单选题Which of the following is NOT true about elephants?A Usually elephants die at age of 60-70.B The female Asian elephants do not carry tusks.C Most mature elephants with good ivory are killed illegally.D Elephants are killed for ivory and meat.

请阅读Passage 1。完成第小题。
Passage 1
African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen,Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over.
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business. Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide.
The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage,killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away. The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nations European Community had followed with its own ban.

According to the passage, "dwindle" (Para.1) means__________.
查看材料

A．decrease
B．enlarge
C．weaken
D．eliminate

请阅读Passage 1。完成第小题。
Passage 1
African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen,Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over.
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business. Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide.
The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage,killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away. The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nations European Community had followed with its own ban.

Since many of the older, bigger-tusked animals have already been destroyed, what did the poacher do?
查看材料

A．They gave up poaching.
B．They killed more elephants to get the same quantity of ivory..
C．To them, game is over.
D．They realized it was illegal to slaughter elephants.

共用题干
第三篇

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals,where struggles such as having difficulty finding
food and avoiding predators（猛兽）don't exist. Without such problems,animals in zoos should live to a ripe
（成熟的）old age.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth.Scientists have known that elephants in
zoos often suffer from poor health.Sometimes,they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity（圈养）affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared
the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands.
Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care,documenting factors such as birth dates,illnes-
ses,weight and death.These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800
African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born fe-
male elephants with the life spans of thousands of wild female elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that
work in logging camps（伐木场）, over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild
counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years一more than three times as long. Female
Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos,they lived 18.9 years,while those in the logging camps
lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't know yet why wild elephants seem to get on so much better than their zoo-raised coun-
terparts.Georgia Mason,a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study,thinks stress
and obesity（肥胖症）may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the
wild,and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild,where
they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos.While some threatened
and endangered species living in zoos reproduce（生殖）successfully and maintain healthy populations,that
doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.

Unlike other animals in zoos,zoo-raised elephants
A:live a long life
B:give birth to many babies
C:develop poor health
D:have difficulty getting food

共用题干
第三篇

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals,where struggles such as having difficulty finding
food and avoiding predators（猛兽）don't exist. Without such problems,animals in zoos should live to a ripe
（成熟的）old age.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth.Scientists have known that elephants in
zoos often suffer from poor health.Sometimes,they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity（圈养）affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared
the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands.
Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care,documenting factors such as birth dates,illnes-
ses,weight and death.These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800
African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born fe-
male elephants with the life spans of thousands of wild female elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that
work in logging camps（伐木场）, over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild
counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years一more than three times as long. Female
Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos,they lived 18.9 years,while those in the logging camps
lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't know yet why wild elephants seem to get on so much better than their zoo-raised coun-
terparts.Georgia Mason,a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study,thinks stress
and obesity（肥胖症）may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the
wild,and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild,where
they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos.While some threatened
and endangered species living in zoos reproduce（生殖）successfully and maintain healthy populations,that
doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.

It was found that,compared with female wild elephants,female zoo-born elephants_______________.
A:lived longer
B:grew up faster
C:died much earlier
D:enjoyed the same life spans

共用题干
第三篇

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals,where struggles such as having difficulty finding
food and avoiding predators（猛兽）don't exist. Without such problems,animals in zoos should live to a ripe
（成熟的）old age.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth.Scientists have known that elephants in
zoos often suffer from poor health.Sometimes,they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity（圈养）affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared
the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands.
Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care,documenting factors such as birth dates,illnes-
ses,weight and death.These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800
African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born fe-
male elephants with the life spans of thousands of wild female elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that
work in logging camps（伐木场）, over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild
counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years一more than three times as long. Female
Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos,they lived 18.9 years,while those in the logging camps
lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't know yet why wild elephants seem to get on so much better than their zoo-raised coun-
terparts.Georgia Mason,a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study,thinks stress
and obesity（肥胖症）may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the
wild,and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild,where
they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos.While some threatened
and endangered species living in zoos reproduce（生殖）successfully and maintain healthy populations,that
doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.

One of the possible reasons for the zoo-raised elephants'problems is that______________.
A:they do not get proper food
B:they do too much exercise
C:they live in large herds
D:they do not live in family groups

African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory． Their population has been dwindled from 1．3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed． "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen, Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund．
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US． The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory． The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over．
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business． Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide． The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January． But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage, killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away． The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nation European Community had followed with its own ban．
What's the author's attitude?

