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Passage 1
主题:New Zealand Forestry 新西兰的林业
文章主旨:新西兰木材出口
题型:判断和选择题
Passage 2
文章主旨:珊瑚礁的经济作用和对人们生活的影
Coral reefs
A Coral reefs are estimated to cover 284,300 km2 just under 0.1% of the oceans' surface area, about half the area of France. The Indo-Pacific region accounts for 91.9% of this total area. Southeast Asia accounts for 32.3% of that figure, while the Pacific including Australia accounts for 40.8%. Atlantic and Caribbean coral reefs account for 7.6%. Yet often called “rainforests of the sea", coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They provide a home for 25% of all marine species, including fish, mollusks (软体动物), worms, crustaceans(甲壳类动物), echinoderms(棘皮动物), sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians.
Paradoxically, coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients. They are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters, but deep water and cold water corals also exist on smaller scales in other areas. Although corals exist both in temperate and tropical waters, shallow-water reefs form only in a zone extending from 30° N to 30° S of the equator. Deep water coral can exist at greater depths and colder temperatures at much higher latitudes, as far north as Norway. Coral reefs are rare along the American and African west coasts. This is due primarily to upwelling and strong cold coastal currents that reduce water temperatures in these areas (respectively the Peru, Benguela and Canary streams). Corals are seldom found along the coastline of South Asia from the eastern tip of India (Madras) to the Bangladesh(孟加拉国)and Myanmar borders. They are also rare along the coast around northeastern South America and Bangladesh due to the freshwater release from the Amazon and Ganges Rivers(恒河), respectively.
B Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services to tourism, fisheries and coastline protection. The global economic value of coral reefs has been estimated at as much as $US375 billion per year. Coral reefs protect shorelines by absorbing wave energy(潮汐能), and many small islands would not exist without their reef to protect them.
C The value of reefs in biodiverse (生物多样的) regions can be even higher. In parts of Indonesia and the Caribbean where tourism is the main use, reefs are estimated to be worth US$1 million per square kilometer, based on the cost of maintaining sandy beaches and the value of attracting snorkelers (浮潜者)and scuba divers (水肺潜水). Meanwhile, a recent study of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia found that the reef is worth more to the country as an intact ecosystem than an extractive reserve for fishing. Each year more than 1.8 million tourists visit the reef, spending an estimated AU$4.3 billion (Australian dollars) on reef-related industries from diving to boat rental to posh island resort stays. In the Caribbean, says UNEP, the net annual benefits from diver tourism was US$2 billion in 2000 with US$625 million spent directly on diving on reefs. Further, reef tourism is important source of employment, especially for some of the world's poorest people. UNEP says that of the estimated 30 million small-scale fishers in the developing world, most are dependent to a greater or lesser extent on coral reefs. In the Philippines, for example, more than one million small-scale fishers depend directly on coral reefs for their livelihoods. The report estimates that reef fisheries (渔场) were worth between $15,000 and $150,000 per square kilometer a year, while fish caught for aquariums (水族馆) were worth $500 a kilogram against $6 for fish caught as food. The aquarium fish export industry supports around 50,000 people and generates some US$5.5 million a year in Sri Lanka along.
D Unfortunately, coral reefs are dying around the world. In particular, coral mining, agricultural and urban runoff(入水), pollution (organic and inorganic), disease, and the digging of canals and access into islands and bays are localized threats to coral ecosystems(生态系统). Broader threats are sea temperature rise, sea level rise and pH changes from ocean acidification (酸化) , all associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Some current fishing practices are destructive and unsustainable. These include cyanide fishing, overfishing and blast fishing. Although cyanide (氰化物毒)fishing supplies live reef fish for the tropical aquarium market, most fish caught using this method are sold in restaurants, primarily in Asia, where live fish are prized for their freshness. To catch fish with cyanide, fishers dive down to the reef and squirt cyanide in coral crevices and on the fast-moving fish, to stun the fish making them easy to catch.
Overfishing is another leading cause for coral reef degradation. Often, too many fish are taken from one reef to sustain a population in that area. Poor fishing practices, such as banging on the reef with sticks (muro-ami), destroy coral formations that normally function as fish habitat. In some instances, people fish with explosives (爆炸物) (blast fishing), which blast apart the surrounding coral.
E Tourist resorts that empty their sewage directly into the water surrounding coral reefs contribute to coral reef degradation. Wastes kept in poorly maintained septic tanks can also leak into surrounding ground water, eventually seeping out to the reefs. Careless boating, diving, snorkeling and fishing can also damage coral reefs. Whenever people grab, kick, and walk on, or stir up sediment (沉淀物) in the reefs, they contribute to coral reef destruction. Corals are also harmed or killed when people drop anchors on them or when people collect coral.
