Sometimes called Amazonia, the rainforest of ...

Sometimes called Amazonia, the rainforest of the Amazon River basin is the largest in the world. It stretches (延伸) across more than half of Brazil and parts of seven other South American countries (and French Guiana). With a land area of 2.7 million square miles, the Amazon rainforest is almost two thirds the size of the US.

Rainforests are important to the health of the entire planet. Often called "the lungs of the planet", the Amazon rainforest, with its rich plant life, stores carbon dioxide while giving out the oxygen we need to survive.

At one time, rainforests covered 14 percent of Earth’s surface. Deforestation has reduced that figure to 6 percent today. Much of the loss has been in the Amazon.

Fortunately, over the years, Brazil has also become a world leader in rainforest preservation. A law called the Forest Code, originally passed in 1965, requires the Amazon’s farmers to protect 80 percent of their land from farming. And democratic governments beginning in the early 1990s began to enforce it seriously.

Efforts to save the Amazon increased under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2002—2011). Brazil set aside about 150 million acres of the rainforest, an area about the size of France, for protection. Deforestation fell by 74 percent between 2004 and 2009.

Other countries of the Amazon have also done their parts. This year, Peru created a forest reserve about the size of California’s Yosemite National Park.

1.What is the size of the Amazon rainforest?

A. About the size of France.

B. Nearly half the size of Brazil.

C. Over half the size of the US.

D. About the size of seven South American countries.

2.How much of the rainforest has been lost due to deforestation according to Paragraph 3?

A. 6%.　　 B. Approximately 8%.

C. 14%.　　 D. More than 50%.

3.Which country contributes most to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest?

A. Peru.　　 B. Brazil.

C. The US.　　 D. French Guiana.

4.What does the author feel about the situation of the Amazon?

A. Optimistic.　　 B. Moved.

C. Worried.　　 D. Uncertain.

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Nature is like a great magician, performing wonders on Earth. One of them is the Amazon rainforest, the world's largest and home to millions of plants and animals. Nicknamed "the lungs of our planet", it generates about one-fifth of Earth's oxygen. However, this wonderful natural wonder is currently in dange.

Thousands of fires have broken out in Brazil, endangering much of the rainforest. These blazes have lasted several weeks and are believed to be the "most intense" in almost a decade, according to BBC News.

The Amazon has seen a large number of fires in 2019. Between January and August, there were over 74,000 fires the highest number since 2013, the BBC reported.

Forest fires are common during the dry season, which runs from July to October. They are usually caused by natural events, such as lightning strikes. However, most of the fires this year are believed to be caused by farmers, who use fire as a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean land, reported CNN.

The disaster has raised concern around the world. The Amazon rainforest is important for preventing climate change, said the BBC, absorbing millions of tons of carbon annually. When trees are cut down or burned, the rainforest's capacity （能力）to absorb carbon is reduced.

Brazilian climate expert Carlos Nobre told Reuters he's worried. If more than 20 percent of the ecosystem is destroyed, the Amazon rainforest could reach a "tipping point （临界点）where the thick jungle will turn into a tropical savannah （大草原）.

Nobre warned that it is not far off, with between 15 and 17 percent of the rainforest having already been destroyed.

The Brazilian government has sent soldiers to fight the fires. Many people have offered their support and called for recovery efforts. For example, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said he wanted to donate money and US Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's environmental charity, Earth Alliance, created a donation fund to help deal with the crisis.

The public are also encouraged to donate to charities concerned with rainforest preservation （保护）."Every little bit helps in a tragic situation like this," commented Gizmodo.

1.The underlined word "intense" in Para.2 probably means _______.

A.natural B.fierce C.common D.unexpected

2.What is the main cause of forest fires in the Amazon rainforest this year?

A.Lightning strikes. B.Hot weather.

C.Agricultural activities. D.Garbage left by tourists.

3.What was Nobre worried about in the article?

A.Global temperatures will rise.

B.The Amazon rainforest is close to disappearing.

C.Animals in the Amazon rainforest are under threat.

D.It will take decades for the Amazon rainforest to recover.

4.What are the last two paragraphs mainly about?

A.What the Brazilian government has done to fight fires.

