首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. THE SEEDHUNTERS With Quarter of
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. THE SEEDHUNTERS With Quarter of
admin
2015-05-04
56
问题
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
THE SEEDHUNTERS
With Quarter of the world’s plants set to vanish within the next 50 years, Dough Alexander reports on the scientists working against the clock to preserve the Earth’s botanical heritage.
They travel the four corners of the globe, scouring jungles, forests and savannas. But they’re not looking for ancient artefacts, lost treasure or undiscovered tombs. Just pods. It may lack the romantic allure of archaeology, or the whiff of danger that accompanies going after big game, but seed hunting is an increasingly serious business. Some seek seeds for profit — hunters in the employ of biotechnology firms, pharmaceutical companies and private corporations on the lookout for species that will yield the drugs or crops of the future. Others collect to conserve, working to halt the sad slide into extinction facing so many plant species.
Among the pioneers of this botanical treasure hunt was John Tradescant, an English royal gardener who brought back plants and seeds from his journeys abroad in the early 1600s. Later, the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks — who was the first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and travelled with Captain James Cook on his voyages near the end of the 18th century — was so driven to expand his collections that he sent botanists around the world at his own expense.
Those heady days of exploration and discovery may be over, but they have been replaced by a pressing need to preserve our natural history for the future. This modern mission drives hunters such as Dr Michiel van Slageren, a good-natured Dutchman who often sports a wide-brimmed hat in the field — he could easily be mistaken for the cinematic hero Indiana Jones. He and three other seed hunters work at the Millennium Seed Bank, an £80million international conservation project that aims to protect the world’s most endangered wild plant species.
The group’s headquarters are in a modern glass-and-concrete structure on a 200-hectare estate at Wakehurst Place in the West Sussex countryside. Within its underground vaults are 260 million dried seeds from 122 countries, all stored at -20 Celsius to survive for centuries. Among the 5,100 species represented are virtually all of Britain’s 1,400 native seed-bearing plants, the most complete such collection of any country’s flora.
Overseen by the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Millennium Seed Bank is the world’s largest wild-plant depository. It aims to collect 24,000 species by 2010. The reason is simple: thanks to humanity’s efforts, an estimated 25 per cent of the world’s plants are on the verge of extinction and may vanish within 50 years. We’re currently responsible for habitat destruction on an unprecedented scale, and during the past 400 years, plant species extinction rates have been about 70 times greater than those indicated by the geological record as being ’normal’. Experts predict that during the next 50 years a further one billion hectares of wilderness will be converted to farmland in developing countries alone.
The implications of this loss are enormous. Besides providing staple food crops, plants are a source of many medicines and the principal supply of fuel and building materials in many parts of the world. They also protect soil and help regulate the climate. Yet, across the globe, plant species are being driven to extinction before their potential benefits are discovered.
The World Conservation Union has listed 5,714 threatened plant species worldwide, but it admits this is only scratching the surface. With only four per cent of the world’s described plants having been evaluated, the true number of threatened species is sure to be much higher. In the UK alone, 300 wild plant species are classified as endangered. The Millennium Seed Bank aims to ensure that even if a plant becomes extinct in the wild, it won’t be lost forever. Stored seeds can be used to help restore damaged or destroyed environments or in scientific research to find new benefits for society — in medicine, agriculture or local industry — that would otherwise be lost.
Seed banks are an ’insurance policy’ to protect the world’s plant heritage for the future, explains Dr Paul Smith, another Kew seed hunter. "Seed conservation techniques were originally developed by farmers," he says. "Storage is the basis of what we do, conserving seeds until you can use them —just as in farming." Smith says there’s no reason why any plant species should become extinct, given today’s technology. But he admits that the biggest challenge is finding, naming and categorising all the wood’s plants. And someone has to gather these seeds before it’s too late. "There aren’t a lot of people out there doing this," he says. "The key is to know the flora from a particular area, and that knowledge takes years to acquire."
There are about 1,470 seed banks scattered around the globe, with a combined total of 5.4 million samples, of which perhaps two million are distinct non-duplicates. Most preserve genetic material for agricultural use in order to ensure crop diversity; others aim to conserve wild species, although only 15 per cent of all banked plants are wild.
Many seed banks are themselves under threat due to a lack of funds. Last year, Imperial College, London, examined crop collections from 151 countries and found that while the number of plant samples had increased in two thirds of the countries, budgets had been cut in a quarter and remained static in another 35 per cent. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research has since set up the Global Conservation Trust, which aims to raise US$260 million(£156 million)to protect seed banks in perpetuity.
