题目内容
Britain's east midlands were once the picture of English countryside, alive With flocks, shepherds, skylarks and buttercups--the stuff of fairytales. In 1941 George Marsh left school at the age of 14 to work as a herdsman in Nottinghamshire, the East Midlands countryside his parents and grandparents farmed. He recalls skylarks nesting in cereal fields, which when accidentally disturbed would fly singing into the sky. But in his lifetime, Marsh has seen the color and diversity of his native land fade. Farmers used to grow about a ton of wheat per acre; now they grow four tons. Pesticides have killed off the insects upon which skylarks fed, and year-round harvesting has driven the birds from their winter nests. Skylarks are now rare. "Farmers kill anything that affects production, "says Marsh. "Agriculture is too efficient."
Anecdotal evidence of a looming Crisis in biodiversity is now being reinforced by science. In their comprehensive surveys of plants, butterflies and birds over the past 20 to 40 years in Britain, ecologists Jeremy Thomas and Carly Stevens found significant population declines in a third of all native species. Butterflies ate the furthest along-71 percent of Britain's 58 species are shrinking in number, and some, like the large blue and tortoiseshell, are already extinct. In Britain's grasslands, a key habitat, 20 percent of all animal, plant and insect species are on the path to extinction. There's hardly a corner of the country's ecology that isn't affected by this downward spiral.
The problem would be bad enough if it were merely local, but it's not: because Britain's temperate ecology is similar to that in so many other parts of the world, it's the best microcosm scientists have been able to study in detail. Scientists have sounded alarms about species' extinction in the past, but always specific to a particular animal or place--whales in the 1980s or the Amazonian rain forests in the 1990s. This time, though, the implications are much wider. The Amazon is a "biodiversity hot spot" with a unique ecology. But in Britain, "the main drivers of change are the same processes responsible for species' declines worldwide, 'says Thomas. The findings, published in the journal Science, provide the first clear evidence that the world is in the throes of a massive extinction. Thomas and Stevens argue that we are facing a loss of 65 to 95 percent of the world's species, on the scale of an ice age or the meteorite that may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
If so, this would be only the sixth time such devastation had occurred in the past 600 million years. The other five were associated with one-off events like the ice ages, a volcanic eruption or a meteor. This time, ecosystems are dying a thousand deaths--from overfishing and the razing of the rain forests, but also from advances in agriculture. The British study, for instance, finds that one of the biggest problems is nitrogen pollution. Nitrogefi is released when fossil fuels burn in cars and power plants-but also when ecologically rich heath-lands are plowed and fertilizers are spread. Nitrogen-rich fertilizers fuel the growth of tall grasses, which in turn overshadow and kill off delicate flowers like harebells and eyebrights.
Even seemingly innocuous practices are responsible for vast ecological damage. When British farmers stopped feeding horses and cattle with hay and switched to silage, a kind of preserved short grass, they eliminated a favorite nesting spot of corncrakes, birds known for their raspy nightly mating calls; corncrake populations have fallen 76 percent in the past 20 years. The depressing list goes on and on.
Many of these practices are being repeated throughout the world, in one form. or another, which is why scientists believe that the British study has global implications. Wildlife is getting blander. "We don't know which species are essential to the web of life so we're taking a massive
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Which o{ the following photographs of Dine's leaves the deepest impression on the author？
听力原文： The British broadcaster and jazz musician Humphrey Lyttelton has died at the age of 86. Known to millions of radio listeners as the urbane presenter of panel games, like "I am sorry I haven't a clue", Humphrey Lyttelton first came to fame as a trumpet player and band leader in the 1940s.In 1956, his Bad Penny Blues was the first British jazz record to enter the top 20. Although broadcasting claimed more of his time from the 1970s onwards, Humph, as he was generally known, continued recording and touring with his band until well into his 80s.
According to the news, which of the following statements is TRUE？
Though photography makes up a small slice of Dine's vast oeuvre, the exhibit is a true retrospective of his career. Dine mostly photographs his own artwork or the subjects that he has portrayed in sculpture, painting and prints including Venus de Milo, ravens and owls, hearts and skulls. There are still pictures of well-used tools in his Connecticut workshop, delightful digital self-portraits and intimate portraits of his sleeping wife, the American photographer Diana Miehener. Most revealing and novel are Dine's shots of his poetry, scribbled in charcoal on walls like graffiti. To take in this show is to wander through Dine's life:his childhood obsessions, his loves, his dreams. It is a poignant and powerful exhibit that rightly celebrates one of modern art's most intriguing--and least hyped-talents.