B.Celebrities who care about rainforest preservation.

C.The possible future of the Amazon rainforest.

D.Efforts made to save the Amazon rainforest.

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Rainforests, it turns out, are not created equal. Take the Amazon rainforest, an area that covers about 7 million square kilometers. But within that huge expanse are all kinds of ecological zones, and some of these zones, says Greg Asner, are a lot more crowded than others.

“Some forests have many species of trees,” he said, “others have few. Many forests are unique from others in terms of their overall species composition…” And all of these different small areas of forest exist within the giant space that is the Amazon Rainforest.

So Asner, using the signature technique called airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy, began to map these different zones from the air. “By mapping the traits of tropical forests from above,” he explains, “we are, for the first time, able to understand how forest composition varies geographically.”

The results show up in multicolored maps, with each color representing different kinds of species, different kinds of trees, the different kinds of chemical they are producing and using, and even the amount of biodiversity, the animal and plant species that live within each zone.

Armed with this information, Asner says decision-makers now have “a first-time way to decide whether any given forest geography is protected well enough or not. If not, then new protections can be put in place to save a given forest from destruction.”

Asner says the information is a great way for decision-makers to develop a “cost-benefit ratio type analysis.”　 Conservation efforts can be expensive, so armed with this information, government leaders can ensure they are making the most of their conservation dollars by focusing on areas that are the most biologically diverse or unique.

The next step, Asner says, is to take his project global, and to put his eyes even higher in the sky, on orbital satellites. “The technique we developed and applied to map Peru is ready to go global.” Asner said. “We want to put the required instrumentation on an Earth-orbiting satellite, to map the planet every month, which will give the best possible view of how the world’s biodiversity is changing, and where to put much needed protections.

1.Unequally-created rainforests refer to the fact ______.

A. how crowded they are

B. where they are located

C. when they came into being

D. what kinds of species they have

2.What can government leaders learn from Asner’s mapping?

A. The cost to conserve forests.

B. The chemicals needing for certain forests.

C. The forest areas needing special protection.

D. The number of animals living in a forest.

3.What is Asner planning to do now?

A. To send a satellite to map the world.

B. To track the change of biodiversity in the world.

C. To develop technology for mapping the globe.

D. To advertise his project around the world.

4.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Using eyes in the sky to map biodiversity.

B. Making a map of big forests in the world.

C. Learning about the biodiversity of Amazon forest.

D. Protecting the forest from being destructed.

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Brazil, the largest country in South America, is famous for the Amazon rainforest and soccer. But on the hottest days, people travel there for another reason – the Carnival. Full of excitement and fun, the Carnival is held annually in February or March. This year, the celebration runs from March 2nd to 9th .

It is a wild festival of food, music and dance. The word “Carnival” comes from the Portuguese “Carne Vale”, which means “farewell to meat”. In the early 1600s, the Portuguese brought European traditions to Brazil. Then they started their own carnival with dances and music, which were inspired by black people brought there by the slave trade.

With its beautiful floats (花车), attractive clothes and happy people, the Samba Parade is the most fantastic event of the Carnival. The Sambadrome is a special stadium for the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro with 80,000 seats where people can sit and enjoy the festival. Samba is said to be the soul of Rio. “This is where the passion for samba lies – the atmosphere is electric as even the oldest men and women sing and dance to the music,” travel guidebook Lonely Planet noted.

Top samba schools stand out in the main parade, with fantastic parades of floats and thousands of dancers. The parade goes on until dawn. The schools base their performances on certain themes from Brazilian history or on social and environmental problems, such as that of the Amazon rainforest.

Besides fun street parties, colorful costumes and energetic music, Carnival also offers plenty of tasty street food, such as Quindim – a dessert made of egg yolks and sugar.

Overall, it is traditionally a time to go a bit crazy with eating, dancing and dressing up.

1.What is true about the Carnival in Brazil?

A. It is annually celebrated from March 2nd to 9th.

B. It has attracted a large number of people.

C. It is held for people to stop eating meat.

D. It was brought to Brazil by black people.

2.It can be inferred that Samba is popular because _______.

