2014年四川大学考博英语真题2

Reading Comprehension 2

The government-run command post in Tunis is staffed around the clock by military personnel,meteorologists and civilians.On the wall are maps,crisscrossed with brightly colors arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path of the enemy.

What kind of invader gives rise to such high-level monitoring?Not man,not beast,but the lowly desert locust（蝗虫）.In recent moths,billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors have descended on Algeria,Libya,Morocco and Tunisia,blackening the sky and eating up crops and vegetation.The insect invasion,the worst in 30 years,is already creating great destruction in the Middle East and is now treating southern Europe.The current crisis began in late 1985 near the Red Sea.Unusually rainy weather moistened the sands of the Sudan,making them ideal breeding grounds for the locust,which lays its eggs in the earth.The insect onslaught threatens to create yet another African famine.Each locust can eat its weight(not quite a tenth of an ounce)in vegetation every 24 hours.A good-size swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100,000 tons of grass,trees and crops in a single night.

All$150 million may be needed this year.The U.S.has provided two spraying planes and about 50,000 gal.of pesticide.The European Community has donated$8 million in aid and the Soviet Union,Canada,Japan and China have provided chemical-spraying aircraft to help wipe out the pests.But relief efforts are hampered by the relative mildness of approved pesticides,which quickly lose their deadly punch and require frequent replications.The most effective locust killer Dieldrin has been linked to cancer and is banned by many Western countries and some of the affected African nations.More than 5 million acres have been dusted with locust-killing chemicals;another 5 million will be treated by the end of June.

On May 30,representatives of Tunisia,Algeria,Libya,Morocco and Mauritania will meet in Algiers to discuss tactics to wipe out the ravenous swarms.The move is an important step,but whatever plan is devised,the locust plague promised to get worse before the insects can be brought under control.

6．The main idea of the first sentence in the passage is that ____.

A．the command post is stationed with people all the time.

B．the command post is crowded with people all the time.

C．there are clocks around the command post.

D．the clock in the command post is taken care of by the staff.

7．The favorable breeding ground for the locust is ____.

A．rich soil.

B．wet land

C．spaces covered crops and vegetation

D．the Red Sea

8．People are alert at the threat of the locust because ____.

A．the insects are likely to create another African famine.

B．the insects may blacken the sky.

C．the number of the insects increases drastically.

D．the insects are gathering and moving in great speed.

9．Which of the following is true?

A．Once the pesticides are used,locust will die immediately.

B．Relief efforts are proved most fruitful due to the effectiveness of certain pesticides.

C．Dieldrin,the most effective locust killer,has been widely accepted in many countries.

D．Over 10 million acres of affected area will have been treated with locust-killing chemicals by the end of June.

10．The purpose for affected nations to meet in Algiers on May 30 is ____.

A．to devise antilocust plans.

B．to wipe out the swarms in two years.

C．to call out for additional financial aid from other nations.

D．to bring the insects under control before the plague gets worse.

【参考翻译】

突尼斯的政府指挥站由军事人员、气象学家和平民日夜不停地工作。墙上是地图，用色彩鲜艳的箭头纵横交错，煞费苦心地追踪着敌人可怕的路径。

什么样的入侵者才会产生如此高水平的监控?不是男人,也不是野兽,但卑微的沙漠蝗虫(蝗虫)。在最近的几个月里，数以十亿计长达3英寸的有翼战士袭击了阿尔及利亚、利比亚、摩洛哥和突尼斯，天空被熏黑，庄稼和植被被吃掉。这是30年来最严重的一次昆虫入侵，已经在中东造成了巨大的破坏，目前正在治疗南欧。目前的危机始于1985年底红海附近。异常多雨的天气滋润了苏丹的沙土，使其成为蝗虫的理想滋生地，蝗虫在地下产卵。昆虫的猛攻可能会造成另一场非洲饥荒。每只蝗虫可以在24小时内吃掉它的重量(不到十分之一盎司)。一个庞大的500亿只昆虫在一个晚上吃掉了10万吨的草、树和庄稼。

今年可能需要所有的1.5亿美元。美国已提供两架喷射机及约50,000加仑的除害剂。欧盟捐赠了800万美元的援助，苏联、加拿大、日本和中国也提供了化学喷涂飞机来帮助消灭害虫。但由于获准使用的杀虫剂相对温和，救援工作受到了阻碍，农药很快就失去了致命效力，需要频繁重复使用。最有效的杀蝗剂狄氏剂与癌症有关，被许多西方和一些受影响的非洲禁止使用。500多万英亩土地上撒满了杀死蝗虫的化学物质;另外500万英亩将在6月底前得到处理。

5月30日，突尼斯、阿尔及利亚、利比亚、摩洛哥和毛里塔尼亚的代表将在阿尔及尔会面，讨论消灭饥饿人群的策略。这是一个重要的步骤，但无论制定什么计划，蝗灾都有可能在蝗虫得到控制之前恶化。

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2014年四川大学考博英语真题汇总