1 . When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion (时装)enthusiasts are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria(海狸鼠).
Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur-unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year”, says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.
Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.
Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species(物种).It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us.” says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.
The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades，but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s，the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.
Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.
Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashion. Model Paige Morgan says，”To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them-I think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She is trying to come up with a label to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.
1. What is the purpose of the fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn?| A．To promote guilt-free fur. |
| B．To expand the fashion market. |
| C．To introduce a new brand. |
| D．To celebrate a winter holiday. |
| A．Nutria damage the ecosystem seriously. |
| B．Nutria are an endangered species. |
| C．Nutria hurt local cat-sized animals. |
| D．Nutria are illegally hunted. |
| A．Boomed. | B．Became mature. | C．Remained stable. | D．Crashed. |
| A．It’s formal. | B．It’s risky. | C．It’s harmful. | D．It’s traditional. |
2 . When it comes to eating, most of us don’t have to go very far. But for many bird species, finding food may mean traveling hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
A team of researchers from institutions in the UK and Ireland spent five years tracking (追踪) four species of seabird to monitor their travel patterns. It was discovered that over the five years, the species covered an area of 1.5 million square kilometers when hunting for food-almost four times the size of Japan.
The findings were published recently in the journal Ecological Applications. As part of the study, over 1,300 birds were fitted with GPS tags to track their movements. It was discovered that most of them search for fish in the same place-waters off the coast of Scotland.
As a result of this, organizations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) will spend more time trying to preserve coastal Scotland.
“For the first time, this study provides us with a full map for each breeding colony (繁殖群体) of the feeding areas for some of our most important seabird species,” wrote the study’s lead author Ewan Wakefield, from the University of Glasgow.
“That means we can now protect the places these birds catch the fish they need to feed their hungry chicks.”
The findings could also affect the future building of offshore wind turbines (满轮机). Although wind turbines help to fight climate change by providing a green source of energy, their huge blades (刀片) are blamed for the deaths of thousands of birds each year, as they often fly into them.
Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said in a news release that although climate change is a huge threat to both humans and nature alike, we should “invest in an energy system that works for both people and our natural heritage.”
To protect both nature and the environment, the RSPB supports the building of turbines in areas that won’t have “significant adverse (不利的) impacts on important bird populations or their habitats,” it wrote on its website.
1. What did the scientists from the UK and Ireland find about the four species of seabird?| A．They have totally different travel patterns. |
| B．They prefer to catch fish in places near their nests. |
| C．Climate change has influenced their hunting distance. |
| D．They can travel a very long distance to find food. |
| A．It shows what a perfect living environment for seabirds is. |
| B．It was the first to use GPS technology to track seabirds. |
| C．It could guide people on how to better protect seabirds. |
| D．It provides more information about the diet of seabirds. |
| A．they produce noise that could disturb seabirds |
| B．their strong airflow could influence the flight of seabirds |
| C．their big blades may kill the seabirds that fly by |
| D．they force seabirds to move away from their habitats |
| A．no more wind turbines should be built in the future |
| B．we should think of more measures to protect the climate |
| C．the government should invest more money to protect seabirds |
| D．we should consider wildlife when we build turbines in the future |