Questions 14-18
Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.
Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
People collect seeds for different purposes: some collect to protect certain species from【R1】______; others collect seeds for their potential to produce【R2】______.
They are called the seed hunters. The【R3】______of them included both gardeners and botanists, such as【R4】______, who sponsored collectors out of his own pocket.
The seeds collected are often stored in seed banks. The most famous among them is known as the Millennium Seed Bank, where seeds are all stored in the【R5】______at low temperature.
【R4】
选项
答案
Sir Joseph Banks
解析
利用细节信息“sponsored collectors out of his own pocket”定位于原文第二段第二句话“Later,the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks…was so driven to expand his collec-tions that he sent botanists around the world at his own expense”,这里“he sent botanistsaround the world at his own expense”对应题目信息“sponsored collectors out of his ownpocket”,所以正确答案为Sir Joseph Banks。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PMNO777K
本试题收录于:
雅思阅读题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思阅读
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
ReadingtheepicknowntousastheIliadisvastlydifferentfromthe______experienceofhearingandseeingitperformed,fori
African-Americanfilmmakersshouldbeinanenviableposition,forsincetheearly1990stherehasbeenasteadywaveof
Mostpeoplechoosealawyeronthebasisofsuch______considerationsashiscost,hisfieldofexpertise,andthefeeshecharge
Itisclearthatmanyinstitutionalinvestorsoncevoted______;nowaftersomanyscandals,somemanagersadmitthattheyshould
Wedidnotdiscoverthathisapprehensionconcerningourhypothesiswas______untilwellafterward,followingaseriesofrigorou
Akeyfeatureofquantuminformationscienceistheunderstandingthatgroupsoftwoormorequantumobjectscanhavesta
Whiletheambitiontodrawanimmediateconclusionis______,itisnotnecessarilycorrect,forthesearchforthetruthdepends
Directions:Eachofthefollowingreadingcomprehensionquestionsisbasedonthecontentofthefollowingpassage.Readthepas
WhetherthelanguagesoftheancientAmericanpeopleswereusedforexpressingabstractuniversalconceptscanbeclearlyanswer
Althoughchildren’sbooksaboutanimalsandplantsareoften(i)______ratherthanaccurateintheirdescriptions,askillfulele
随机试题
A.风寒壅肺证B.表寒肺热证C.痰浊阻肺证D.肺气郁闭证喘息咳逆,呼吸急促,胸部胀闷,痰多稀薄而带泡沫,色白质黏。常有头痛,恶寒,或有发热,口不渴,无汗,苔薄白而滑,脉浮紧。证属
6个月以下婴儿患急性粟粒型肺结核的特点是
鹅口疮的主要特征是
蒸汽网路中某一管道,通过的流量Gt=4.8t/h,蒸汽的平均密度ρ=4.705kg/m3。室外高压蒸汽管径计算如下图所示,若选用DN100管道,则其实际的比摩阻为()。
根据理财规划的需求,一般把客户信息分为()。
W企业于2003年7月5日以每张1050元的价格购买A企业发行的利随本清的企业债券。该债券的面值为1000元,期限为3年,票面年利率为10%,不计复利。购买时市场年利率为8%。不考虑所得税。要求:(1)利用债券估价模型评价W企业购买该债券是否合算?(
会议强调,主要负责同志要有改革担当,在关键问题上要_______拍板,只要符合党中央要求、符合基层实际、符合群众需求,就要坚决改、大胆试。改革是奔着问题去的,要解决问题就要“_______”,提出的措施要有针对性。对党中央明确韵改革任务,要旗帜鲜明抓落实。
《宋史.刑法志三》:“徒、流折杖之法,禁纲加密,良民偶有抵冒,致伤肌体,为终身之辱;愚顽之徒,虽一时创痛,而终无愧耻。若使情理轻者复古居作之法,遇赦第减月日,使良善者知改过自新,凶顽者有所拘系。"沈家本《刑法分考》:“流罪得免远徙,徒罪得免役年,
Readthearticlebelowaboutareportonemployment.ChoosethecorrectwordtofilleachgapfromA,BorC.Foreachquestion(
A、Togetsomepocketmoneyfromherfather.B、Topersuadehimintoallowinghermorefreedom.C、Todistracthimfromaskingabou
最新回复
(
0
)