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
The ivory-billed woodpecker, if you haven’t heard, is no longer extinct. In late spring, a group of 17 researchers announced in
The ivory-billed woodpecker, if you haven’t heard, is no longer extinct. In late spring, a group of 17 researchers announced in
admin
2010-03-25
22
问题
The ivory-billed woodpecker, if you haven’t heard, is no longer extinct. In late spring, a group of 17 researchers announced in the online version of Science that they had spotted at least one member of this majestic species living in the cypress and tupelo swamps of eastern Arkansas. Once found everywhere in Southern hardwood forests, the ivory-billed woodpecker tumbled in population after the turn of the century, the victim of avid collectors and logging. It had last been seen in 1944, reduced to what Tim Gallagher, author of "The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker," calls "a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with our relationship to the environment."
"The Grail Bird" is the story of this remarkable rediscovery, told by one of the chief rediscoverers. The editor of Living Bird magazine, Gallagher began the book several years ago with milder ambitions. The plan was to interview anyone who had seen the bird -- or thought he or she had. Soon, though, he was swept into a web of tantalizing rumors and half- clues, propelled by the possibility that a living ivory-bill might yet be found. "If someone.., could prove that this remarkable species still exists, it would be the most hopeful event imaginable: we would have one final chance to get it fight, to save this bird and the bottomland swamp forests it needs to survive." Hope was a thing with a three-foot wingspan.
"The Grail Bird" is less an ecological study than a portrait of human obsession; if not for the outcome, it could as easily be a book about the hunt for Bigfoot. Gallagher stakes out swamps teeming with alligators and cottonmouths. He sifts through shady evidence, from fuzzy Instamatic photographs to bags of bark shavings -- peeled, possibly, by the ivory-billed woodpecker in its search for beetle grubs. He suffers bloodied feet and an infected knee. His closest companion, Bobby Ray Harrison, a wildlife photographer and an arts professor at Oakwood College, dresses in full camouflage gear and canoes with a camcorder attached to his helmet. "Sasquatch chasers," Gallagher’s wife calls them. Yet for all the shenanigans, his book is an insightful look at what most biological fieldwork involves: a lot of sweating, sitting and waiting for ghosts to -- maybe -- make themselves real.
As tales go, "The Grail Bird" isn’t the most stylishly told. Gallagher lets his characters talk at too-great length, and the incidental details are sometimes overly incidental. ("After pigging out on bad burgers, we got a room at a cheap motel and quickly fell into a deep, exhausted sleep with lots of snoring.") But most readers probably won’t mind. As some rivers are to be enjoyed not for the quality of the water but for the quality of the stones to be found therein, so it is with some books. Gallagher presents a series of lively characters: Fielding Lewis, a former Louisiana state boxing commissioner who in 1971 took two fuzzy photographs of the woodpecker that were subsequently -- and perhaps mistakenly -- discredited; an anonymous "woodpecker-whisperer" who claims to have a telepathic connection to the birds, even a thousand miles away. (One group of searchers failed, they were told, because they were noisily scaring off the bird.)
Oddly missing from this recounting is any extended focus on the ivory-billed woodpecker itself. Granted, the bird has been invisible for decades, a presence notable largely for its absence. Still, the book might have given us the animal’s history in more detail -- something to convey the visceral appeal of this "grail." Without that, the quest -- though triumphant -- at times feels hollow, and the fulfillment of the author’s obsession veers perilously close to sounding like an end in itself.
From this article, we may draw the conclusion that _____.
选项
A、The focus on the bird is an important yet missing characteristic, and without it even the successful discovery will seem hollow.
B、It is not the bird but the human efforts that attract a lot of readers’ attention.
C、The article argues that the book is with great content and great focus.
D、Although the book is not stylish, readers still find interesting things in its characterization and extended hist0ry of the bird.
