Forests are being cut and burned at _______a speed ________they will disappear from the earth in the near future.
A．such；as B．so；that C． such；that D．so；as
科目：高中英语 来源：2012-2013学年广东省执信中学高二上学期期末考试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
What would you think if someone suggested knocking down St Paul’s Cathedral to widen the road? Or pulling down Big Ben to make way for a car park? It would be ridiculous, right? But when it comes to devastation (毁灭) of the natural world, we aren’t so easily shocked. But we should be…or we’ll be in a lot of trouble.
Nature is shrinking by the day. Ancient forests are destroyed. Wetlands are becoming dry. Woodland is disappearing, and all in the name of progress. This is bad in itself, but it’s devastating for biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other living things that are all interconnected. The ecological services provided by biodiversity are vital to everyday life. The air we breathe is a product of photosynthesis (光合作用) by green plants. Insects, worms and bacteria break down waste and make soils rich. And tiny organisms clean the water in rivers and sea. In fact, all life on the earth exists thanks to the benefits of biodiversity. More than 90 percent of the calories consumed by people worldwide are produced from 80 plant species. And 30 percent of medicines are developed from plants and animals. Maintaining a wide diversity of species in each ecosystem is necessary to preserve all living things.
The loss of biodiversity could be devastating. “It is wrong to think that biodiversity can be reduced indefinitely without threatening humans,” said Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, known as the “father of biodiversity”. He warned, “We are about to reach a critical point beyond which biodiversity loss will become irreversible (不可挽回的).”
But what can we do? The present problem is that the concept of biodiversity is so vague (含糊的). People might care about giant pandas, but it is much harder to excite them about the fate of tiny sea creatures which are being boiled to death in the cooling systems of power stations along coastlines. The Guardian newspaper is trying to help. It has launched the Biodiversity 100 campaign to try to convince governments around the world to take action to deal with the widespread concerns about biodiversity. This includes persuading the UK government to create a series of marine reserves to reserve the decrease in the sea-life caused by industrial fishing, stopping fishing sharks by the Japanese fishermen and banning the killing of dingoes (wild dogs) in Australia, among many other things.
There is a lot to do. And we’d better act quickly if we don’t want to end up with a planet that can’t sustain life!
【小题1】The writer thinks it ________ to pull down Big Ben to make way for a car park.
| A．unreasonable | B．necessary | C．difficult | D．reasonable |
| A．nature is badly polluted by humans |
| B．species are becoming fewer and fewer day by day |
| C．rainforests are being cut down every day |
| D．nature is full of mysteries |
| A．it doesn’t matter to reduce biodiversity |
| B．people have done enough to preserve biodiversity |
| C．the situation of biodiversity is very serious |
| D．biodiversity loss has become irreversible |
| A．people might not clearly know what is biodiversity and what should be protected |
| B．people are not aware that giant pandas are endangered |
| C．people don’t realize that biodiversity is vital to everyday life |
| D．people hunt sea creatures for food |
| A．The UK government. | B．The concept of biodiversity. |
| C．The action to deal with the problem. | D．The Guardian newspaper. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2010届江苏省南通、扬州、泰州三市高三第二次模拟考试英语试题 题型：阅读理解
Saving the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products
Jackie Heinricher’s love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. “As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a slight wind, the bamboos sounded really musical.”
A fisheries biologist, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive. Then her garden gave her the idea for a business: She’d planted 20 bamboo forests on their seven-acre farm.
Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998. She realized early on what is just now beginning to be known to the rest of the world. It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing. An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a group of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen.
First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years. And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it.
Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her. “People kept telling us we’d never figure it out,” says Heinricher. “Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going.”
She was right to feel a sense of urgency. Bamboo forests are being rapidly used up, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world’s species are threatened with dying out. Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions (排放) and world economies, but only if huge numbers could be produced. And that’s just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants. By placing cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to grow and then raised them in soil in greenhouses.
Not long after it, Burr’s lab hit financial difficulties. Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn’t prepared to quit. So she bought the lab.
Today Heinricher heads up a profitable multimillion-dollar company, working on species from all over the world and selling them to wholesalers. “If you want to farm bamboo, it’s hard to do without the young plants, and that’s what we have,” she says proudly.
56. What was the main problem with planting bamboo widely?
A. They didn’t have enough young bamboo.
B. They were short of money and experience.
C. They didn’t have a big enough farm to do it.
D. They were not understood by other people.
57. What does Heinricher think of bamboo?
A. Renewable and acceptable B. Productive and flexible.
C. Useful and earth-friendly. D. Strong and profitable.
58. The underlined word “renewable” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”.
A. able to be replaced naturally B. able to be raised difficultly
C. able to be shaped easily D. able to be recycled conveniently
59. What do you learn from the passage?
A. Heinricher’s love for bamboo led to her experiments in the lab.
B. Heinricher’s determination helped her to succeed in her work.
C. Heinricher struggled to prevent bamboo from disappearing.
D. Heinricher finally succeeded in realizing her childhood dream.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2015届安微省池州市高二上学期期中考试英语试卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
One reaction to all the concern about tropical deforestation（毁林） is a blank stare that asks the question, "Since I don't live there, what does it have to do with me?"
The answer is that your way of life, wherever you live in the world, is tied to the tropics in many ways. If you live in a house, wash your hair, eat fruits and vegetables, drink soda, or drive a car, you can be certain that you are affected by the loss of tropical forests.
