单选题   Last summer, the missing white-letter hairstreak butterfly was spotted in Scotland for the first time in 133 years. Conservationists wondered if the creature had established a breeding colony in the country—and a new discovery suggests there is good reason to be optimistic. As Russell Jackson reports for the Scotsman, volunteer naturalists recently found a cluster of tiny white-letter hairstreak eggs on an elm tree in Lennel, a small village near the country of Berwickshire.
    Volunteers with the UK's Butterfly Conservation have been carefully tracking white-letter hairstreak migrations for more than ten years. The butterfly, which boasts a distinctive 'W' pattern on the underside of its wings, is native to the U.K. and was once widespread in England and Wales. But white-letter hairstreak numbers have declined drastically in recent decades, largely due to an outbreak of Dutch elm disease, an illness that took hold in the 1960s. The disease has killed millions of British elm trees, which is the food source for white-letter hairstreak caterpillars (蝴蝶或蛾的幼虫).
    Recently, there have been signs that the butterfly's populations are recovering. The Butterfly Conservation team has observed the white-letter hairstreak gradually spreading northwards, possibly due to warming climates. But the white-letter hairstreak is still a very rare sight in Scotland, and the volunteers who found the cluster of eggs—Ken Haydock and Jill Mills—were thrilled by the discovery.
    'It was a lovely sunny morning and we were searching the elm trees by the River Tweed at Lennel when Jill called me over,' Haydock says in a Butterfly Conservation statement. 'I could see by the look on her face that she had found something. We were both smiling with disbelief and delight when we realized what Jill had found and within seconds I was fumbling in my pack for the camera—my hands were shaking!'
    That Haydock and Mills managed to spot the eggs is quite remarkable; according to Vittoria Traverso of Atlas Obscura, white-letter hairstreak eggs are smaller than a grain of salt. The volunteers were also excited to discover an old, hatched eggshell amid the cluster of new eggs. According to the Butterfly Conservation, this suggests that the white letter hairstreak could have been breeding in the area since at least 2016.
    Paul Kirkland, the director of the Butterfly Conservation's Scotland chapter, says in the statement that conservationists will 'need to have a few more years of confirmed sightings' before they can classify the white-letter hairstreak as a resident species of Scotland. 'If this happens, it would take the total number of butterflies found in Scotland to 34,' he says, 'which really would be something to celebrate.'