A. it brought European tradition

B. it highlights top Samba Schools

C. it represents Brazilian passion

D. it reflects Brazilian history

3.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A. To tell the history of European settlers.

B. To attract more visitors to Brazil.

C. To introduce the Carnival in Brazil.

D. To show the attraction of Samba.

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In the 1990s, when an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Belgium was cut down every year, Brazil was the world’s environmental villain (反派角色) and the Amazonian jungles the image of everything that was going wrong in green places. Now, the Amazon ought to be the image of what is going right. Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. If clearances had continued at their rate in 2005, an extra 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been put into the atmosphere. That is an amount equal to a year’s emissions from the European Union. Arguably, then, Brazil is now the world leader in addressing climate change.

But how did it break the vicious cycle (恶性循环)? The answer, according to a paper is that there was no silver bullet but instead a three-stage process in which bans, better governance in frontier areas and consumer pressure on companies worked.

The first stage ran from the mid-1990s to 2004. This was when the government put its efforts into bans and restrictions. The Brazilian Forest Code said that, on every farm in the Amazon, 80% of the land had to be set aside as a forest reserve. As the study observes, this share was so high that the code could not be followed --- or enforced. This was the period of the worst deforestation. Soybean prices were high and there were a vast expansion of soybean farming on the south-eastern border of the rainforest.

During the second stage, which ran from 2005 to 2009, the government tried to boost its ability to police the Amazon. Brazil’s president made stopping deforestation a priority, which resulted in better co-operation between different bits of the government. The area in which farming was banned was increased from a sixth to nearly half of the forest.

The third stage, which began in 2009, was a test of whether a system of restrictions could survive as soybean expansion continued. The government shifted its focus from farms to counties (each state has scores of these). Farmers in the 36 counties with the worst deforestation rates were banned from getting cheap credit until those rates fell.

By any standards, Brazil’s Amazon policy has been a success, made the more remarkable because it relied on restrictions rather than rewards, which might have been expected to have worked better. Over the period of the study, Brazil also turned itself into a farming superpower, so the country has shown it is possible to get a huge increase in food output without destroying the forest. Moreover, the policies so far have been successful among commercial farms who care about the law and respond to market pressures. Most remaining deforestation is by small holders who care rather less about these things, so the government faces the problem of persuading them to change their ways, too. Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.

1.Brazil is considered to play a leading role in dealing with climate change because ________.

A.it has rainforest as large as Belgium.

B.it has cut down too much rainforest.

C.it has taken action to reduce deforestation.

D.it sent 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

2.The underlined phrase “silver bullet” in Paragraph 2 most probably refers to _______.

A.a powerful weapon. B.an effective solution.

C.an intelligent device. D.a golden opportunity.

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.Brazil has successfully eliminated deforestation.

B.All the farmers care much about forest protection.

C.Small farm holders are a headache for the Brazilian government.

D.Both the food output and the forest in Brazil have greatly increased.

4.What can be the best title of the passage?

A.Cutting Down on Cutting Down. B.Brazil, the World Leader in Farming.

C.Restrictions Outperforming Rewards. D.Former Awareness Working Wonders.

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Drunken driving –sometimes called America’s socially accepted form of murder—has become a national epidemic (流行病). Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers，adding up to an incredible 250,000 over the past ten years. A drunken driver is usually referred to as one with 0.10-blood alcohol content or roughly three beer glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours. Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American manly image and judges were lenient in most courts，but the drunken killing has recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies，especially concerning young children，that public opinion is no longer so tolerant.

Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21，reversing a trend in the 1960s to reduce it to 18. After New Jersey lowered it to 18，the number of people killed by 18-20 years old drivers more than doubled，so the state recently upped it back to 21.

Reformers，however，fear raising the drinking age will have little effect unless accompanied by educational programs to help young people to develop ‘responsible attitudes’ about drinking and teach them to resist peer pressure to drink.

Though new laws have led to increased arrests and tests in many areas already，to a marked drop in accidents，some states are also punishing bars for serving customers too many drinks. A bar in Massachusetts was fined for serving six or more double brandies to a customer who was ‘obviously drunk’ and later drove off the road，killing a 9-year-old boy.