A. Subjective
B. Neutral
C. Pessimistic
D. Activ

African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory． Their population has been dwindled from 1．3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed． "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen, Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund．
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US． The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory． The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over．
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business． Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide． The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January． But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage, killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away． The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nation European Community had followed with its own ban．
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A. African Elephants and the Ivory Trade
B. A Bid to Save the Elephant
C. The Poachers
D. Elephants in Danger

共用题干
第二篇

Don't Count on Dung

Conservationists（自然保护主义者）may be miscalculating the numbers of the
threatened animals such as elephants,say African and American researchers.The error
occurs because of a flaw in the way they estimate animal numbers from the piles of dung
（粪）the creatures leave behind.
The mistake could lead researchers to think that there are twice as many elephants as
there really are in some regions,according to Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation
Society(WCS)in New York.
Biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca,New York,agrees.“We really
need to know elephant numbers and the evidence that we have is quite indirect,"says
Payne,who electronically tracks elephants.
Counting elephants from planes is impossible in the vast rainforests of Central Africa.
So researchers often estimate elephant numbers by counting dung piles in a given area.
They also need to know the rate at which dung decays.Because it's extremely difficult to
determine these rates,however,researchers counting elephants in one region tend to rely
on standard decay rates established elsewhere.
But researchers at the WCS have found that this decay rate varies from region to region
depending on the climate and environment.Using the wrong values can lead the census
astray（离开正道）,says Plumptre.
He and his colleague Anthony Chifu Nchanji studied decaying elephant dung in the
forests of Cameroon.They found that the dung decayed between 55 and 65 per cent more
slowly than the dung in the rainforests of neighbouring Gabon.If researchers use decay
rates from Gabon to count elephants in Cameroon,they would probably find more elephants
than are actually around.
This could mean estimates in Cameroon are at least twice as high as those derived from
decay rates calculated locally,says Plumptre."However accurate your dung density
estimate might be,the decay rate can severely affect the result.''
Plumptre also says that the dung-pile census should be carried out over a region similar
in size to an elephant's natural range.The usual technique of monitoring only small,
protected areas distorts numbers because elephants move in and out of these regions,he
says."If the elephant population increases within the protected area,you can not determine
whether it is a real increase or whether it is due to elephants moving in because they are
being poached（入侵偷猎）outside."
Plumptre says that similar problems may also affect other animal census studies that
rely on indirect evidence such as nests,tracks or burrows（地洞）.

The word "threatened" in the first sentence of the first paragraph could be best replaced by
A:"endangered".
B:"frightened".
C:"killed".
D:"angered".

请阅读Passage 1。完成第小题。
Passage 1
African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen,Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over.
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business. Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide.
The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage,killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away. The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nations European Community had followed with its own ban.

Why did the African nations welcome an ivory ban?
查看材料

A．The rate of killing has been accelerating.
B．The US government forbids imports of both raw and finished ivory.
C．They realized that the killing of elephants is a serious threat to their tourist business.
D．African people advocated an ivory ban.

请阅读Passage 1。完成第小题。
Passage 1
African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen,Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over.
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business. Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide.
The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage,killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away. The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nations European Community had followed with its own ban.

Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
查看材料

A．African Elephants and the Ivory Trade
B．A Bid to Save the Elephant
C．The Poachers
D．Elephants in Danger

共用题干
第三篇

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals,where struggles such as having difficulty finding
food and avoiding predators（猛兽）don't exist. Without such problems,animals in zoos should live to a ripe
（成熟的）old age.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth.Scientists have known that elephants in
zoos often suffer from poor health.Sometimes,they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity（圈养）affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared
the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands.
Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care,documenting factors such as birth dates,illnes-
ses,weight and death.These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800
African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born fe-
male elephants with the life spans of thousands of wild female elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that
work in logging camps（伐木场）, over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild
counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years一more than three times as long. Female
Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos,they lived 18.9 years,while those in the logging camps
lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't know yet why wild elephants seem to get on so much better than their zoo-raised coun-
terparts.Georgia Mason,a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study,thinks stress
and obesity（肥胖症）may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the
wild,and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild,where
they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos.While some threatened
and endangered species living in zoos reproduce（生殖）successfully and maintain healthy populations,that
doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.

