around 4.1 million square kilometers of Brazil, nearly 60 percent of the
country. The rainforest supports at least 10 percent of the world's known species. The 17 million people who
live in the Brazilian Amazon depend on the land for their homes and livelihoods. Brazil is the world's biggest
beef and soy exporter. Farmers need land for crops and to feed their cattle. Some burn patches of forest to
clear the land. Others cut down trees for wood. They build roads to transport the wood.
     Brazil's economy is growing, but that growth comes at a price. In May, Brazil's environment minister,
Marina Silva, quit her job. For six years, she tried to protect the forest. But she felt she was losing the battle
against those who are eager to make money in the Amazon.
     The Amazon is the planet's largest absorber of carbon dioxide, a gas that can trap heat in the atmosphere.
A world Wildlife Found study shows that 55 percent of the Amazon could be gone by 2030. Without those
trees, billions of tons of carbon dioxide would stay in the atmosphere. They would speed up global warming.
     Brazilian researchers say that temperatures in the Amazon region will rise by two to three degrees by 2050.
That, and the resulting lower rainfall, could turn 30-60 percent of the forest into grassland with only scattered
trees.

1. The underlined word in the first paragraph probably means _______.

A. a certain forest station
B. the loss of the trees
C. the slow growth of trees
D. an increase in trees

2. In the opinion of the writer, the economic growth of Brazil is based on _______.

A. the development of modern science and technology
B. the world's biggest beef and soy export
C. the gradual destruction of the Amazon rainforest
D. the environmental protection of the Brazilians

3. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A. Marina Silva had devoted herself to protecting the rainforest before she quit her job
B. Marina Silva is determined to fight for the conservation of the rainforest in any case
C. Marina Silva began to hold the post of Brazil's environment minister in 2005
D. The majority of Brazilians have joined Marina Silva in protecting the rainforest

4. What the writer really wants to tell us is that _______.

A.55 percent of the people in the Brazil Amazon will have to leave their homes by 2030.
B. The living standard of the Brazilians has been greatly raised in the past few years.
C. The Amazon rainforest is the planet's largest absorber of carbon dioxide.
D. The Amazon rainforest is in urgent need of the protection, or global warming will speed up.