As the accidents continue to occur daily in every state，some Americans are even beginning to speak well of the 13 years national prohibition of alcohol that began in 1919，which President Hoover called the ‘noble experiment’. They forgot that legal prohibition didn’t stop drinking，but encouraged political corruption and organized crime. As with the booming drug trade generally，there is no easy solution.

1.Statistics issued in New Jersey suggested that ____________.

A. many drivers were not of legal age.　　      B. young drivers were often bad drivers.

　C. the level of drinking increased in the 1960s.    D. the legal drinking age should be raised.

2.The underlined word ‘lenient’ in the first paragraph means ‘_________’.

A. serious          B. cruel                C. merciful         D. determined

3.In America, public opinion about drunken driving has changed because __________.

A.  judges are no longer tolerant

B.  new laws are introduced in some states

C.  the increasing number of traffic accidents has got the attention of the public

D.  drivers do not appreciate their manly image any more

4.Which of the following best shows the writer’s opinion of drunken driving?

A. It may lead to organized crime.          B. It is difficult to solve this problem.

C. The new laws can stop heavy drinking.        D. There should be no bars to serve drinks.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Green tree ants are important builders in the rainforest. They’re like the worker bees of the ant world. The native forest of Thala Beach Nature Reserve is the natural home of these insects.

They climb all over the tree that contains their nest and protect it from enemies with great fierceness. The ants are often in the fruiting trees of Tropical North Queensland. When an animal tries to help themselves to some tasty fruit, they find themselves attacked by a powerful, frightening army of green tree ants! Their bite is not very painful but many ants attacking at the same time can be extremely uncomfortable.

The nests are large and constructed by sticking the leaves at the end of branches together to create a home looking roughly like a globe. Most of the nest construction and weaving is conducted at night. A mature colony of green tree ants can hold as many as 100,000 to 500,000 workers and may include as many as 12 trees and contain as any as 150 nests. Green tree ant colonies have one queen and a colony can live up to eight years.

However, the ants are so busy that they fail to spot a dishonest figure. There is a spider called the Salticid spider, or the jumping spider, as they are sometimes referred to, which has excellent eyesight and is only active during daylight, weaving a protective covering of silk to spend the night in. Interestingly, the Salticid spider does not look like a green tree ant. Instead, it chemically copies green tree ants’ smell. Effectively pretending to be an ant, it goes into the green tree ants’ nest, enters the nursery and feasts on their babies. Green tree ants don’t have good eyesight and smell everything with their antennae (two long thin parts on an ant’s head). Therefore, the ants think the spider is another ant and ignore its presence within the nest.

Next time, as you wander around Thala’s native forest, keep an eye out for these busy little creatures. Look up into the trees and you’ll likely spot their nests.

1.What does Paragraph 2 tell us about green tree ants?

A. They often start wars for food.　　 B. They like tasty fruit very much.

C. They leave painful bites.　　 D. They have good defenses.

2.What is special about the green tree ant’s nest?

A. It takes years to weave a nest.　　 B. It is reconstructed yearly.

C. It is made of leaves.　　 D. It can hold up to 500,000 ants.

3.Why do green tree ants regard the spider as another ant?

A. It can communicate with them.　　 B. It can make familiar sounds.

C. It has a similar smell.　　 D. It has an ant’s appearance.

4.What can we say about the Salticid spider?

A. It is the green tree ant’s enemy.　　 B. It helps the green tree ant build bests.

C. It is harmful to fruiting trees.　　 D. It protects the green tree ant.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Deep in the Amazon forest, thousands of people still live in isolation from the rest of the world.

In a recent press release, the Brazilian government confirmed the existence of another isolated tribe of about 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The reservation, located near the Peruvian border, is about the size of Portugal. At least another 14 isolated tribes, with a total population of about 2000, call the area home.

The newly observed group lives on four large straw-roofed buildings and grows corn, peanut and other crops.

Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (BNTF) first noticed the reservation in the forest using satellite maps, but it wasn’t until April that an airplane expedition was able to confirm the tribe’s existence. “The work of finding and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy,” said the BNIF officer for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim. “To confirm something like this takes years of hard work.”

BNIF estimates there are 68 isolated tribes living in the Amazon. The organization uses airplanes to avoid disturbing the tribes through personal contact, but that doesn’t mean others are so respectful of their right to privacy.

