考试日期：

2015年7月11日

Reading Passage  1  

Title

The longleaf pine长叶松的保护   旧

Question types:

填空6 流程3 判断4

文章内容

A he beauty and the diversityof the longleaf pine forest are well-kept secrets，even in its native South. Yet it is among the richest ecosystems in North America and the ancient forest of the Pacific Northwest in the number of species it shelters And like those two other disappearing wildlife habitats, longleaf is also critically endangere.

B In longleaf pine forest, trees grow widely scattered, creating an open, park like environment, more like a savanna than a forest.   The trees are not as dense as to block the sun. This openness creates a forest floor that is among the most diverse in the world, where plants such as many flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies and pineland bog-buttons grow. As many as 50 different species of wild flowers, shrubs, grasses and ferns have been cataloged in just a single square meter.

C

once, nearly 92 million acres of longleaf forest flourished from Virginia to Texas  the only place in the world where it is found. By the turn of the 21^st century, however, all of it has been logged, paved or farmed into oblivion.   Only about 3 percent of the original range still supports longleaf forest, and only about 10,000 acres of that is uncut old-growth-the rest is forest that has regrown after cutting.

D

Figuring out how to bring back the piney woods also will allow biologists to help the plants and animals that depend on this habitat. Nearly two thirds of the declining, threatened or endangered species in the southeastern United States are associated with longleaf.   The outright destruction of longleaf is only part of their story, says Mark Danaher, the biologist for South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest. He says the demise of these animals and plants also is tied tothe lack of fire, which once swept through the southern forests on a regular basis.   “fire is absolutely critical for this ecosystem and for the species that depend on it,” says Dannher.

E

Name just about any species that occurs in long leaf and you can find a connection to fire.   Bachman’s sparrow is a secretive bird with a beautiful song that echoes across the longleaf flatwoods.It tucks its nest on the ground beneath dumps of wiregrass and little bluestem.   But once fire has been absent for several years, and a tangle of shrubs starts to grow, the sparrows disappear. , the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi are also abundant in longleaf.   A keystone species for these forests, its burrows provide homes and safety to more than 300 species of vertebrates and invertebrates ranging from eastern diamond-back rattle snacks to gopher frogs. If fire is suppressed, however, the tortoises are choked out. “if we lose fire,” says Bob Mitchell, an ecologist at the Jones Center, “we lose wildlife.”  

F

without fire, we also lose longleaf.   Fire knocks back the oaks and other hardwoods that can grow up to overwhelm longleaf forest. “they are fine forests,” Mitechell says. “they evolved in the lightning capital of the eastern United States.” And it wasn’t only lightning strikes that set the forest aflame. “Native Americans also lit fires to keep the forest open,” Mitchell says. “So did the early pioneers. They helped create the longleaf pine forests that we know today.”

G

fire also changes how nutrients  flow throughout longleaf ecosystems, in ways we are just beginning to understand For example, researchers have discovered that frequent fires provide extra calcium, which is critical for egg production, to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Frances James, a retired avian ecologists from Florida State University, has studied these small black-and-white birds for more than two decades in Florida’s sprawling Apalachicola National Forest. When she realised female woodpeckers laid larger clutches in the first breeding season after their territories were burned, she and her colleagues went searching for answers. “we learned calcium is stashed away in woody shrubs when the forest is not burned,” James says. “But when there is fire, a pulse of calcium moves down into the soil and up into the longleaf.” Eventually, this calcium makes its way up the food chain to a tree-dwelling species of ant, which is the red-cockaded’s favourite food. The result: more calcium for the birds, which leads to more eggs, more young and more woodpeckers.

H

today, fire is used as a vital management tool for preserving both longleaf and its wildlife  Most of these fires are prescribed burns, deliberately set with a drip torch. Although the public often opposes any type of fire--and the smoke that goes with it--these frequent, low-intensity burns reduce the risk of catastrophic conflagrations. “forests are going to burn,” says Amadou Diop, NWF’s southern forest restoration manager. “it’s just a question of when. With prescribed burns, we can pick the time and the place.”

I

Restoring longleaf is not an easy task,  The herbaceous layer---the understory of wiregrasses and other plants, also needs to be recreated. In areas where the land has not been chewed up by farming, but converted to lob-lolly or slash pine plantations, the seed bank of the longleaf forest usually remains viable beneath the soil. In time, this original vegetation can be coaxed back. Where agriculture has destroyed the seeds, however, wiregrass must be replanted.   Right now, the expense is prohibitive, but researchers are searching for low-cost solutions.  

J

Bringing back longleaf is not for the short-sighted, however.。 Few of us will be alive when the pines being planted today become mature forests in 70 to 80 years.   But that is not stopping longleaf enthusiasts. “Today, it’s getting hard to find longleaf seedlings to buy,” one of the private landowners says “everyone wants them. Longleaf is in a resurgence.”

Reading Passage  2  

Title:

Gesture

手势 旧

Question types:

标题匹配6

段落匹配5

选择3

文章内容

（待补充）

Reading Passage  3  

Title:

Leister Curve

Leister剧院  新

Question types:

单选3

判断5

配对5

1. Challenge of traditional architecture

2.aptly named

3. make the building process  completed

4.YES

5. NO

6. NOT GIVEN

7. YES

8. NO

9. vehicle

10. scene

11.performance

12. curtain

13. huge

文章内容

主要讲英国莱斯特剧院的设计

难度分析

本场考试话题分别涉及生物类，科学类与人文类，三篇文章话题都是旧文，考生应加强对经典话题的举一反三能力。题型设置常规，各种题型都有所涉及，考生要继续加强对不同题型的练习，针对弱项题型的训练。