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  3. When is an endangered species not an endangered species? When it lives in the sea, apparently. Despite continuing carnage in the

When is an endangered species not an endangered species? When it lives in the sea, apparently. Despite continuing carnage in the

admin2011-03-11  65
问题     When is an endangered species not an endangered species? When it lives in the sea, apparently. Despite continuing carnage in the ocean, marine creatures were refused any protection at the United Nations conference on trade in wildlife that ended yesterday in Doha, Qatar.
    Tigers, rhinos and elephants are all better protected after the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). But hammerhead sharks, bluefin tuna and other marine species should be quaking in their skins. For when it comes to fish, the world has decided that scientific evidence of imminent demise is not reason enough to defend them against overexploitation. The conflict between trade and conservation is nothing new, but it is pretty well established that if you let trade in wildlife run rampant (蔓延的), soon there will be nothing left to sell. That is why the UN set up Cites in the first place.
    So why did fish get such a raw deal? Is it that we care less about life that is so very different from us? Do the emotionless eyes of fish leave our hearts cold? Is it an extension of the convenient myth that fish feel no pain? The truth is far more shocking. All fingers of blame point directly at Japan. The high value of bluefin tuna--a single specimen can reach $112 000--led it to orchestrate a full-scale campaign against proposals to ban trade in the species. Diplomatic missions were sent to developing nations to bully them into agreeing with Japan’s conviction that fish cannot be endangered.
    That way of thinking is grounded in ignorance. The oceans long seemed infinite in their capacity to produce such riches, and any sign that this was not so was hidden by our inability to peer into the depths. Science has now stripped back the veil and revealed the extent of the depletion. It is this science that Japan and its allies have chosen to not to see.
    Unfortunately for life in the sea, Japan’s campaign made waves far beyond the bluefin. Sharks are in dire trouble thanks to some people’s appetite for using their fins in soup. About 73 million sharks are killed each year as a result, and sharks don’t reproduce fast. But far from favoring a ban, nations voted against even the most basic monitoring of the trade.
    Red and pink corals have now all but vanished from the Mediterranean and are being stripped from the Pacific, but proposals to control that trade were also swept away. Fish don’t recognise borders and boundaries. Yet one nation, Japan, by its cynical use of political power is robbing the world of a shared resource.
Why are fish refused any protection from the United Nations conference?
选项 A、We care less about marine life.
B、The emotionless eyes of fish leave our hearts cold.
C、People think that fish feel no pain.
D、People especially Japanese convict that fish won’t be endangered.
答案D
解析 文章首段就指出鱼类未得到任何保护，作者用第三段开头的几个问句对原因作了猜想，然后在第五句用转折指出“事实却令人更加震惊”。说明真正的原因并不是上文所说的，而应该是下文所提及的，即日本人认为金枪鱼有很高的价值，这导致了大规模反对禁止物种交易的运动，这一切又是因为日本人相信鱼类不会濒危，所以[D]正确，[A]、[B]和[C]都是作者在第三段开头提出的猜想，并不是真正的原因，故排除。  
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