Last spring, members of Alaska’s Troop 34, based in Fairbanks, trudged (跋涉) out into the snowy wilderness to take part in their state’s Take a Kid Trapping program. In many parts of the state, beavers （海狸）are pests and need to be controlled.

The 10－to－12－year－old girls found out where beavers lived, set traps, and skinned the two animals they caught. The girls hope to catch ten more beavers so that the entire troop can make mittens and hats with the fur. They also want to cook beaver meat.

Troop leaders and members say the Scouts are doing a good deed by helping control the state’s beaver population. But animal－rights activists say trapping is cruel. They want the Girl Scouts to stop in their tracks.

Beavers aren’t only causing a problem in Alaska. Residents in Sampson County, N.C., have turned to a local committee to help them battle the growing beaver population there.

County landowners are frustrated after the county spent more than $ 50,000 in eight years trying to reduce the beaver population through a government program. The joint state and federal program included paying money to trappers for every beaver carcass they trapped.

Many local residents say that the program didn’t work because there were too few trappers. That’s why the county set up its own committee to investigate other ways to control the area’s beaver population.

The county will rely on its own beaver－trapping program. It has hired a trapper to set traps in various areas. The county will pay $10 for every beaver carcass.

Why do many people say that beavers are a nuisance? For beavers to survive, they need lots of water. Water provides the large rodent （啮齿动物）with a place to hide from meat – eating animals. Beavers also store food underwater for the winter. When there’s not enough water in a particular area, beavers get busy building dams.

Beaver dams can cause major flooding and damage to the surrounding countryside as the animals cut down trees to use in their construction projects. Beavers build canals to transport heavy objects.

1.What is Alaska’s Troop 34?

A．A team of the Boy Scouts.                 B．An army.

C．A team of the Girl Scouts.                 D．A sports team.

2.Why does the troop hope to catch ten more beavers?

A．To fulfill their task.

B．To sell them for money.

C．To get enough fur.

D．To exchange them for mittens and hats.

3.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Sampson County has to find a new way to control the beaver population there.

B．The government program in Sampson County has proved to be a success.

C．The local government has controlled the number of beavers in the County.

D．More and more trappers now start to set traps in Sampson County.

4.Local residents hate beavers because they can ___________.

A．cause damage to dams

B．block up canals with heavy objects.

C．do great harm to construction projects.

D．badly damage the environment and cause floods.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is based on the simplicity and power of friendship. It is a program which provides friendship and fun by matching vulnerable young people(ages 7-17) with a volunteer adult who can be both a role model and a supportive friend.
Volunteer tutors come from all walks of life—married, single, with or without children. Big Brothers and Big Sisters are not replacement parents or social workers. They are tutors: someone to trust, to have fun with, to talk and go to when needed.
A Big Sister and Little Sister will generally spend between one and four hours together three or four times each month for at least twelve months. They enjoy simple activities such as a picnic at a park, cooking, playing sport or going to a football match. These activities improve the friendship and help the young person develop positive self-respect, confidence and life direction.
Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations exist throughout the world. It is the large and most well-known provider of tutor services internationally and has been operating for 25 years.
Emily and Sarah have been matched since 2008. Emily is a 10-year-old girl who has experienced some difficulties being accepted by her schoolmates at school. “I was pretty sure there was something wrong with me.”
Emily’s mum came across Big Brothers Big Sisters and thought it would be of benefit to Emily by “providing different feedback(反馈) about herself other than just relying on schoolmates to measure her self-worth.
Sarah wanted to get involved in a volunteer program. “I googled it and found out how to be a part of it. I thought it would be fun for me to get involved in making time to do something because sometimes it is all work and no play.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters has been of great benefit and enjoyment to both Emily and Sarah. They love and look forward to their time together and the partnership has certainly helped Emily be more comfortable in being the wonderful, happy and unique girl she is!
【小题1】What is the aim of Big Brothers Big Sisters?

Britain’s seed bank, the only one in the world aiming to collect all of the planet’s wild plant species, has reached its goal of banking 10 percent by 2010.

The Millennium Seed Bank Project, run by Kew Gardens—one of the oldest botanical gardens—will officially deposit the 24,200th species on Thursday, a pink, wild banana from China.

