Question

    It was a lifesaving task as thrilling as any in the months-long battle against the wildfires that have torn through the Australian bush. But instead of a race to save humans or animals, a specialized team of Australian firefighters was bent on saving invaluable plant life: hidden groves (树林) of the Wollemi pine, a prehistoric tree species.

Wollemi pines peaked in abundance 34 million to 65 million years ago, before a steady decline. Today, only 200 of the trees exist in their natural environment. The trees are so rare that they were thought to die out until 1994. That’s the year when David Noble, an officer with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, came across a grove of large trees he didn’t recognize.

Noble brought back a few branches and showed them to other biologists and botanists. A month later, Noble returned to the grove with some scientists. It was then that they realized what they had found: “a prehistoric tree species that has outlived the dinosaurs.” the American Scientist explains. So when Australia’s wildfires started burning toward Wollemi National Park in recent weeks, firefighters from the parks and wildlife service put a carefully planned operation into action.

Large air tankers dropped fire retardant (阻燃剂) around the pines. Firefighters set up an irrigation (灌溉) system around the trees to keep them wet. “If the fire did go through, we wanted it to be a cool burn as opposed to a hot burn to give them the best chance of survival,” Kean said. The fire did sweep through the groves where these trees have somehow survived for millions of years. For a few days, the smoke was so thick that it wasn’t clear whether the plan had worked. At last the smoke eased off. A few trees had been burned by the flames, and two died. But the efforts had paid off. “Finally,” Kean said, “we were able to get in there and see that, thank goodness, the trees were saved.”

1.What do we know about Wollemi pines?

A.Scientists searched for them in the wild.

B.They used to grow in parts of Australia.

C.There were a considerable number of them long ago.

D.Firefighters and biologists cooperated to keep them alive.

2.Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “outlived” in Paragraph 3?

A.been superior to. B.been related to.

C.died earlier than. D.existed longer than.

3.What can be learned from the last paragraph?

A.It was cool to drop retardant over the fire.

B.It wasn’t clear whether the trees were saved.

C.It helped the trees survive to keep them wet.

D.It worked best for the trees to keep a hot burn.

4.What is the passage mainly about?

A.An investigation into Wollemi pines.

B.A hard-won battle against the wildfires.

C.Constructing a firefighting system for the trees.

D.Saving world’s rare pine species from wildfires.

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.C

4.D

【解析】

这是一篇记叙文。文章介绍了澳大利亚消防员在扑救山火的过程中拯救宝贵植物——沃莱米松树的故事。沃莱米松树是一种非常罕见的比恐龙活得更久的史前树种，消防员们在扑救山火时，在松树周围投下阻燃剂，铺设了灌溉装置以防止树木被烧毁。幸运的是，松树被成功拯救了。

1.

细节理解题。第二段第一句提到“Wollemi pines peaked in abundance 34 million to 65 million years ago”沃莱米松树在3400万至6500万年前的数量达到了顶峰，由此判断，该松树在很久以前的数量是非常可观的。故选C。

2.

词义猜测题。第三段第三句提到科学家在研究后发现这种松树是“a prehistoric tree species”一种史前的松树，说明该种松树比恐龙出现的时间还要早，存活的时间比恐龙还要长。 “outlived”意思是比......活得长，A. been superior to.优于……； B. been related to.与……相关；C. died earlier than.比……死的早；D. existed longer than.比……存在的时间更长。故选D。

3.

推理判断题。最后一段第一、二句提到“Large air tankers dropped fire retardant (阻燃剂) around the pines. Firefighters set up an irrigation (灌溉) system around the trees to keep them wet.”消防员们给松树投放了阻燃剂，并且安装了灌溉系统来帮助松树附近保持湿润，且该段的最后一句提到“we were able to get in there and see that, thank goodness, the trees were saved.”当消防员进入树林后发现，树木被拯救了。由此判断消防员们对松树做的保护措施帮助松树保持了湿润，让松树幸存了下来。故选C。

4.

主旨大意题。第一段But instead of a race to save humans or animals, a specialized team of Australian firefighters was bent on saving invaluable plant life: hidden groves (树林) of the Wollemi pine, a prehistoric tree species.（但是，澳大利亚的一队专门的消防队员并没有为了拯救人类或动物而竞赛，而是决心拯救珍贵的植物生命:隐藏的沃莱米松树，一种史前树种）是全文的主题句，结合全文内容，可知文章第一段提到了故事发生的背景——扑救澳大利亚山火时，消防员也在尽力拯救宝贵的松树。第二段介绍了松树的相关情况：包括数量、如何发现等，最后一段则介绍了拯救松树的方式：投洒阻燃剂、设置灌溉设备帮助松树保持湿润等。综上可判断，整篇文章讲述了从野火中拯救世界珍稀松树物种。故选D。