2014年四川大學(xué)考博英語(yǔ)真題2

Reading Comprehension 2

The government-run command post in Tunis is staffed around the clock by military personnel,meteorologists and civilians.On the wall are maps,crisscrossed with brightly colors arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path of the enemy.

What kind of invader gives rise to such high-level monitoring?Not man,not beast,but the lowly desert locust（蝗蟲(chóng)）.In recent moths,billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors have descended on Algeria,Libya,Morocco and Tunisia,blackening the sky and eating up crops and vegetation.The insect invasion,the worst in 30 years,is already creating great destruction in the Middle East and is now treating southern Europe.The current crisis began in late 1985 near the Red Sea.Unusually rainy weather moistened the sands of the Sudan,making them ideal breeding grounds for the locust,which lays its eggs in the earth.The insect onslaught threatens to create yet another African famine.Each locust can eat its weight(not quite a tenth of an ounce)in vegetation every 24 hours.A good-size swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100,000 tons of grass,trees and crops in a single night.

All$150 million may be needed this year.The U.S.has provided two spraying planes and about 50,000 gal.of pesticide.The European Community has donated$8 million in aid and the Soviet Union,Canada,Japan and China have provided chemical-spraying aircraft to help wipe out the pests.But relief efforts are hampered by the relative mildness of approved pesticides,which quickly lose their deadly punch and require frequent replications.The most effective locust killer Dieldrin has been linked to cancer and is banned by many Western countries and some of the affected African nations.More than 5 million acres have been dusted with locust-killing chemicals;another 5 million will be treated by the end of June.

On May 30,representatives of Tunisia,Algeria,Libya,Morocco and Mauritania will meet in Algiers to discuss tactics to wipe out the ravenous swarms.The move is an important step,but whatever plan is devised,the locust plague promised to get worse before the insects can be brought under control.

6．The main idea of the first sentence in the passage is that ____.

A．the command post is stationed with people all the time.

B．the command post is crowded with people all the time.

C．there are clocks around the command post.

D．the clock in the command post is taken care of by the staff.

7．The favorable breeding ground for the locust is ____.

A．rich soil.

B．wet land

C．spaces covered crops and vegetation

D．the Red Sea

8．People are alert at the threat of the locust because ____.

A．the insects are likely to create another African famine.

B．the insects may blacken the sky.

C．the number of the insects increases drastically.

D．the insects are gathering and moving in great speed.

9．Which of the following is true?

A．Once the pesticides are used,locust will die immediately.

B．Relief efforts are proved most fruitful due to the effectiveness of certain pesticides.

C．Dieldrin,the most effective locust killer,has been widely accepted in many countries.

D．Over 10 million acres of affected area will have been treated with locust-killing chemicals by the end of June.

10．The purpose for affected nations to meet in Algiers on May 30 is ____.

A．to devise antilocust plans.

B．to wipe out the swarms in two years.

C．to call out for additional financial aid from other nations.

D．to bring the insects under control before the plague gets worse.

【參考翻譯】

突尼斯的政府指揮站由軍事人員、氣象學(xué)家和平民日夜不停地工作。墻上是地圖，用色彩鮮艷的箭頭縱橫交錯(cuò)，煞費(fèi)苦心地追蹤著敵人可怕的路徑。

什么樣的入侵者才會(huì)產(chǎn)生如此高水平的監(jiān)控?不是男人,也不是野獸,但卑微的沙漠蝗蟲(chóng)(蝗蟲(chóng))。在最近的幾個(gè)月里，數(shù)以十億計(jì)長(zhǎng)達(dá)3英寸的有翼戰(zhàn)士襲擊了阿爾及利亞、利比亞、摩洛哥和突尼斯，天空被熏黑，莊稼和植被被吃掉。這是30年來(lái)最嚴(yán)重的一次昆蟲(chóng)入侵，已經(jīng)在中東造成了巨大的破壞，目前正在治療南歐。目前的危機(jī)始于1985年底紅海附近。異常多雨的天氣滋潤(rùn)了蘇丹的沙土，使其成為蝗蟲(chóng)的理想滋生地，蝗蟲(chóng)在地下產(chǎn)卵。昆蟲(chóng)的猛攻可能會(huì)造成另一場(chǎng)非洲饑荒。每只蝗蟲(chóng)可以在24小時(shí)內(nèi)吃掉它的重量(不到十分之一盎司)。一個(gè)龐大的500億只昆蟲(chóng)在一個(gè)晚上吃掉了10萬(wàn)噸的草、樹(shù)和莊稼。

今年可能需要所有的1.5億美元。美國(guó)已提供兩架?chē)娚錂C(jī)及約50,000加侖的除害劑。歐盟捐贈(zèng)了800萬(wàn)美元的援助，蘇聯(lián)、加拿大、日本和中國(guó)也提供了化學(xué)噴涂飛機(jī)來(lái)幫助消滅害蟲(chóng)。但由于獲準(zhǔn)使用的殺蟲(chóng)劑相對(duì)溫和，救援工作受到了阻礙，農(nóng)藥很快就失去了致命效力，需要頻繁重復(fù)使用。最有效的殺蝗劑狄氏劑與癌癥有關(guān)，被許多西方和一些受影響的非洲禁止使用。500多萬(wàn)英畝土地上撒滿了殺死蝗蟲(chóng)的化學(xué)物質(zhì);另外500萬(wàn)英畝將在6月底前得到處理。

5月30日，突尼斯、阿爾及利亞、利比亞、摩洛哥和毛里塔尼亞的代表將在阿爾及爾會(huì)面，討論消滅饑餓人群的策略。這是一個(gè)重要的步驟，但無(wú)論制定什么計(jì)劃，蝗災(zāi)都有可能在蝗蟲(chóng)得到控制之前惡化。

小編推薦：

2014年四川大學(xué)考博英語(yǔ)真題匯總