Question

    Mother Nature has it figured out. She’s designed a master scheme that connects plants and animals, all working in concert to keep every living thing in balance.

This is especially obvious in places like central Africa and in South American tropical rainforests where certain animals help keep trees safe and healthy, which is critical as trees absorb vast amounts of planet-warming carbon pollution.

Recent research warns that losing the creatures that nurture trees puts forests in danger. This, by extension, is helping to accelerate dangerous climate change.

In central Africa for example, elephants eat fast-growing trees, making room for those that grow more slowly. The slow-growing trees with their very dense wood store more carbon than the thinner, faster-developing ones Without elephants, more carbon would accumulate in the atmosphere, worsening climate change according to a new study that used computer models to project what could happen if elephant populations continue to decrease or become extinct.

Africa may once have contained 10 million elephants from the Mediterranean to the Cape, in every habitat except extreme desert. In 1970, there may have been a million left. By the end of the 1980s, there were half that number, mostly killed for the ivory trade, "said Stephen Blake, assistant professor of biology at St. Louis University.

By killing elephants, poachers (偷猎者) rob slow growing trees of their guardian. They also slow the growth of new trees. Elephants blaze(开辟) trails and disperse(散播) seeds as they look for food. “Elephants are basically the gardeners of the forest,” Blake said. They disperse over 100 species of seeds, and disperse more of them over longer distances than other dispersers.”

Blake, who has spent nearly 20 years in Africa working in elephant research and conservation, mourns their fate, describing them as “a complex society of intelligent, caring, emotional animals who respect their grandmothers and mourn their dead” and condemns those who neglect their duty to save them.

“We will go to Mars-there is no doubt-humans are too smart not to,” he said. “Yet we do not have the wisdom to protect elephants and their forest environment that do so much for our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.

1.Elephants help keep slow-growing trees safe and healthy by________.

A.providing living space for them.

B.dispersing seeds when searching for food.

C.decreasing in number and reducing carbon accumulation.

D.protecting them in the forest from being cut down.

2.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.The world is changing at a faster speed than before.

B.People are intelligent enough to protect the environment.

C.What we have done to protect elephants is far from satisfactory.

D.Animals are so smart that they care much about the well-being of humans.

3.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A.Elephants are in danger of dying out in the near future.

B.Elephants are fighting climate change in ways humans can’t.

C.Animals are assumed to be the gardeners of the forest.

D.Animals are accelerating dangerous climate change.

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.B

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章通过非洲象的实例告诉我们，大自然找到了保持所有生态平衡的解决方案。而人类又因为大量屠杀非洲象，从而影响了树木的成长。影响了整个生态系统的失衡。

1.细节理解题。根据第4段In central Africa for example, elephants eat fast-growing trees, making room for those that grow more slowly可知，大象吃掉快速生长的树木，为生长缓慢的树木腾出空间。故选A项。

2.推理判断题。根据最后一段Yet we do not have the wisdom to protect elephants and their forest environment that do so much for our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.可知，我们没有足够的智慧来保护大象和它们的森林环境。这些环境对我们的身体、精神和情感健康都有很大的好处。故我们对保护大象和环境所做的事还远远不够。故选C项。

3.主旨大意题。分析文章可知，文章首先提到了大自然母亲找到了方法来保持自然的平衡。后又举例大象通过自己的方式来协助树木成长。因为树木的成长可以促进碳的吸收，从而减少了对气候的破坏。故而大象间接的保护了气候。最后文章有提到，人类还没有足够的智慧保护大象，保护对我们身体和精神都极为重要的环境。通过分析，故选B项。