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英语拓展阅读:干旱

2011-07-14 07:00
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背景知识:干旱通常指淡水总量少,不足以满足人的生存和经济发展的气候现象,一般是长期的现象,干旱从古至今都是人类面临的主要自然灾害。即使在科学技术如此发达的今天,它造成的灾难性后果仍然比比皆是。尤其值得注意的是,随着人类的经济发展和人口膨胀,水资源短缺现象日趋严重,这也直接导致了干旱地区的扩大与干旱化程度的加重,干旱化趋势已成为全球关注的问题。

拓展阅读:

My family and I lived across the street from Southway Park since I was four years old. Then just last year they city put a chain link fence around the park and started bulldozing (用推土机推平) the trees and grass to make way for a new apartment complex. When I saw the fence and bulldozers, I asked myself, “Why don’t they just leave it alone?”

Looking back, I think what sentenced the part to oblivion (别遗忘) was the drought (旱灾) we had about four years ago. Up until then, Southway Park was a nice green park with plenty of trees and a public swimming pool. My friends and I rollerskated on the sidewalks, climbed the trees, and swam in the pool all the years I was growing up. The park was almost like my own yard. Then the summer I was fifteen the drought came and things changed.

There had been almost no rain at all that year. The city stopped watering the park grass. Within a few weeks I found myself living across the street from a huge brown desert. Leaves fell off the park tress, and pretty soon the trees started dying, too. Next, the park swimming pool was closed. The city cut down on the work force that kept the park, and pretty soon it just got too ugly and dirty to enjoy anymore.

As the drought lasted into the fall, the park got worse every month. The rubbish piled up or blew across the brown grass. Soon the only people in the park were beggars and other people down on their luck. People said drugs were being sold or traded there now. The park had gotten scary, and my mother told us kids not to go there anymore.

The drought finally ended and things seemed to get back to normal, that is, everything but the park. It had gotten into such bad shape that the city just let it stay that way. Then about six months ago I heard that the city was going to “redevelop” certain worn-out areas of the city. It turned out that the city had planned to get rid of the park, sell the land and let someone build rows of apartment buildings on it.

The chain-link fencing and the bulldozers did their work. Now we live across the street from six rows of apartment buildings. Each of them is three units high and stretches a block in each direction. The neighborhood has changed without the park. The streets I used to play in are jammed with cars now. Things will never be the same again. Sometimes I wonder, though, what changes another drought would make in the way things are today.

客观题:

1. How did the writer feel when he saw the fence and bulldozers?
A. Scared. B. Confused. C. Upset. D. Curious.

2. Why was the writer told not to go to the park by his mother?
A. It was being rebuilt. B. It was dangerous.
C. It because crowded. D. It had turned into a desert.

3. According to the writer, what eventually brought about the disappearance of the park?
A. The drought. B. The crime.
C. The beggars and the rubbish. D. The decisions of the city.

4. The last sentence of the passage implies that if another drought came, ______.
A. the situation would be much worse
B. people would have to desert their homes
C. the city would be fully prepared in advance
D. the city would have to redevelop the neighborhood

参考答案:

1、答案:C
解析:推理判断题。根据第一段叙述了解到作者从四岁开始住在Southway Park对面。从第二段了解到作者小时候和朋友在公园里玩耍。而现在公园被围了起来,事实上,作者是很失望、沮丧,自己不能去玩了,而且树都被砍掉了。
2、答案:B
解析:推理判断题。仔细阅读第四段,可以了解到,公园被废弃了,里面住着流浪汉,甚至有人贩毒,所以母亲叮嘱我们不要去那里,因为危险。
3、答案:D
解析:推理判断题。从第五段,可以明显的了解到:干旱结束了,但是政府仍然对公园不管不问,而是要重新规划这块废弃地,在作者眼中是“the city had planned to get rid of the park”。故选择D。
4、答案:A
解析:推理判断题。最后一段作者描述了目前自己居住的街道的变化,变得更加拥挤了。从而作者有了另一种思考:如果再来一次干旱,是否会造成如这次干旱一样的一些变化。从而可推测作者是隐射,环境会变的更加糟糕。

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