When he arrived on the scene in the early 1960s, Dine was seen as a pioneer in the pop-art movement. But he didn't last long; once pop stagnated, Dine moved on. "Pop art had to do with the exterior world, "he says. He was more interested, he adds, in "what was going on inside me. "He explored his own personality, and from there developed themes. His love for handcrafting grew into a series of artworks incorporating hammers and saws. His Obsession with owls and ravens came from a dream he once had. His childhood toy Pinocchio, worn and chipped, appears in some self-portraits as a red and yellow blur flying through the air.
Dine first dabbled in photography in the late 1970s, when Polaroid invited him to try out a new large-format camera at its head-quarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He produced a series of colorful, out-of-focus self-portraits, and when he was done, he packed them away. A half dozen of these images-in perfect condition-are on display in Paris for the first time. Though masterful, they feel flat when compared with his later pictures.
Dine didn't shoot again until he went to Berlin in the mi&'90s to teach. By then he was ready to erabrace photography completely. Miehener was his guide: "She opened ray eyes to what was possible, "he says." Her approach is so natural and classic. I listened." When it came time to print what he had photographed, Dine chose heliogravure, the old style. of printing favored, by Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Curtis and Paul Strand, which gives photographs a warm tone and an almost hand-drawn look--like Dine's etchings. He later tried out the traditional black-and-white silver-gelatin process, then digital photography and jet-ink printing, which he adores.
About the same time, Dine immersed himself into Jungian psychoanalysis. That, in conjunction with his new artistic tack, proved cathartic. "The access photography that gives you to your subconscious is so fantastic, " he says. "I've learned how to bring these images out like a stream of consciousness--something that's not possible in the same way in drawing or painting because technique always gets in your way. "This is evident in the way he works: when Dine shoots, he leaves things alone.
Eventually, Dine turned the camera on himself. His self-portraits are disturbingly personal; he opens himself physically and emotionally before the lens. He says such pictures are an attempt to examine himself as well as" record the march of time
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文：Susan: Tom, where are you going？
Tom: To the post office. I am going to send some pockets to Leeds. Do you know the best way to send them？
Susan: Well, if your need is for a record of posting and delivery rather than compensation for loss, recorded delivery is particularly suitable for sending documents and papers of little or no monetary value. Tom: Well, what can we send for recorded delivery？
Susan: All kinds of inland postal packets except parcels, airway and railway letters and parcels. The service does not apply to mail for the Irish Republic.
Tom: I see. How do I post them？
Susan: You should get a Certificate of Posting form. from the container in the post office and follow the instructions shown on the reverse. The certificate will be your record of posting.
Tom: Can I send anything in the post？
Susan: No, you can't. You must not send bank notes, currency notes, and some valuable things because there is no special handling in the post. Recorded delivery mail is carried with the ordinary unregistered post. And there is no special security treatment.
Tom: How do we use recorded delivery？
Susan: Well, when your letter or packet is delivered it is signed for by the recipient and a record is kept by the post office. The post office does not undertake to deliver recorded delivery or any other mail, to the addressee in person, but to the address shown. You can obtain confirmation of delivery by completing an Advice of'Delivery form. either at the time of posting or later. This form. will be signed by a post office official, not by the addressee of the recipient. A fee is payable, which is lower if the form. is handed in at the time of posting.
Tom: Is there any compensation for loss？
Susan: Well, compensation is limited. Compensation may be paid for loss or damage, but will not be paid for money or any other inadmissible item. If you want a speedy service for articles of value with extra security of handling en route, and wish to have compensation in the event of loss or damage you should use registered post.
Tom: What can we send if we use registered post？
Susan: Any first-class letter or packet except airway letter or railway letter.
Tom: How do we post？ I mean what should we do？
Susan: Well, you should make sure that the packet is made up in a strong cover and then, it is fastened with wax, gum or other adhesive substance. Hand the packet to the post office counter clerk together with the cost Of postage and the registration fee. Do not post it in the posting box. Make sure that the fee paid is adequate to cover the value of the content. The counter clerk will give you a certificate of posting which he has initiated with the date stamped.
Tom: Is there any special security for the registered post？
Susan: Yes. All registered mail receives special security treatment. Packing is very important because registration is not in itself a safeguard against damage. The contents of registered packets must be adequately packed.
Tom: How do we pack them？ Do we have to use special envelopes？
Susan: Yes, you have to send the articles in one of the registered letter envelopes sold by the post office. These envelopes are already stamped for first-class postage and have the minimum registration foe.
Tom: What about the compensation？
Susan: Compensation will not be paid for the following articles; such as bank notes, currency notes, trading stamps, coupons and some valuable things unless they are enclosed in one of the registered letter envelopes sold by the post office.
Tom: I see. How does it deliver？
Susan: The recipient on delive
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