Question

阅读下面短文，根据第1至第5小题的具体要求，简要回答问题。

　　A hundred years ago, the only signs of elephants at Kruger National Park in north-eastern South Africa, which had just opened, were a few tracks in a dry river bed．Game hunters of the 19th century had hunted the creatures almost to extinction(绝种)．Conservation efforts were so successful that, in 1967, the authorities decided they had to start culling(剔选)elephants -shooting them from helicopters and hauling their dead bodies away in trucks-to keep their populations between 6,000 and 8,000, considered to be the park's“carrying capacity(容量)．”Few people questioned the policy, which was dropped in 1995．Since then, the elephant population has soared to 14,000．Conservationists now fear that it might destroy vegetation, threatening many life forms with extinction．

　　A new proposal to select the creatures has created a dilemma for the national parks authority, South African National Parks．As a responsible department, it has urged that “decisive action is required”to safe guard the survival of the rich and various life forms in South African wildlife reserves．The culling of elephants, it argues, is needed as a necessary measure to prevent local creatures' extinctions in the future．“A decision of culling elephants,”the park manager said back in 2005,“should not be delayed beyond March 2006．”What has held up this action is fierce disagreement over whether culling the elephants is a morally responsible choice-a debate that didn't exist in 1967．

　　What's changed? Scientists have told us in recent years that elephants and other higher mammals-such as chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins, whales and dogs-have aspects of feelings and intelligence that until recently most people thought was the province of humans alone．Geneticists have shown that 98 per cent of the human genetic code is identical to that of chimpanzees．Psychologists and neuroscientists assert that higher mammals experience emotions．Linguistic researchers have proved that many mammals have languages with a diversity of sounds and symbols．The debate over what to do about Kruger's elephants-like similar debates over the ethics of animal testing and the treatment of animals raised for food-is challenging us to reflect on how we treat other living beings．

1．According to this passage, what was the most probable reason for elephants' almost extinction in north-eastern South Africa in the 19^th century?(回答词数不超过1个)

2．Why did the authorities decide to keep the elephants' populations between 6, 000 to 8, 000?(回答词数不超过10个)

3．What department is in charge of Kruger National Park?(回答词数不超过4个)

4．What does the underlined word“that”in the last paragraph refer to?(回答词数不超过3个)

5．What does the debate over what to do about Kruger's elephants make us reflect on?

(回答词数不超过6个)

Answer 1

答案：
解析：

1．Hunting． 　　2．Because it's considered to be the park's“carrying capacity”． 　　3．South African National Parks． 　　4．The genetic code． 　　5．How we treat other living beings．