文章大意:本文是一篇说明文。文章讲述了地球是一个很大的地方,但大小并不是一切。地球上最丰富的生态系统正在迅速衰退,应对栖息地丧失这一问题,我们应该做些什么? 科学家们想到了半地球的想法。
Earth is a big place, but size isn’t everything. The planet’s richest ecosystems are in rapid decline, forcing us to acknowledge countless creatures worldwide are running out of room.
85% of all species on the IUCN Red List are endangered due to many forms of habitat loss, from complete deforestation to less obvious effects of pollution and climate change. Every species needs a certain amount of habitat to find food, shelter and mates, but for a growing number of animals, the space where their ancestors found those things is now overrun by humans. As habitats decline, animals also grow more vulnerable to secondary dangers like disease or conflict with people.
According to many scientists and conservationists, the best strategy to avoid a dramatic loss of biodiversity is to set aside half of Earth’s surface area for wildlife. That might sound like a big sacrifice at first, but upon closer inspection, it’s still an incredibly sweet deal for us: One species gets half the planet, and all other species must share the other half. This idea has been around for years, confirmed in programmes like the WILD Foundation’s “Nature Needs Half” campaign, but it has gained more different opinions recently. And it may now have one of its most forceful arguments yet, thanks to a 2016 book by well-known biologist E. O. Wilson titled Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.
Half-Earth, therefore, isn’t so different from today’s Earth. We’re already doing many of the right things, as Wilson recently told the University of California-Berkeley’s Breakthroughs magazine. We still have a few big biodiversity zones left, and others that could still recover. We just need to protect as many wilderness areas as we can, fill in gaps wherever possible and do no further harm. “I’m sure we can go from 10% to 50% coverage, land and sea,” Wilson says. “It could be large reserves that still exist, like in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, in the taiga, the major wilderness areas of Congo, in Papua New Guinea, the Amazon—these can be made inviolate reserves; they can be pieced together.”
8. What is the main cause of wildlife’s rapid decline?
A.Habitat loss. | B.Terrible disease. |
C.Conflict with people. | D.Poor living conditions. |
9. What does the writer intend to show in paragraph 3?
A.The method to save our planet. | B.The real profession of E.O. Wilson. |
C.The solution to avoiding wildlife decline. | D.The origin of “Nature Needs Half” campaign. |
10. What does Wilson feel about Half-Earth strategy?
A.Curious. | B.Confused. | C.Concerned. | D.Confident. |
11. What is the text mainly about?
A.Sharing the Earth with other animals. | B.Changing our attitude toward wildlife. |
C.Increasing the population of wild animals. | D.Protecting the existing habitat for wildlife. |