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 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Australia’s Growing Disaster Far
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Australia’s Growing Disaster Far
admin
2019-06-10
61
问题
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Australia’s Growing Disaster
Farming is threatening to destroy the soil and native flora and fauna over vast areas of Australia. What price should be put on conservation?
Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Committee estimates that burning wood from cleared forest accounts for about 30 per cent of Australia’s emissions of carbon dioxide, or 156 million tonnes a year. And water tables are rising beneath cleared land. In the Western Australian wheat belt, estimates suggest that water is rising by up to 1 metre a year. The land is becoming waterlogged and unproductive or is being poisoned by salt, which is brought to the surface. The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) reckons that 33 million hectares have been degraded by salination. The federal government estimates the loss in production from salinity at A$200 million a year. According to Jason Alexandra of the ACF, this list of woes is evidence that Australia is depleting its resources by trading agricultural commodities for manufactured goods. In effect, it sells topsoil for technologies that will be worn out or redundant in a few years. The country needs to get away from the ’colonial mentality’ of exploiting resources and adopt agricultural practices suited to Australian conditions, he says.
Robert Hadler of the National Farmers’ Federation does not deny that there is a problem, but says that it is ’illogical’ to blame farmers. Until the early 1980s, farmers were given tax incentives to clear land because that was what people wanted. If farmers are given tax breaks to manage land sustainably, they will do so. Hadler argues that the two reports on land clearance do not say anything which was not known before. Australia is still better off than many other developed countries, says Den Graetz, an ecologist at the CSIRIO, the national research organisation. ’A lot of the country is still notionally pristine,’ he says ’It is not transformed like Europe where almost nothing that is left is natural.’ Graetz, who analysed the satellite photographs for the second land clearance report, argues that there is now better co-operation between Australian scientists, government officials and farmers than in the past.
But the vulnerable state of the land is now widely understood, and across Australia, schemes have started for promoting environment friendly farming. In 1989 Prime Minister Bob Hawke set up Landcare, a network of more than 2000 regional conservation groups. About 30 per cent of landholders are members. ’It has become a very significant social movement,’ says Helen Alexander from the National Landcare Council. ’We started out worrying about not much more than erosion and the replanting of trees but it has grown much more diverse and sophisticated.’
But the bugbear of all these conservation efforts is money. Landcare’s budget is A$110 million a year, of which only A $6 million goes to farmers. Neil Clark, an agricultural consultant from Bendigo in Victoria, says that farmers are not getting enough. ’Farmers may want to make more efficient use of water and nutrients and embrace more sustainable practices, but it all costs money and they just don’t have the spare funds,’ he says.
Clark also says scientists are taking too large a share of the money for conservation. Many problems posed by agriculture to the environment have been ’researched to death’, he says. ’We need to divert the money for a while into getting the solutions into place’. Australia’s chief scientist, Michael Pitman, disagrees. He says that science is increasingly important. Meteorologists, for example, are becoming confident about predicting events which cause droughts in Australia. ’If this can be done with accuracy then it will have immense impact on stocking levels and how much feed to provide,’ says Pitman. "The end result will be much greater efficiency.’
Steve Morton of the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology says the real challenge facing conservationists is to convince the 85 per cent of Australians who live in cities that they must foot a large part of the bill. "The land is being used to feed the majority and to produce wealth that circulates through the financial markets of the cities,’ he says. One way would be to offer incentives to extend the idea of stewardship to areas outside the rangelands, so that more land could be protected rather than exploited. Alexander agrees. ’The nation will have to debate to what extent it is willing to support rural communities,’ she says. ’It will have to decide to what extent it wants food prices to reflect the true cost of production. That includes the cost of looking after the environment.’
Questions 1-8
Look at the following statements (Questions 1-8) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
List of People
A Jason Alexandra B Robert Hadler
C Dean Graetz D Helen Alexander
E Neil Clark F Michael Pitman
G Steve Morton
Holding farmers responsible for land misuse makes no sense.
选项
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TsAO777K
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
AlthoughmostpeoplewhoacquireWestNilehaveno______andthosewhodonormallysufferlittlemorethanflu-likeillness,iti
Sendingarobotintospacetogatherinformationiscertainlyaviableoption,Linebutshouldberegardedonlyasthat--anopt
ThispassageisadaptedfromTheAmericanRepublic:Constitution,Tendencies,andDestinybyO.A.Brownson,1866.Thean
Howisanewbornstarformed?Fortheanswertothisquestion,wemustlooktothefamiliarphysicalconceptofgravitat
Discussionofpersonalincomeisgenerallyseenas______whenamongpeoplewhoarenotclosefriends,asitcaneasilybeinterpr
Hispenchantforlearninghistoryshouldprovetobe______duringhisstudiestobecomeahistoryteacher.
Althoughanumberofinventionsnotonlychangesocietybutalsobringtheinventorenormousprideandevenpaychecks,somefizz
Thenormally(i)______Mr.Bellwasuncharacteristically(ii)______indiscussingthefilminaninterviewlastweek.
Althoughmanyofthestudentshadfoundtheassignment______Harrisoncompleteditwithease.
随机试题
根据《与贸易有关的知识产权协定》,下列哪些选项应受到知识产权法律的保护?()
A、Hospitalteachingacrossthecountryissimilar.B、Eachhospitalhasatleastonepart-timeteacher.C、Allhospitalssurveyed
对于该患者的诊断,下列哪项错误( )。为进一步诊断,下列哪项检查意义不大( )。
A、清肝泻热,利胆退黄B、清热解毒,化瘀C、祛风镇痛,调经止血,补气养血D、消炎止痛,疏通经络,开窍醒神E、祛寒化痞,消食,调肝益肾十一味金色丸的功能是
从感知过渡到思维的主要的中介环节是______。
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定的规律性。
去年的通货膨胀率是1.2%,今年到目前为止已经达到4%。因此我们可以得出结论:通货膨胀率呈上升趋势,明年的通货膨胀率会更高。以下哪项如果为真,将严重削弱上述结论?()
试从蔡元培北大改革实践分析大学理念在教改中的重要作用。
下列股利分配理论的说法中,错误的是(复旦大学2018年真题)()
A、Weshouldtrytotalkwithourselves.B、WeshouldthinkaboutpeopleIhatcanhelpus.C、Weshouldtrytodrawonapositivei
最新回复
(
0
)