高中英语新教材外研版高二选修2 Unit5课文挖空

Book5 Unit5

课文挖空

MACQUARIE ISLAND：from Chaos to

Conservation

I am standing on Macquarie Island, in the South-west Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia and Antarctica.

Strong winds and stormy seas have helped sculpt its long, thin 1 .

The green grass and bare rock of its landscape contrast 2 , giving it a wild and natural beauty.

No visitor would think it surprising that the island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nor would they fail to imagine how its native inhabitants, 3 royal penguins, king penguins, and elephant

seals, existed in perfect4 with their natural habitat for thousands of years.

But the island's more recent history tells a different story.

It's a 5 story that began in 1810 when humans arrived on the island.

In their ships they unknowingly brought rats and mice.

These small animals quickly6 the island, eating the birds’eggs and attacking baby birds.

Cats were brought to the island to control the rats and mice. 7 , the cats subsequently developed an appetite for the birds, too.

Meanwhile,rabbits were introduced to the island as a 8 of food for humans.

Loose on the island, they did what rabbits do best --- they multiplied rapidly and began eating the native vegetation and digging holes, which caused soil erosion.

The exploding rabbit population

9 plentiful food for the cats, meaning that the number of cats also increased.

This 10 led to more cats hunting the birds. The end result was that parakeets, once large in number and native to the island, 11 in 1891.

Even after Macquarie Island became an

official nature reserve in the 1970s, the rabbits remained out of control.

Experts felt it necessary to come up with a plan to 12 all the rabbits from the island.

With this goal in mind, a virus was

13 onto the island.

But although the virus caused the rabbit population to 14 from 130,000 to around 10,000,it also meant less food for the cats.

The cats in consequence turned their attention –and their stomachs —back to the native birds, killing up to 60,000 each year.In the 1980s, traps and dogs were used to catch the cats.The last Macquarie Island cat was caught in 2000.

But as the saying goes,“While the cat's away, the mice will play."

With the15 of the cats from the island, the mouse and rat population started to increase. And remember those 10,000 or so rabbits?

It 16 that they developed an immunity to the virus, and their numbers 17 once again.

Then, in2006, the rabbits’digging caused some land to collapse, and killed a substantial number of penguins.

This incident made it clear that the rat, mouse and rabbit problem needed solving once and for all.

So, I am here on Macquarie Island to

participate in the programme to tackle this very problem.

The first step involved poison being dropped from helicopters.

The next step is to remove the last

18 invading species, and that's where I come in - with my dogs. They have been trained to find every last one,without harming the native animals.

This 19 is a long, much-delayed ending to a sad story, but we humans 20 it to the island to give it a happy ending.

答案

1.shape

2.dramatically

3.including

4.harmony

5.tragic

6.took over

7.Unfortunately

8.source

9.provided

10.in turn

11.died out

12.remove

13.released

14.decrease

15.departure

16.turned out

17.exploded

18.remaining

19.intervention

20.owe

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