Section B

A. accompanied     B. trend        C. resist      D. murder     E. incredible

F. severe           G. involving    H. tolerant     I. roughly     J. particular

Drunken driving——sometimes called America’s socially accepted form of41_——has become a national infectious disease.Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers, adding up to an42number of 250,000over the past decade.

A drunken driver is usually defined as one with a 0.10 blood alcohol content or      43three beers, glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours.Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American strong man image and judges were not44in most courts, but the drunken slaughter has recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies, especially45young children, that public opinion is no longer so      46      of it.

Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21, altering a47in the 1960s to reduce it to 18.After New Jersey lowered it to 18, the number of people killed by 18-20-year-old drivers more than doubled, so the state recently upped it back to 21.

Reformers, however, fear raising the drinking age will have little effect unless48by educational programs to help young people to develop “responsible attitudes” about drinking and teach them to49strong pressure to drink.

Tough new laws have led to increased arrests and tests and, in many areas already, to a marked decrease in fatalities(死亡事故).Some states are also penalizing bars for serving customers too many drinks.

C

The Tasmanian devil is a rare marsupial(有袋动物)that lives only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The doglike animal is rapidly disappearing. The Tasmanian state government estimates that the number of devils has dropped from around 150,000 in the mid-1990s to between 20,000 and 50,000 at the end of 2007.

       The devil was declared an endangered species last week. It is being wiped out by a rare cancer called devil facial tumor(肿瘤)disease(DFTD). It spreads like a cold or flu from animal to animal. The disease is passed when one devil bites another. When the marsupial is infected with DFTD, large tumors develop around its mouth and neck. These growths make it impossible for the devil to eat. Many finally die from starvation within six months of being infected. As the name implies, the disease occurs only in Tasmanian devils and cannot be passed to humans.

       You’ve got to remember that devils are scavengers(清扫工). They search through garbage for food. Throughout Tasmania people maintain outdoor dumps. If somebody threw out a carcass(兽类尸体), then the devils might actually consume quite large quantities of it.

       The disease has not yet appeared in the devil population that lives in the northwest region of Tasmania. Conservationists have captured some of the healthy devils and sent them to a new home on the mainland of Australia. They hope these DFTD-free marsupials can be used to start a captive-breeding population. Once there are more disease-free devils, they can then repopulate the areas of Tasmania where the species are being wiped out.

       Tasmanian devils play an important role in keeping the state’s ecosystem in balance. They keep the population of other predators, such as foxes and wild cats, in check. Ray Nias, head of World Wildlife Federation—Australia’s conservation program, says all Tasmanian wildlife will suffer if the devil becomes extinct. “If the devils go and the foxes and cats increase, it would be all over for a good dozen or more species of mammals, many of which are unique to Tasmania.”

46. It can be inferred that the Tasmanian devil is __________.

       A. a hard-working street-cleaner                        B. a grass-eating animal

       C. a meat-eating marsupial                                D. A DFTD origin

47. What’s the reason for making the Tasmanian devil endangered?

       A. A rare disease called DFTD occurs in Tasmanian devils.

       B. Dogs like to attack Tasmanian devils.

       C. Tasmanian people try to wipe out Tasmanian devils.

       D. The region of Tasmania is becoming hard for Tasmanian devils to breed.

48. To which question does the last paragraph give the answer?

       A. How should people protect the devils?

       B. What do the Tasmanian people do with the devils?

       C. What happens if the devils disappear?

       D. Which animal is closely related to the devils?

49. What measures do Tasmanian people take to stop the devils from being wiped out?

       A. Trapping disease-free devils in a new place to breed more young devils.

       B. Searching the cause of the disease and finding an effective treatment.

       C. Developing new chemicals for the infected animals.

       D. Moving all the devils to a new home on the mainland of Australia.

50. What’s true about DFTD?

       A. It’s a disease that can be spread to human beings.

       B. It’s a cold that occurs only in Tasmanian devils.

       C. It’s a flu that Tasmanian devils get from their companions.

       D. It’s a cancer that can be passed from one Tasmanian devil to another.

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