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Section B
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
For hundreds of millions of years, turtles (海龟) have struggled out of the sea to lay their eggs on sandy beaches, long before there were nature documentaries to celebrate them, or GPS satellites and marine biologists to track them, or volunteers to hand-carry the hatchlings (幼龟) down to the water’s edge lest they become disoriented by headlights and crawl towards a motel parking lot instead. A formidable wall of bureaucracy has been erected to protect their prime nesting on the Atlantic coastlines. With all that attention paid to them, you’d think these creatures would at least have the gratitude not to go extinct.
But Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness, and a report by the Fish and Wildlife Service showed a worrisome drop in the populations of several species of North Atlantic turtles, notably loggerheads, which can grow to as much as 400 pounds. The South Florida nesting population, the largest, has declined by 50% in the last decade, according to Elizabeth Griffin, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. The figures prompted Oceana to petition the government to upgrade the level of protection for the North Atlantic loggerheads from “threatened” to “endangered”—meaning they are in danger of disappearing without additional help.
Which raises the obvious question: what else do these turtles want from us, anyway? It turns out, according to Griffin, that while we have done a good job of protecting the turtles for the weeks they spend on land (as egg-laying females, as eggs and as hatchlings), we have neglected the years spend in the ocean. “The threat is from commercial fishing,” says Griffin. Trawlers (which drag large nets through the water and along the ocean floor) and long line fishers (which can deploy thousands of hooks on lines that can stretch for miles) take a heavy toll on turtles.
Of course, like every other environmental issue today, this is playing out against the background of global warming and human interference with natural ecosystems. The narrow strips of beach on which the turtles lay their eggs are being squeezed on one side by development and on the other by the threat of rising sea levels as the oceans warm. Ultimately we must get a handle on those issues as well, or a creature that outlived the dinosaurs (恐龙) will meet its end at the hands of humans, leaving our descendants to wonder how creature so ugly could have won so much affection.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
52. We can learn from the first paragraph that ________.
A．human activities have changed the way turtles survive
B．efforts have been made to protect turtles from dying out
C．government bureaucracy has contributed to turtles’ extinction
D．marine biologists are looking for the secret of turtles’ reproduction
53. What does the author mean by “Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness” (Line 1, Para. 2)?
A．Nature is quite fair regarding the survival of turtles.
B．Turtles are by nature indifferent to human activities.
C．The course of nature will not be changed by human interference.
D．The turtle population has decreased in spite of human protection.
54. What constitutes a major threat to the survival of turtles according to Elizabeth Griffin?
A．Their inadequate food supply.
B．Unregulated commercial fishing.
C．Their lower reproductively ability.
D．Contamination of sea water
55. How does global warming affect the survival of turtles?
A．It threatens the sandy beaches on which they lay eggs.
B．The changing climate makes it difficult for their eggs to hatch.
C．The rising sea levels make it harder for their hatchlings to grow.
D．It takes them longer to adapt to the high beach temperature.
56. The last sentence of the passage is meant to ________.
A．persuade human beings to show more affection for turtles
B．stress that even the most ugly species should be protected
C．call for effective measures to ensure sea turtles’ survival
D．warn our descendants about the extinction of species
