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2014 I 卷 B
Passenger pigeons（旅鸽） once flew over much of the United States in unbelievable numbers. Written accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries described
flocks（群） so large that they darkened the sky for hours.
It was calculated that when its population reach its highest point, there were more
than 3 billion passenger pigeons–a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird
population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant birds in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be 1 mile wide and 320 miles (about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.
Sadly, the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. Where the birds were abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands. Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, taking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.
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By the closing decades of the 19 century, the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had been damaged by Americans ’ need for wood, which（驱scattered
散） the flocks and forced the birds to go farther north, where cold temperatures and spring storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks were gone, never to be seen again.
In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons, but by then, no sizable flocks had been seen in the state
for 10 years. The last
confirmed wild pigeon in the United States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time, a few birds survived under human care. The last of them, known affectionately as Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in September 1, 1914.
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24. In the and early
centuries, passenger pigeons _______. 18 19
A. were the biggest bird in the world
B. lived mainly in the south of America
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C. did great harm to the natural environment D. Were the largest population in the US
’ _______.
25. The underlined word “ undoing ” probably refers to the pigeons
A. escape B. ruin C. liberation D. evolution 26. What was the main reason for people to kill passenger pigeons? A. To seek pleasure. B. To save other birds. C. To make money. D. To protect crops. 27. What can we infer about the law passed in Michigan?
A. It was ignored by the public.
B. It was declared too late. C. It was unfair.
D. It was strict.
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2016 II 卷 D
be
A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life. Frank Hurley ’ spictures would outstanding----undoubtedly first-rate
photo-journalism---if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck(海滩 ), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival. Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica ’Weddells Sea. From that point
Shackleton wanted to force a passageby dog sled(雪橇 ) across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and well-researched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort. Scott ’ s last journey, completed ashe lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world ’imagination,s and a film made in his honor drew crowds. Shackleton, a onetime British merchant-navy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images, most of which have
never before been published.
13. What do we know about the photos taken by Hurley?
A. They were made last week B. They showed undersea sceneries C. They were found by a cameraman D. They recorded a disastrous adventure
14. Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?
A. Frank Hurley B. Ernest Shackleton C. Robert Falcon Scott D. Caroline Alexander
15. What does Alexander think was the purpose of the 1914 voyage?
A. Artistic creation B. Scientific research
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C. Money making D. Treasure hunting
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