F To find answers for these problems, scientists and researchers study the various factors that impact reefs. The list includes the ocean's role as a carbon dioxide sink, atmospheric changes, ultraviolet light (紫外线光) , ocean acidification, viruses, impacts of dust storms carrying agents to far flung reefs, pollutants, algal blooms and others. Reefs are threatened well beyond coastal areas. General estimates show approximately 10% of the world’s coral reefs are dead. About 60% of the world's reefs are at risk due to destructive, human-related activities. The threat to the health of reefs is particularly strong in Southeast Asia, where 80% of reefs are endangered.
G In Australia, the Great Barrier Reef(大堡礁) is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and is the subject of much legislation, including a biodiversity action plan. Inhabitants of Ahus Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, have followed a generations-old practice of restricting fishing in six areas of their reef lagoon(环礁湖). Their cultural traditions allow line fishing, but not net or spear fishing. The result is both the biomass and individual fish sizes are significantly larger than in places where fishing is unrestricted.
Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 Geographical location of world’s coral reef
15 How does coral reef benefit economy locally
16 The statistics of coral reef‘s economic significance
17 The listed reasons for declining number of coral reef
18 Physical approach to coral reef by people
19 Unsustainable fishing methods are applied in regions of the world
Questions 20-25
Do the following statement agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
20 Coral reefs provide habitat to variety of marine life.
21 Coral reef distribute around the ocean disproportionally.
22 Coral reef is increasingly important for scientific purpose.
23 Coral reefs are greatly exchanged among and exported to other counties.
24 Reef tourism is of economic essence generally for some poor people.
25 As with other fishing business, coral fishery is not suitable to women and children
Questions 26
Choose the correct letter. A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 26 on your answer sheet.
What is the main purpose of the this passage
A Demonstrate how coral reef grow in the ocean
B To tell that coral reef is widely used as a scientific project
C Present the general benefits and an alarming situation of coral reef
D To show the vital efforts made to protect coral reef in Australia
Passage 3
内容简介——tourism writing 旅行笔记攻略的发展历史
题型:NB、判断和选择题
Travel Accounts
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage below.
A There are many reasons why individuals have traveled beyond their own societies. Some travelers may have simply desired to satisfy curiosity about the larger world. Until recent times, however, trade, business dealings, diplomacy, political administration, military campaigns, exile, flight from persecution, migration, pilgrimage, missionary efforts, and the quest for economic or educational opportunities were more common inducements for foreign travel than was mere curiosity. While the travelers' accounts give much valuable information on these foreign lands and provide a window for the understanding of the local cultures and histories, they arc also a mirror to the travelers themselves, for these accounts help them to have a better understanding of themselves.
B Records of foreign travel appeared soon after the invention of writing, and fragmentary travel accounts appeared in both Mesopotamia and Egypt in ancient times. After the formation of large, imperial states in the classical world, travel accounts emerged as a prominent literary genre in many lands, and they held especially strong appeal for rulers desiring useful knowledge about their realms. The Greek historian Herodotus reported on his travels in Egypt and Anatolia in researching the history of the Persian wars. The Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described much of central Asia as far west as Bacteria (modern-day Afghanistan) on the basis of travels undertaken in the first century BC while searching for allies for the Han dynasty. Hellenistic and Roman geographers such as Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder relied on their own travels through much of the Mediterranean world as well as reports of other travelers to compile vast compendia of geographical knowledge.
C During the postclassical era(about 500 to 1500 CE), trade and pilgrimage emerged as major incentives for travel to foreign lands. Muslim merchants sought trading opportunities throughout much of the eastern hemisphere. They described lands, peoples, and commercial products of the Indian Ocean basin from east Africa to Indonesia, and they supplied the first written accounts of societies in sub-Saharan west Africa. While merchants set out in search of trade and profit, devout Muslims traveled as pilgrims to Mecca to make their hajj and visit the holy sites of Islam. Since the prophet Muhammad's original pilgrimage to Mecca, untold millions of Muslims have followed his example, and thousands of hajj accounts have related their experiences One of the best known Muslim travelers. Ibn Battuta, began his travels with the hajj but then went on to visit central Asia, India, China, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Mediterranean Europe before returning finally to his home in Morocco Fast Asian traveler; were not quite so prominent as Muslims during the postclaaical era, but they too followed many of the highway* and sea lanes of the eastern hemisphere. Chinese merchants frequently visited southeast Asia and India, occasionally venturing even to east Africa, and devout Fast Asian Buddhists undertook distant pilgrimages Between the 5th and 9th centuries CE, hundreds and possibly even thousands of Chinese Buddhists traveled to India to study with Buddhist teachers, collect sacred texts, and visit holy sites. Written accounts recorded the experiences of many pilgrims, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing. Though not so numerous as the Chinese pilgrims, Buddhists from Japan. Korea, and other lands also ventured abroad in the interests of spiritual enlightenment.
