1春夜喜雨意思.
I spent some of the most exciting days of my life working on the eastern shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana, arching for the fossilized remains of our early ancestors. We did not always find what we wanted, but every day there was much more to discover than the traces of our own predecessors. The fossils, some quite complete, others mere fragments, spoke of another world in which the ancestors of many of today’s African mammals roamed in the rich grassland and forest fringes between 1.5 million and 2 million years ago. The environment was not too different from the wetter grasslands of Africa today, but it was full of amazing animals that are now long extinct.
One in particular I would have loved to e alive was a short-necked giraffe relative that had huge“antlers”, some with a span across the horns of clo to almost 3 meters. There were buffalo-size antelopes with massive curving horns, carnivores that must have looked l
ike saber-toothed lions, two distinct species of hippo and at least two types of elephants. We may never know the full extent of this incredible mammalian diversity, but there were probably more than twice as many species a million years ago as there are today.
That was true not just for Africa. The fossil record tells the same story everywhere. Most of life’s experiments have ended in e xtinction. It is estimated that more than 95% of the species that have existed over the past 600 million years are gone.
So, should we be concerned about the current spasm of extinction, which has been accelerated by the inexorable expansion of agriculture and industry? Is it necessary to try to slow down a process that has been going on forever?
I believe长沙市旅游攻略 it is. We know that the well-being of human race is tied to the well-being经营冰淇淋店 of many other species, and we can’t be sure which species are most important to our own survival.
英语从句类型But dealing with the extinction crisis is no simple matter, since much of the world’s biodiversity resides in its poorest nations, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Can such countries justify tting aside national parks and nature rerves where human encroachment and even access is forbidden? Is it legitimate to spend large sums of money to save some species — be it an elephant or an orchid — in a 最伤心nation in which a sizable percentage of the people are living below the poverty line?
Such questions make me uneasy about promoting wildlife conrvation in impoverished nations. Nonetheless, I believe that we can — and should — do a great deal. It’s a matter of changing priorities. Plenty of money is available for scientific field studies and conferences on endangering species. But what about boots and vehicles for park personnel who protect wildlife from poachers? What about development aid to give local people economic alternatives to cutting forests and plowing over the land? That kind of funding is difficult to come by.
People in poor countries should not be asked to choo between their own short-term survival and long-term environmental needs. If their governments are
willing to protect the environment, the money needed should come from international sources个人寄语. To me, the choice is clear. Either the more affluent world helps now or the world as a whole will lo out.
Of cour加工资, we must be careful not to allow the establishment of slush funds or rely on short-term, haphazard handouts that the world would probably go to waste. We need a permanent global endowment devoted to wildlife protection, funded primarily by the governments of the industrial nations and international aid agencies. The principal could remain invested in the donor nations as the interest flowed steadily into conrvation efforts.
How to u tho funds would be a matter of endless debate. Should local communities be entitled to t the agenda, or should outside experts take control? Should limited hunting be allowed in parks, or should they be put off limits? Mistakes will be made, the landscape will keep changing, and species will still be lost, but the difficulty of the task sh
ould not lead us to abandon hop e. Many of the planet’s natural habitats are gone forever, bur many others can be saved and in time restored.
A major challenge for the 21 st century is to prerve as much of our natural estate as possible. Let us resist with all our efforts any moves to reduce the amount of wild land available for wild species. And let us call upon the world’s richest nations to provide the money to make that possible. That would not be a contribution to charity; it would be an investment in the future of humanity — and all life on Earth.
士明1). The purpo of the author’s work on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana was ______.
A. to discover the fossil history of African mammals
B. to arch for the traces of the extinct animal species
C. to discover the fossils of human being’s predecessors
D. to study the fragments of the fossils of the ancestors of African mammals 满分： 2 分
2). The following is true EXCEPT ______.
