Every year seals would crowd ashore in Farne Island and give birth to their pups. Between early October and early December, 1,500 seal pups will be born. Almost half of them will not make it past the first three weeks of life.

“The pups have to stay out of the water for the first three weeks, when they have their white coat, which is not very waterproof,” explains the warden (監(jiān)察員)，who spends nine months on the Island.

“But when you’re born in November on a rock in the North Sea, it’s a tough start to life,” he said. Storms often wash young pups into the water. And occasionally, young, inexperienced mothers abandon their pups and head out to sea.

“We lost 41% last year,” said David Steel, the National Trust’s head warden on the Farne Islands. “Mother Nature certainly keeps them in check.”

Despite the early challenges for every newborn seal, the population is healthily and slowly and steadily growing. There are almost 4,000 seals on a set of islands, which is named a Special Area of Conservation(SAC), meaning it is protected under EU regulations. This successful human safeguarding of the seals’ habitat is huge turnaround(轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)).

Just a few decades ago, the seal population was deliberately decimated. The animals used to be thought of as a threat to local fish stocks. During the late 1960s and 1970s, thousands of seals were shot in a cull(剔除)that aimed to protect the local fishing industry. According to the National Trust, between 1962 and 1983 approximately 2,000 adult females and 3,000 pups were shot.

But, as the fishing industry collapsed, it was gradually replaced by tourism. Today, several companies use fishing boats to take groups of people to visit the islands and admire the scenery, seabirds and, of course, the seals that make their homes in this bleakly beautiful place.

1.In the first three weeks after they were born, almost half of the seal pups _______.

A. would be abandoned by their mothers

B. would be protected by the wardens

C. couldn’t live independently

D. would die mostly in the sea water.

2.According to David Steel, death of so many pups________.

A. is a normal and natural phenomenon

B. is mainly caused by farmers’ killing

C. can be prevented efficiently by man

D. will be controlled by Mother Nature

3.The underlined word “decimate” in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ?____?.

A. increase B. kill C. reduce D. control

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. The Beautiful Farne Island

B. A Tough Beginning

C. How to Protect Grey Seals

D. Tourism or Fishing Industry

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年江蘇南京高三上學(xué)期第三次模擬考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

——Your argument is .I will not let you pass.

--Are you kidding?

A．sound B. rational

C. liberal D. plain

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年廣東省肇慶市高三上學(xué)期第三次月考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：完形填空

Long, long ago, in a dense forest there were thousands of tall and beautiful trees. They were happy, but____ of themselves. Among them there also a(an) ____ tree whose branches were badly twisted. All the trees made ______ of that ugly tree.

“How are you, hunchback?” the other ____ always shouted and their laughter made the ugly tree ____. The ugly tree thought, “I wish I were as ____ as the other trees. Why did God do this to me? Neither can I provide shade to the travelers. Nor can the ____ make their nests on me. Nobody needs me.”

One day, a woodcutter came to the____. He took a look at the trees and said, “These trees are lovely. I must ____ them.” As soon as he picked up his axe, the trees became ____. “Chop, Chop, Chop” went the woodcutter’s axe and one by one the trees started to fall.

“None of us is going to ____,” screamed one of the beautiful trees.

But when the woodcutter came near to the ugly tree. He had just raised his axe when suddenly he noticed how ____ the ugly tree was. “Hmm! This crooked tree seems to no ____ to me.”, he thought. Then he moved towards another beautiful tree. The ugly tree breathed a huge sigh of ____. He realized that by making him ugly, God had actually given him a boon. From that day on, the ugly tree never ____. He was happy with his crooked branches. He never forgot how he had escaped from the woodcutter’s axe, only because he was crooked and ugly.

1.A. proud B. short C. tired D. full

2.A. strong B. ugly C. thin D. straight

3.A. light B. fun C. sense D. use

4.A. directions B. persons C. trees D. animals

5.A. surprised B. angry C. sad D. moved

6.A. short B. long C. hard D. beautiful

7.A. fish B. pets C. hens D. birds

8.A. forest B. shop C. office D. hospital

9.A. cut B. put C. bring D. take

10.A. puzzled B. frightened C. amused D. satisfied

11.A. appear B. escape C. remove D. lie

12.A. soft B. flexible C. bent D. tall

13.A. doubt B. harm C. use D. way

14.A. desperation B. anger C. sorrow D. relief

15.A. complained B. grew C. spoke D. Waited

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年福建省永安市高三下學(xué)期質(zhì)量檢測(cè)考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

You probably have noticed that people express similar ideas in different ways, _______ the situation they are in.