Which of the following about the scientists'study is NOT true?
A:They compared zoo-born elephants with wild elephants.
B:They analyzed the records of 800 elephants kept in zoos.
C:The zoo-born elephants they studied were kept in European zoos.
D:They kept detailed records of all the elephants in their care.

共用题干
第三篇

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals,where struggles such as having difficulty finding
food and avoiding predators（猛兽）don't exist. Without such problems,animals in zoos should live to a ripe
（成熟的）old age.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth.Scientists have known that elephants in
zoos often suffer from poor health.Sometimes,they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity（圈养）affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared
the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands.
Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care,documenting factors such as birth dates,illnes-
ses,weight and death.These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800
African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born fe-
male elephants with the life spans of thousands of wild female elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that
work in logging camps（伐木场）, over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild
counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years一more than three times as long. Female
Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos,they lived 18.9 years,while those in the logging camps
lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't know yet why wild elephants seem to get on so much better than their zoo-raised coun-
terparts.Georgia Mason,a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study,thinks stress
and obesity（肥胖症）may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the
wild,and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild,where
they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos.While some threatened
and endangered species living in zoos reproduce（生殖）successfully and maintain healthy populations,that
doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.

It can be inferred from the last paragraph that______________.
A:zoo-born elephants should be looked after more carefully
B:zoos should keep more animals except elephants
C:it may not be wise to keep elephants in zoos
D:elephants are no longer an endangered species

Since many of the older, bigger-tusked animals have already been destroyed, what did thepoacher do?___________

A.They gave up poaching
B.They killed more elephants to get the same quantity of ivory
C.To them, game is over
D.They realized it was illegal to slaughter elephants

Why did the African nations welcome an ivory ban?___________

A.The rate of killing has been accelerating
B.The US government forbids imports of both raw and finished ivory
C.They realized that the killing of elephants is a serious threat to their tourist business
D.African people advocated an ivory ban

共用题干
第二篇

Don ' t Count on Dung

" Conservationists（自然保护主义者）may be miscalculating the numbers of the threatened animals such
as elephants."say African and American researchers.The error occurs because of a flaw in the way that they
estimate animal numbers from the piles of dung（粪）the creatures leave behind.
The mistake could lead researchers to think that there are twice as many elephants as there really are in
some regions,according to Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS)in New York.
Biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca,New York,agrees."We really need to know ele-
phant numbers and the evidence that we have is quite indirect,"says Payne,who electronically
tracks elephants.
Counting elephants from planes is impossible in the vast rainforests of Central Africa. So researchers of-
ten estimate elephant numbers by counting dung piles in a given area.They also need to know the rate at
which dung decays.Because it's extremely difficult to determine these rates,researchers counting elephants
in one region tend to rely on standard decay rates established elsewhere.
But researchers at the WCS have found that this decay rate varies from region to region depending on the
climate and environment. " Using the wrong values can lead the census astray（离开正道）,"says Plumptre.
He and his colleague Anthony Chifu Nchanji studied decaying elephant dung in the forests of Came-
roon.They found that the dung decayed between 55 and 65 per cent more slowly than the dung in the
rainforests of neighbouring Gabon.If researchers use decay rates from Gabon to count elephants in Cameroon,
they would probably find more elephants than are actually around."This could mean estimates in Cameroon
are at least twice as high as those derived from decay rates calculated locally,"says Plumptre."However
accurate your dung density estimate might be,the decay rate can severely affect the result."
Plumptre also says that the dung-pile census should be carried out over a region similar in size to an ele-
phant's natural range."The usual technique of monitoring only small,protected areas distorts numbers be-
cause elephants move in and out of these regions,"he says."If the elephant population increases within the
protected area,you cannot determine whether it is a real increase or whether it is due to elephants moving in
because they are being poached（入侵偷猎）outside."
Plumptre says that similar problems may also affect other animal census studies that rely on indirect evi--
dence such as nests,tracks or burrows（地洞）.

Why do researchers estimate elephant numbers in an area by counting dung piles?
A:Because elephants are difficult to catch.
B:Because it is not possible to count elephants from a plane.
C:Because it is not possible to keep track of elephants.
D:Because elephants are shy animals.

Why do researchers estimate elephant numbers in an area by counting dung piles?

A Because elephants are difficult to catch.
B Because it is not possible to count elephants from a plane.
C Because it is not possible to keep track of elephants.
D Because elephants are shy animals.