D Medieval Europeans did not hit the roads in such large numbers as their Muslim and east Asian counterparts during the early part of the postclassical era, although gradually increasing crowds of Christian pilgrims flowed to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela (in northern Spam), and other sites. After the 12th century, however, merchants, pilgrims, and missionaries from medieval Europe traveled widely and left numerous travel accounts, of which Marco Polo's deion of his travels and sojourn in China is the best known. As they became familiar with the larger world of the eastern hemisphere and the profitable commercial opportunities that it offered - European peoples worked to find new and more direct routes to Asian and African markets Their efforts took them not only to all parts of the eastern hemisphere, but eventually to the Americas and Oceania as well.
E If Muslim and Chinese peoples dominated travel and travel writing in postclassical limes, European explorers, conquerors, merchants, and missionaries took center stage during the early modern era (about 1500 to 1800 CE). By no means did Muslim and Chinese travel come to a halt in early modem times But European peoples ventured to the distant corners of the globe, and European printing presses churned out thousands of travel accounts that described foreign lands and peoples for a reading public with an apparently insatiable appetite for news about the larger world. The volume of travel literature was so great that several editors, including Giambattista Ramusio, Richard Hakluyt, Theodore de Bry, and Samuel Purchas, assembled numerous travel accounts and made them available in enormous published collections.
F During the 19th century, European travelers made their way to the interior regions of Africa and the Americas, generating a fresh round of travel writing as they did so Meanwhile, European colonial administrators devoted numerous writings to the societies of their colonial subjects, particularly in Asian and African colonies they established. By midcentury, attention was flowing also in the other direction. Painfully aware of the military and technological prowess of European and Euro-American societies, Asian travelers in particular visited Europe and the United States in hopes of discovering principles useful for the reorganization of their own societies. Among the most prominent of these travelers who made extensive use of their overseas observations and experiences in their own writings were the Japanese reformer Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen.
G With the development of inexpensive and reliable means of mass transport, the 20th century witnessed explosions both in the frequency of long-distance travel and in the volume of travel writing. While a great deal of travel took place for reasons of business, administration, diplomacy, pilgrimage, and missionary work, as in ages past, increasingly effective modes of mass transport made it possible for new kinds of travel to flourish. The most distinctive of them was mass tourism, which emerged as a major form of consumption for individuals living in the world's wealthy societies. Tourism enabled consumers to get away from home to see the sights in Rome, take a cruise through the Caribbean, walk the Great Wall of China, visit some wineries in Bordeaux, or go on safari in Kenya. A peculiar variant of the travel account arose to meet the needs of these tourists: the guidebook, which offered advice on food, lodging, shopping, local customs, and all the sights that visitors should not miss seeing. Tourism has had a massive economic impact throughout the world, but other new forms of travel have also had considerable influence in contemporary times. Recent times have seen unprecedented waves of migration, for example, and numerous migrants have sought to record their experiences and articulate their feelings about life in foreign lands. Recent times have also seen an unprecedented development of ethnic consciousness, and many are the intellectuals and writers in diaspora who have visited the homes of their ancestors to see how much of their forebears' values and cultural traditions they themselves have inherited. Particularly notable among their accounts are the memoirs of Malcolm X and Maya Angelou describing their visits to Africa.
Questions 28-35 Complete the table now.
Write No More Than Two Words from the Reading Passage 3 for each answer. Write your answer in boxes 28-35 on your answer sheet.
TIME
DESTINATION
TRAVELER
PURPOSE
Classical era
Egypt and Anatolia
Herodotus
To obtain
information on29
Roman Empire
Mediterranean
Ptolemy, Strabo,
Pliny the Elder
To gather31
5thto 9,hcenturies
CE
India
Asian Buddhists
To study with
33 they
conquer
By the mid-century
of the 1800s
Europe and United
States
Sun Yat-scn,
Fukuzawa Yukichi
To learn35countries
For entertainment
Questions 36-40 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.
36 Why did some people travel in the early days?
A. to do research on themselves
B. to write travel books
C. to have a better understanding of other people and places
D. to study local culture
37 The travelers' accounts arc a mirror to themselves,
A. because they help them to be aware of local histories.
B. because travelers are curious about the world.
C. because travelers could do more research on the unknown.
D. because they reflect the writers' own experience and social life.
38 Most of the people who went to holy sites during the early part of postclassical era are
A. Europeans.
B. Muslim and East Asians.
C. Americans.
D. Greeks.
39 During the early modern era, a large number of travel books were published
A. to provide what the public wants.
B. to encourage the public's feedback.
C. to gain profit.
D. to prompt trips to the new world.
40 What stimulated the market for traveling in the 20th century
A. the wealthy
B. travel books
C. delicious food
D. mass transport
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