完形填空
text one
Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures
The vultures (禿鷹) in question may look ugly and threatening, but the sudden sharp decline in three species of India's vultures is producing alarm rather than celebration, and it presents the world with a new kind of environmental problem. The dramatic__________(51) in vulture numbers is causing widespread disruption to people living in the__________(52) areas as the birds. It is also causing serious public health problems __________(53) the Indian sub-continent.
While their reputation and appearance may be unpleasant to many Indians, vultures have__________(54)played a very important role in keeping towns and villages all over India __________(55) It is because they feed on dead cows. In India, cows are sacred animals and are__________ (56) left in the open when they die in their thousands upon thousands every year.
The disappearance of the vultures has __________(57) an explosion in the numbers of wild dogs feeding on the remains of these__________ (58) animals. There are fears that rabies (狂犬症) may increase as a result. And this terrifying disease may ultimately (最終) affect humans in the region, __________ (59) ild dogs are its main carriers. Rabies could also spread to other animal species, __________(60) an even greater problem in the future.
The need for action is __________ (61), so an emergency project has been launched to find a solution to this serious vulture problem. Scientists are trying to__________ (62) the disease causing the birds' deaths and, if possible, develop a cure.
Large-scale vulture__________(63) were first noticed at the end of the 1980s in India. A population survey at that time showed that the three species of vultures had declined__________ (64)over 90 per cent. All three species are now listed as "critically endangered". As most vultures lay only single eggs and__________ (65) about five years to reach maturity, reversing their population decline will be a long and difficult exercise.
51.A. increase
B. threat
C. risk
D. decline
52.A. small
B. different
C. same
D. safe
53.A. above
B. with
C. across
D. through
54.A. rarely
B. long
C. recently
D. seldom
55.A. dangerous
B. clean
C. smelly
D. beautiful
56.A. immediately
B. occasionally
C. hardly
D. traditionally
57.A. acted as
B. led to
C. come from
D. slowed down
58.A. dead
B. strange
C. wild
D. endangered
59.A. when
B. so
C. whether
D. since
60.A. improving
B. causing
C. predicting
D. finding
61.A. frequent
B. regular
C. urgent
D. sudden
62.A. identify
B. prove
C. test
D. check
63.A. injuries
B. deaths
C. arrivals
D. attacks
64.A. in
B. on
C. along
D. by
65.A. waste
B. consume
C. take
D. adopt
text two
Underground Coal Fires
Coal burning deep underground in China, India and Indonesia is threatening the environment andhuman life, scientists have warned. These large-scale __________(51) blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can __________(52) ignite forest fires, a panel of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver. The resulting__________ (53) of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils,they warned.
"Coal fires are a global catastrophe," said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro, USA. But __________ (54) few people know about them.
Coal can heat up on its own, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not caused to __________ (55) and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported.__________ (56) fires in China consume up to 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In __________(57), the U.S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher,.__________ (58)analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Coal Ecology. __________(59) underway, coal fires can bum for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large__________(60) of greenhouse gases, poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.
The members of the panel discussed the__________(61) these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, and agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to __________(62).
Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to __________(63)how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested__________ (64) of containing the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a heat-resistant grout (a thin mortar used to fill cracks and crevices), which is designed to be pumped into the coal fire to__________(65) the oxygen supply.