Illegal fishing, woodcutting and hunting bring people into the protected area. Oil exploration on the Peruvian side of the border is another threat. All kinds of criminals also invade the lands of the local groups, said Amorim. The outsiders can damage the land and influence the cultures of indigenous(土著的)peoples. They can also bring diseases which can wipe out the whole population that still lack even basic antibiotics(抗生素).

Brazil’s indigenous peoples won the legal right to their traditional lands in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, which stated that all indigenous lands shall be divided and turned over to tribes within five years. Indigenous groups now control 11 percent of Brazil’s territory, including 22 percent of the Amazon.

Allowing indigenous groups the right homelands is not just a matter of human rights. The rest of the world can benefit from their knowledge. Mark Plotkin has spent years living with the people of the Amazon and learning from their traditional healers. In his lecture, he pointed out that many useful materials and knowledge, including numerous drugs, can be gained from listening to the indigenous groups of the Amazon. Besides this, they are also more effective at protecting the land, and less expensive, than hired rangers(护林人).

1.The underlined word in the first paragraph probably means “a state of ________”.

2.From the passage we can learn that the tribes in the Amazon forest ________.

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to Amorim?

4.The last paragraph is mainly about ________.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Australia is sometimes called “the lucky country”. One reason is the wonderful riches under the earth: gold, silver, iron, coal and many other precious metals. Oil and natural gas have helped to build big industries. Victoria, the southeastern state, has a large number of industries. Oil is no problem for them. The Bass Strait, off the coast of Victoria, has been one of the country's biggest oil fields for many years.

South Australia is the driest of all the states, but it does have the Murray River. The river brings greenness and life to the state's southeast corner. In the early days of Australian history, the Murray River was South Australia's main road. Before real roads and railways came, the river carried people and goods from the coast up into the country. Some towns on the Murray still keep the old riverboats, and visitors can ride on them.

1.People sometimes call Australia “the lucky country”, because ____ .

A．the people in Australia are very lucky

B．Australia has a large number of industries

C．there is the biggest oil fields of the world

D．the country has very rich natural resources

2.What do you think of South Australia?

A．It's  a  scene  of  desolation（荒凉）.       B．It's a scene of desert.

C．The land is full of life.                                       D．The land lies waste.

3.Which of the following gives you a correct idea of the Murray River?

a．It lies in the south of the country.

b．It is the largest river of the country.

c．It irrigates the driest of the country.

d．It brings greenness and life to the southeast corner.

e．It is still an important passageway to carry people and goods.

A．a, b, c and d      B．b, c, d and e   C．c, d, e and a      D．d, e, a and b

4.Which of the following pictures shows the right position of Victoria?

D

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Along the rivet banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken，eats green 1eaves has the stomach of a cow and has claws(爪)on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river，an important feature(特征)for the safety of the young．It is called the hoatzin．

In appearance，the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside．The head is small，with a large set of feathers on the top，bright

eyes, and blue skin．Its nearest relatives are the common birds cuckoos．Its most striking feature，though，is only found in the young．

Baby hoatzins have a claw on the 1eading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip．Using these four claws, together with the beak(喙)，they can climb about in the bushes,

looking very much like primitive birds must have done．When the young hoatzins have 1earned to fly，they lose their claws．

During the drier months between December and  March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds，but in April，when the rainy season begins，they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.

1.What is the text mainly about?

A．Hoatzins in dry and rainy seasons．

B．The relatives and enemies of hoatzins．

C．Primitive birds and hoatzins of the Amazon．

D．The appearance and living habits of hoatzins．

2.Young hoatzins are different from their parents in that——

A．they look like young cuckoos

B．they have claws on the wings

C．they eat a lot like a cow

D．they live on rivet banks

3.What can we infer about primitive birds from the text?

A．They had claws to help them climb．

B．They could fly long distances．

C．They had four wings like hoatzins．

D．They had a head with long feathers on the top

4.Why do hoatzins collect together in smaller groups when the rainy season comes?

A．To find more food．

B．To protect themselves better

C．To keep themselves warm．

D．To produce their young．

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