Biologically, we are losing the richest regions on earth when, each minute, a piece of tropical forest, the size of ten city blocks, disappears. As many as five million species of plants, animals, and insects (40 to 50 percent of all living things) live there, and are being lost faster than they can be found and described. Their loss is immeasurable.
Take rubber for example. For many uses, only natural rubber from trees will do. Synthetics are not good enough. Today over half the world's commercial rubber is produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, while the Amazon's rubber industry produces much of the world's four million tons. And rubber is an important material in making gloves, balloons, footwear and many sporting goods. Thousands of other tropical plants are valuable for their industrial use.
Many scientists strongly believe that deforestation contributes to the greenhouse effect -- or heating of the earth from increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As we destroy forests, we lose their ability to change carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Carbon dioxide levels could double within the next half-century, warming the earth by as much as 4.5 degrees. The result? A partial melt-down of polar ice caps, raising sea levels as much as 24 feet; even 15 feet could threaten anyone living within 35 miles of the coast. Unbelievable? Maybe. But scientists warn that by the time we realise the severe effects of tropical deforestation, it will be 20 years too late.
Can tropical deforestation affect our everyday lives? Now, you should have got the answer.
1.The underlined word "synthetics" probably means_________.
A. natural rubber B. tropical materials
C. man-made material D. commercial rubber
2.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. The forests are losing their function in turning carbon dioxide into oxygen.
B. Many of our daily uses are related to the tropical forests.
C. Tropical plants can be used to make industrial products.
D. High carbon dioxide levels will make the earth warmer.
3.The author's attitude towards the tropical deforestation is _________ .
A. puzzling B. cold C. supporting D. opposed
4.Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?
A. Tropical Forests B. The Value of Tropical Forests
C. Tropical Forests and Our Life D. The Greenhouse Effects
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科目：高中英语 来源：2014届湖南省株洲市高一上学期期末考试英语试卷（解析版） 题型：其他题
请根据上下文内容，将文中划线部分译成汉语或英语。
Three mountains, Meili, Baimang and Haba, which 1. 被雪覆盖着, tower over the land. Their snowy mountaintops form a beautiful picture 2. that leave you at a loss for words.
Below the mountains, the sunshine reflects on the many lakes, making them shine like diamonds against the rich countryside. 3. Sheep, cattle and horses wander on the green grass, and the surrounding forests are home to many birds and animals. In this peaceful land, 4. 人们与自然完美和谐地共处, far away from the noise and worry of the outside world.
Nature has provided Shangri-la with endless natural treasures, 5. making the land a happy home for the local people.
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科目：高中英语 来源：河南省2009-2010学年高二校内竞赛试题（英语） 题型：阅读理解
Lead（铅） deposits, which accumulated（增加） in soil and snow during the 1960's and 70's, were primarily the result of leaded gasoline emissions originating in the United States. In the twenty years that the Clean Air Act has mandated（托管） unleaded gas use in the United States, the lead accumulation world-wide has decreased greatly.
A study published recently in the journal Nature shows that air-borne leaded gas emissions from the United States were the leading contributor to the high concentration of lead in the snow in Greenland. The new study is a result of the continued research led by Dr. Charles Boutron, an expert on the impact of heavy metals on the environment at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. A study by Dr. Boutron published in 1991 showed that lead levels in arctic (北极的) snow were declining（减少）.
In his new study, Dr. Boutron found the ratios of the different forms of lead in the leaded gasoline used in the United States were different from the ratios of European, Asian and Canadian gasoline and thus enabled scientists to differentiate (分区) the lead sources. The dominant lead ratio found in Greenland snow matched that found in gasoline from the United States.
In a study published in the journal Ambio, scientists found that lead levels in soil in the North-eastern United States had decreased markedly since the introduction of unleaded gasoline. Many scientists had believed that the lead would stay in soil and snow for a longer period.
The authors of the Ambio study examined samples of the upper layers of soil taken from the same sites of 30 forest floors in New England, New York and Pennsylvania in 1980 and in 1990. The forest environment processed and redistributed (再分配)the lead faster than the scientists had expected. Scientists say both studies show that certain parts of the ecosystem (生态系统 ) respond rapidly to reductions in atmospheric pollution, but that these findings should not be used as a license to pollute.
1. The study published in the journal Nature indicates that ________.
A. the Clean Air Act has not produced the desired results
B. lead deposits in arctic snow are on the increase
C. lead will stay in soil and snow longer than expected
D. the US is the major source of lead pollution in arctic snow
2. Lead accumulation worldwide decreased significantly after the use of unleaded gas in the US ________.
A. was discouraged B. was carried out by law
C. was forbidden by law D. was introduced
3. How did scientists discover the source of lead pollution in Greenland?
A. By analyzing the data published in journals like Nature and Ambio.
B. By observing the lead accumulations in different parts of the arctic area.
C. By studying the chemical elements of soil and snow in Northeastern America.
D. By comparing the chemical compositions of leaded gasoline used in various countries.
4. The authors of the Ambio study have found that ________.
A forests get rid of lead pollution faster than expected
B. lead accumulations in forests are more difficult to deal with
C. lead deposits are widely distributed in the forests of the US
D. the upper layers of soil in forests are easily polluted by lead emissions
5. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that scientists ________.
A. are puzzled by the mystery of forest pollution
B. feel ease by the use of unleaded gasoline
C. still consider lead pollution a problem
D. lack enough means to combat lead pollution
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