More than 50 countries are now on board with Kew's giant task but vast places of the globe, including India and Brazil, still need to join in and donate seeds, director Paul Smith said.                                                                                                                                                             

The seed bank is one of the largest and most diverse in the world with more than 1.5 billion seeds. Its goal is to help protect the planet’s bio-diversity during a time of climate change.

The wild banana seed is under threat of extinction(灭绝) in southwest China from agricultural development. It is a vital food source for Asian elephants and important for growing bananas for human consumption.

Stored at minus-20 degrees centigrade, so they can last for thousands of years, the seeds await the day that scientists hope never comes—when the species no longer exist in the wild.

It is a race against time, Smith said, because in the last decade alone, 20 plants held in the bank have already been wiped out in the wild. He estimates that between a third and a quarter will become extinct this century.

"It is urgent and it is happening now. An area, the size of England, is cleared of primary vegetation（植被）every year." Smith said.

Because most of the world's food and medicines come from nature, protecting wild plant species is quite important, scientists say. There are already many other seed banks safeguarding food crops, which only account for 0.6 percent of plant diversity.

For Kew's next goal—to collect a quarter of wild varieties by 2020—the botanists need 10 million pounds a year, or a further 100 million pounds on top of the 40 million they have already been granted.

What’s the final purpose of the Britain’s seed bank?

  A. To collect enough money for the project.  B. To safeguard food crops.

  C. To protect wild plants from extinction.        D. To help scientists study wild plants.

The wild banana seed in China is in danger because of _______.

  A. the expanding of farming work           B. the climate change in this area

  C. the large number of Asian elephants       D. human’s large consumption

We can learn from the passage that _______.

  A. the seeds in the bank can be used now and then all over the world

  B. India and Brazil haven’t joined in the Seed Bank Project at present

  C. there is only one seed bank in the world at present

  D. the wild plants in places like India and China will never die out

What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 7 refer to?

  A. The extinction of plant species.           B. The Millennium Seed Bank Project. 

C. Britain’s seed bank.                    D. Kew Gardens’ next goal.

Which of the following information isn’t mentioned in the passage?

  A. The global partnership of collecting wild plant species.

  B. The temperature condition of the conservative wild plant species.

  C. The government’s financial support for the seed bank project.

D. Scientists’ concern on the extinct wild plant species.

When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strong happened to the large animals; they suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived; the large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. 

Now something similar could be happening in the oceans. That the seas are being over-fished has been known for years and researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) inanes fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.

Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative (保守的). One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today’s vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around noise.

Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the date support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the “shifting baseline”. The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business.

1.The aim of the extinction of large prehistoric animals is to suggest that _______.

A．large animal were not easy to survive in the changing environment

B．small species survived as large animals disappeared

C．large sea animals may face the same threat today.

D．Slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones

2.We can infer from Dr Myers and Dr. Worm’s paper that _______.

A．the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced by 90%

B．there are only half as many fisheries are there were 15 years ago

C．the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20% of the original amount

D．the number of larger predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old

3.By saying these figures are conservative (line 1, paragraph 3), Dr worm means that_______.

A．fishing technology has improved rapidly

B．then catch-sizes are actually smaller then recorded

C．the marine biomass has suffered a greater loss

D．the date collected so far are out of date.

4.Dr Myers and other researchers hold that _______.

A．people should look for a baseline that can’t work for a longer time

B．fisheries should keep the yield below 50% of the biomass

C．the ocean biomass should restore its original level.

D．people should adjust the fishing baseline to changing situation.

5.The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries’ _______.

A．management efficiency

B．biomass level

C．catch-size limits

D．technological application.

Long before, there was a large mountainside, where rested an eagle's nest with four large eagle eggs. One day ? 1.?? earthquake rocked the mountain, causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain to a chicken farm 2.?? (locate) in the valley below. The chickens were kind enough to care for the eagle's egg, and an old hen volunteered to nurture (哺育) and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly,? 3.? , the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more ? 4.? a chicken. The eagle loved his present family, but his spirit cried out ? 5.?? more. While playing on the farm one day, the eagle happened to notice a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds."

The chickens roared with? 6.? (laugh), “You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar."

The eagle continued staring at his real family up above, 7. (dream) that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams 8. (know), he was told it couldn't be done. That is? 9.?? the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live like a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away.

You become what you believe you are. So, if you ever dream of becoming an eagle, follow? 10.?? dreams... not the words of a chicken.