
代號:2301
頁次:4
-
4
We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not
equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we
progress with great speed, but at its end lies 41 . The other fork of the road—the one “less traveled
by”—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the 42 of our earth.
The choice is ours to make. If, having endured much, we have at last asserted our “right to know,” a nd
43 , knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we
should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals;
we should look about and see what other course is open to us.
A truly extraordinary variety of 44 to the chemical control of insects are available. Some are already
in use and have achieved brilliant success. Others are in the stage of laboratory testing. Still others are little
more than ideas in the minds of imaginative scientists, waiting for the opportunity to put them to the test.
41 blessings disaster victory happiness
42 preservation precipitation infrastructure industrialization
43 if because when though
44 adjustments altercations announcements alternatives
45 “Good” fires are ecologically crucial, clearing out dead bush and returning nutrients to the soil.
Ecologically speaking, fires can never be good considering their destructive power.
Fires are important to the environment in the way they help keep good substances from going into the ground.
Some fires are good and ecologically essential because they turn the scorched dry trees into nourishment in the
earth.
It is considered positive to extinguish fires that burn down useless trees and reserve nutrients for valuable ones.
46 Although money, as the saying goes, cannot buy happiness, it sure can help chase the blues away.
Although being rich may not make us happy, being poor will definitely make us less happy.
Although happiness is not something money can buy, being rich is still what many people wish for.
Although being rich may not make us happy, having money certainly can help us not feel so sad.
Although money cannot buy true happiness, it is no doubt that the rich are happier than the poor.
Even by the brutish standards of Tasmanian devils, Rosie, Harry, and Clyde have led a lamentable life. A
year ago, when the three were each the size of a sesame seed, they wriggled out of their mother’s birth canal
and undulated their way to her pouch. There, each locked onto a teat and grew quickly. But within months, their
mother developed devil facial tumor disease—a mysterious malady that in the last three years has killed nearly
half of all the world’s devils, marsupials that are found only in Tasmania. Shortly after she died, the baby devils,
grown to the size of tiny puppies, were found dangling from their mother’s pouch, starving to death. Rescued
and reared by hand, Rosie, Harry, and Clyde recently joined six similarly orphaned devils at the Launceston
Lakes and Wildlife Park, all in strict quarantine. The fate of their exotic species—Sarcophilus harrisii—may lie
in what happens to these rambunctious youngsters in the next 12 to 18 months. “If they contract the disease,
devils may be headed for extinction in the wild,” said a wildlife biologist. Right now, wildlife experts are
struggling to comprehend the nature of the fast-moving epidemic. Moving at a rate of 10 to 16 kilometers a year,
it is 100 percent fatal. Only the west coast, isolated by mountain ranges inhospitable to devils, is disease free.
Nearly half of the estimated 150,000 devils in Tasmania are now dead.
47 What is the passage mainly about?
A species of marsupial A species of sesame
A species of wolf A species of plant
48 According to the passage, what has happened to Tasmanian devils?
Environmental pollution Tumor epidemic
Wildlife hunting Animal starvation
49 What happened to Rosie, Harry, and Clyde after their mother’s death?
Killed by hunters Contracting the disease
Reared by humans Being dead from starvation
50 According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
Wildlife experts have found the causes for the disease.
The west coast, isolated by mountain ranges, is disease free.
Orphaned devils are in strict quarantine at the Wildlife Park.
The mysterious disease is fatal.