单选题     What did the two volunteer naturalists find? ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词two volunteer naturalists find，可以把答题线索定位到第一段。第一段第三句提到，正如罗素·杰克逊为《苏格兰人》所报道的那样，志愿博物学家最近在贝里克郡附近的小村庄伦内尔的一棵榆树上发现了一簇小小的白毛小灰蝶的卵，又由第三段第三句的内容可知，发现蝶卵的人是志愿博物学家肯恩·海多克和吉尔·米尔斯。由此可知，这两位博物学家发现的是濒临灭绝的白毛小灰蝶的卵，故本题应选B。A项不是两位志愿博物学家的发现，C、D两项属于利用原文细节杜撰的信息。 [参考译文] 去年夏天，苏格兰133年以来首次发现了失踪的白毛小灰蝶。自然资源保护论者怀疑这种生物是否已经在乡村建立了繁殖地——而一项新的发现表明我们有理由对此保持乐观。正如罗素·杰克逊为《苏格兰人》所报道的那样，志愿博物学家最近在贝里克郡附近的小村庄伦内尔的一棵榆树上发现了一簇小小的白毛小灰蝶的卵。 英国蝴蝶保护组织的志愿者们十多年来一直在仔细追踪白毛小灰蝶的迁徙。这种蝴蝶翅膀下方有独特的“W”形图案，它原产于英国，曾在英格兰和威尔士广泛分布。但近几十年来，白毛小灰蝶的数量急剧下降，这主要是由于荷兰榆树病的爆发，这种疾病在20世纪60年代开始流行。荷兰榆树病已经夺去了数百万棵英国榆树的生命，而这些榆树正是白毛小灰蝶幼虫的食物来源。 最近，有迹象表明这种蝴蝶的数量正在恢复。蝴蝶保护团队观察到，可能是由于气候变暖，白毛小灰蝶正逐渐向北迁徙。但在苏格兰，白毛小灰蝶仍然非常罕见，发现这簇蝶卯的志愿者——肯恩·海多克和吉尔·米尔斯——为这一发现而激动不已。 海多克在一份蝴蝶保护声明中说：“那是一个阳光明媚的早晨，我们正在伦内尔特威德河边的榆树间搜寻，吉尔把我叫了过去。我从她脸上的表情可以看出她找到了什么东西。当我们意识到吉尔发现了什么时，我们都难以置信，并开心地笑了起来，几秒钟后，我就在背包里摸索着找相机——我的双手在发抖!” 海多克和米尔斯成功发现了这些蝶卵，这是相当了不起的；据奇谈地图集网站的维多利亚，特拉韦索说，白毛小灰蝶的卵比一粒盐还小。志愿者还兴奋地发现，在一簇新卵中，有一个旧的、孵化了的卵壳。根据蝴蝶保护协会所说，这表明至少从2016年开始，白毛小灰蝶就可能一直在该地区繁殖。 蝴蝶保护协会苏格兰分会的负责人保罗·柯克兰在一份声明中说，在将白毛小灰蝶列为苏格兰的常驻物种之前，环保人士“还需要用几年时间来证实所发现的情况”。他说：“如果这种情况真的发生，在苏格兰被发现的蝴蝶品种将达到34种，这的确将是一件值得庆祝的事。”
单选题     What mainly accounted for the sharp decrease of the special butterfly species? ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词the sharp decrease of the special butterfly species，可以把答题线索定位到第二段。第二段第三、四两句提到，但近几十年来，白毛小灰蝶的数量急剧下降，这主要是由于荷兰榆树病的爆发，这种疾病在20世纪60年代开始流行。荷兰榆树病已经夺去了数百万棵英国榆树的生命，而这些榆树正是白毛小灰蝶幼虫的食物来源。由此可知，造成白毛小灰蝶数量急剧下降的主要原因是荷兰榆树病摧毁了数百万棵英国榆树，使得白毛小灰蝶幼虫无以为食，C项是对原文的同义转述，故答案为C。另外三项原文都没有提及。
单选题     What was said about the white-letter hairstreak butterfly? ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词white-letter hairstreak butterfly和题文同序的原则，可以把答题线索定位到第三段。第三段提到，最近，有迹象表明这种蝴蝶的数量正在恢复。C项Signs have shown that its number is rising again now是原文Recently, there have been signs that the butterfly's populations are recovering的同义转述，故本题应选C。白毛小灰蝶原产于英国，而不是美国，故排除A项；白毛小灰蝶的数量在恢复，而不是下降，故排除B；白毛小灰蝶在苏格兰依然罕见，故排除D。
单选题     What do we know about the two volunteer naturalists? ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词two volunteer naturalists和题文同序的原则，可以把答题线索定位到第四段。第四段第三句提到，当他们意识到吉尔发现了什么时，他们都难以置信，并开心地笑了起来，可知两位志愿者发现蝶卯时喜出望外，不敢相信这是真的，故本题应选D。由第四段中志愿者海多克的自述“那是一个阳光明媚的早晨”可知，选项A与原文表述不符，故排除；由海多克的自述“我从她脸上的表情可以看出她找到了什么东西”，可知海多克被叫住时他的反应并不是茫然的，故排除B；由海多克的自述“我就在背包里摸索着找相机——我的双手在发抖”可知，是海多克而不是吉尔为蝶卵拍的照，故排除C。
单选题     What does Paul Kirkland think would be something worth celebrating? ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词Paul Kirkland，可以把答题线索定位到最后一段。最后一段引述了蝴蝶保护协会苏格兰分会的负责人保罗·柯克兰的话，他说：“如果这种情况真的发生，在苏格兰被发现的蝴蝶品种将达到34种，这的确将是一件值得庆祝的事。”由此可知，在保罗·柯克兰看来，苏格兰蝴蝶品种达到34种是一件值得庆祝的事，即在他看来，苏格兰蝴蝶品种数量的增加是一件值得庆祝的事，故本题应选D。B项错在in the U.K.，此处说的是苏格兰，而不是整个英国，故排除。