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  3. Last September, a partnership between the United Nations and the search engine Google was announced. As part of the United Natio

Last September, a partnership between the United Nations and the search engine Google was announced. As part of the United Natio

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问题
    Last September, a partnership between the United Nations and the search engine Google was announced. As part of the United Nations Environment Programme, it was agreed that Google would enable its mapping programme, Google Earth, to track 100 environmental hotspots around the world to reveal the extent of various environmental problems including deforestation, urbanization and retreating glaciers. If you view the map, you can click on a particular hotspot and see two images for comparison—one taken in the past and a recent image. There is also detailed information about each hotspot and its problems. Google reaches millions of people and thus increases public awareness of these serious problems.
    Forests are not just a collection of trees. They are in fact entire ecosystems, shelters and important storehouses for nature and man. They also house a remarkable variety of plant and animal life, and micro-organisms. Over 60 percent of all known species live in forests. They also store water and soil, and absorb carbon which helps to ease global warming as trees convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to oxygen. Human beings have found many uses for forests especially as a source of wood. It is easy to appreciate how important forests are.
    As shown on the Google site, all over the world forests are under threat. These threats are from commercial exploitation such as for pasture, planting crops and commercial logging. Those exploiting these areas often use fire to clear the land for such purposes. This process of destroying these areas is known as deforestation. Some scientists estimate that since the beginning of the 20th century, over 50 percent of the world’s original rainforest cover has been lost due to deforestation.
    Why does deforestation happen? The main reason is money. Many poorer nations such as Brazil are forced to use their forest resources as a way to get income. Many of these deforested areas are used to produce soy beans, an export worth $ 10 billion a year. There are other similar cases, which can be found all over the world such as in Madagascar, Thailand and Ghana.
    Deforestation has many negative impacts. It not only destroys trees, which contributes to global warming, it also destroys the abundant plant and wildlife in the forests. Another impact is erosion. As trees disappear, the protection for the soil is lost, and the whole area can become eroded or even lost to desert. Even if forests can recover, they do not do so quickly. It takes a long time for the environment to recover—for new trees to grow and for new species to return.
    There are a number of solutions which have been tried. One is the introduction of new high-yield hybrid farming methods, which help farmers produce more from a smaller area of land. Another is reforestation. China has been particularly active in this area. March 12th is national planting day in China, and the government claims to have planted over two billion new trees since 1982.
    Many other organizations dedicate themselves to solving this problem. For example, Greenpeace is very active in this area. Also the WWFN (the World Wide Fund for Nature) has been campaigning to have governments outlaw trade in threatened and rare species since 1975. In addition, forest certification and sensible forest management can go a long way to help reduce deforestation. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) programme has been very successful and now boasts over 68 million hectares under its protection. Even individuals can help in the fight. The Rainforest Site offers a way to help for free. Clicking on one of its pages generates a donation from a sponsor to preserving forests.
Forests help sustain so much life and ensure the survival of the planet. Despite a slowing down of deforestation in the last few years, it still remains a major environmental problem which will take a great deal of time and effort to solve.
    The world’s forests help to【A1】________life on our planet. However, their【A2】________for agriculture and business has reduced their size by more than【A3】________, causing many other environmental problems. Organizations like WWFN and【A4】________are working hard to increase【A5】________of this problem. If this situation worries you, you can help them and contribute to saving the forests.
【A2】
选项
答案exploitation
解析 文章第三段第二句提到，威胁来自商业开发，如放牧、种植作物和商业伐木。即用于农业和商业的森林采伐引起各种环境问题。因此，填入exploitation。
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本试题收录于： A类竞赛（研究生）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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A类竞赛（研究生）

大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）

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