答案
A
解析
这篇文章的最后提到书应该更加着重于鸟本身,因为这才是吸引读者眼球的地方,而本书做的似乎不足。因此只有A是正确的选项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZbqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Ithinkwemustmakeimportantdecisionssoon.Weneedtodecidehowtodevelopournaturalresourcesandmineralwealthwithout
Iamoneofthemanycitypeoplewhoarealwayssayingthatgiventhechoicewewouldprefertoliveinthecountryawayfromth
A、Henrydidn’tattendanyofhisclasses.B、Henryisnolongerenrolledincollege.C、Henrydroppedhiscollegediploma.D、Henry
A、Nidiadidn’texercisemuch.B、Nidiawasnotagoodbadmintonplayer.C、Nidiahurtherselfbecauseshecouldn’tplaybadminton.
A、Itistooheavy.B、Itisratherexpensive.C、Ithasnoair-conditioning.D、Itismadeofaspecialmetal.B
A、Negativeemotionsleadtobadhealth.B、Happyindividualsalwayslivealongerlife.C、Optimismactuallyaffectsaperson’sph
A、Thebillbecomeslawimmediately.B、Thebillcan’tbecomelawunlessthewholeprocessbeginsagain.C、Lawmakersmustreviewt
A、TonybrokeanarmandalegforthesakeofBarbara.B、ThenecklaceTonyboughtwasveryexpensive.C、Tonywasnotgenerousen
A、Catchsalespersonsellingguns.B、Lookoutforpoachers.C、Fightagainstpotentialterrorists.D、Patroltheterritory.A
Intheeighteenthcentury,Japan’sfeudaloverlords,fromtheshoguntothehumblestsamurai,foundthemselvesunderfinancials
随机试题
A.肾孟B.肾静脉C.肾动脉D.肾乳头E.肾柱肾蒂中位于最上方的结构是
××开发区成立于2001年,其区内土地已全部完成基础设施配套和平整。2007年5月,市国土资源局拟以租赁和出让的方式分别供应位于××开发区内的甲、乙两块工业用地。其中,对于地块甲,该市政府已于2006年7月与企业A签订了工业项目投资协议,确定了供地范围和年
背景:某住宅工程,地下1层,地上12层。现浇剪力墙结构。结构垂直运输采用塔吊.装饰装修垂直运输采用外用电梯,结构施工外脚手架采用扣件式钢管脚手架,模板采用1.8cm厚竹胶板及扣件式钢管脚手架支撑体系。施工过程中发生了如下事件:
对认真执行《会计法》,忠于职守,坚持原则,做出显著成绩的会计人员进行奖励的方式有()。
A注册会计师接受U会计师事务所的指派,连续第二年担任X集团公司2015年度财务报表审计业务的合伙人。X集团公司属于服装制造企业,其包括4家全资子公司(组成部分)在内的未经审计的资产总额与利润总额分别为80000万元和15000万元。A注册会计师按营业收入的
一辈子总待在舒适的温室里,有种种弊端,而漂泊能_________视野,__________心智,人生,__________藩篱,成就梦想。填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是:
60名员工投票从甲、乙、丙三人中评选最佳员工,选举时每人只能投票选举一人,得票最多的人当选。开票中途累计,前30张选票中,甲得15票,乙得10票,丙得5票。在尚未统计的选票中,甲至少再得_______票就一定当选。
过度工作和压力都会不可避免地导致失眠症。森达公司的所有管理人员都有压力。尽管医生反复提出警告,但大多数的管理人员每周工作仍然超过60小时,而其余的管理人员每周仅工作40小时。只有每周工作超过40小时的员工才能得到一定的奖金。以上的陈述最强地支持了下列哪项结
设f(x)=ln10x,g(x)=h,h(x)=,则当x充分大时有().
公司的组织结构采取总公司、分公司或办事处,2级管理1级核算体制,总公司采用独立核算的形式;其他地区设有办事处,均没有独立的核算功能。分公司和办事处负责当地的销售工作,客户是当地的各类商场或者超市。具体结构如下图所示:根据该图用200字分析总公司
最新回复
(
0
)