A. bringing about B. depending on

C. getting into D. leading to

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年?yáng)|北三省三校高三上學(xué)期第二次模擬考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They • put • something • that • can • separate • words • in • a • sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.

When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗號(hào)).

Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark (感嘆號(hào)) comes from the Latin word io. It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.

Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the “interrobang”. This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.

1.From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.

A. good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks

B. a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece

C. ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks

D. the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times

2. The passage is developed _______.

A. by time B. by space

C. by comparison D. by importance

3. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks

B. exclamation and question marks came from Latin

C. spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century

D. Aldus Manutius first started to use commas

4. What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A. The combination of two marks will not work.

B. It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.

C. Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.

D. Punctuation marks are still changing today.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年安徽省四校高三下學(xué)期5月聯(lián)考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

---Are you going to the summer camp next month?

---____. I can’t miss such a good opportunity to temper myself.

A. It all depends B. I’m afraid not

C. You bet D. No way

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年安徽省四校高三下學(xué)期5月聯(lián)考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

Shanghai is easily _________ by road, train or air so that it has become a large international city.

A. accessible B. available

C. abnormal D. abstract

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年江西上饒鉛山縣致遠(yuǎn)中學(xué)高一上學(xué)期期末考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：書(shū)面表達(dá)

書(shū)面表達(dá)（共1小題）

假設(shè)你是某國(guó)際學(xué)校的學(xué)生會(huì)主席李華，留美博士、著名英語(yǔ)教育專家龔亞夫?qū)?lái)你校做報(bào)告。請(qǐng)你根據(jù)以下內(nèi)容寫(xiě)一份英語(yǔ)海報(bào)，告知你校學(xué)生參加。

注意：

1．可適當(dāng)增加細(xì)節(jié)，以使行文連貫；

2．詞數(shù)：120左右，標(biāo)題已給出，不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)；

3．參考詞匯：專家specialist 禮堂auditorium

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年湖南婁底市名校高二上學(xué)期期末考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

D

I have a neighbor we call “Happy”．I have never seen her angry at anything and never heard her say a harsh (苛刻) word to anyone or about anyone．

Happy and her husband Ben, 70, have a huge garden．They spent many happy hours together working on it．Most of the neighbors watched interestingly as Ben doubled the size of their garden．As the cost of food climbed faster than Ben's beans, we all wished we also had such a large garden．As the rest of us spent our dollars at the market, Happy could be seen picking beans in her back yard．

Last month, Happy and Ben invited most of the neighborhood over for an “all-day food fest”．We were told to bring gloves and arrive very early in the morning．We didn't know what was about to take place．

By 9:00 am, there were nine of us in the garden picking tomatoes, beans, okra, and squash．By 10:00 am, there was lots of laughter．We shared a lot of stories．By five o'clock, everyone was a little drunk from the wine and beer．After dinner, we played games．As we were leaving, Happy and Ben handed each of us a shopping bag filled with the bounty（收成）of the day, already packaged and frozen．What a delightful gift!

Well, the point wasn't so much about the food．The true gift was a day of friends enjoying one another's company．None of it would have happened if it had been for Happy and Ben's garden．Now they have a blog about gardening in case we decided to plant a garden．And I am so proud of my tomato plants!

1.We can infer that Happy and her husband Ben_______．

A．don't like spending time with others

B．sometimes quarrel with each other

C．live on the food they grow in their garden

D．a(chǎn)re a generous and warm-hearted couple

2.According to paragraph 2, people wish they also had a garden so that_______．

A．they didn't have to spend so much money on food

B．they could grow vegetables and sell at the market

C．they could invite their neighbors and hold parties in it

D．they could spend happy times together with their family in it

3.For what purpose did Happy and Ben invite the neighbors to their garden?

A．To ask them to attend a birthday party

B．To help them get to know each other．

C．To let them enjoy what they grew in the garden．

D．To ask them to share some interesting stories．

4.What did the writer most probably think of the time he spent in the garden?

A．It was too long．

B．It was wonderful．

C．It was not as good as he thought．

D．It was too terrible．

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案