作文题

Read the Following Passage and Write a Commentary on Why are Fireflies Disappearing? You Are Required to Express Your Viewpoints Clearly and Logically within 300 Words.

Why are fireflies disappearing?

These harbingers of summer are in decline.
Do you have a summer firefly memory? I have many, having grown up next to a wetland. I knew it was finally summer when I would be outside playing after dinner and those little flying lights appeared. I imagined each light was a fairy with trailing long blonde hair like my own at the time.
Like bees, amphibians and butterflies, fireflies are disappearing. While the exact reason isn‟t known, three main factors are suspected: Habitat loss, toxic chemicals (which tend to linger in aquatic environments where fireflies start their lives) and light pollution.
“Most species of fireflies thrive as larvae in rotting wood and forest litter at the margins of ponds and streams. And as they grow, they more or less stay where they were born. Some species are more aquatic than others, and a few are found in more arid areas—but most are found in fields, forests and marshes. Their environment of choice is warm, humid and near standing water of some kind—ponds, streams and rivers, or even shallow depressions that retain water longer than the surrounding ground.”
As the human population continues to grow, more and more wild habitat will be developed for our use. As long as we keep interrupting forest land with houses, turning meadows into lawns and paving over wetlands, the fewer fireflies there will be—unless we start living in some radically different ways.
The other part of the problem is light pollution. Both female and male fireflies use their glowing lights to communicate with one another, to find mates, keep interlopers away and establish territory. Depending on the species,those flashy messages are coordinated—often across huge groups of thousands of bugs. Research has shown that lights—both stationary, like streetlights or lights from a house, and temporary, like car headlights—make it harder for fireflies to communicate. If mom and dad firefly can‟t find each other to mate because they‟re thrown off by car headlights, young fireflies never get created.
While firefly numbers will continue to decline in some places, in others they‟re becoming an attraction. In China, firefly pupae were brought into an urban park to re-establish a colony of the beetles there. “Entrepreneurs are trying to revive the population of bioluminescent insects in special firefly parks. One of the first of these parks, in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, opened in 2015. The response was so positive that the park plans to open annually (from May through early October each year)” writes Josh Lew here on MNN.

【正确答案】

Why Are Fireflies Disappearing

There are multiple reasons behind the disappearing of fireflies. Habitat loss, toxic chemicals, and light pollution are threating lives of those adorable creatures. The undeniable fact is that all those factors are closely connected, or even, led directly by human activities. In other words, we are killers of fireflies.
Population is booming, and our cities are expanding at an unprecedented speed. Where used to be the home-sweet-home of fireflies, now becomes the dirty-dusty land of farms and factories, or, no better, bases of skyscrapers. Besides, the increase of population also means intensified human activities. Cities dump thousands of millions of tons of wastes every day, and a considerable part of it is toxic, and those wastes would inevitably poison the land, air and water, endangering fireflies whose lives are depended on the clean environment. Similarly, light pollution,another unwanted consequence of our activities, also poses threats to fireflies because it can hinder their communication and reproduction process.
What will be the future of fireflies? It is hard to predict. In some places of China, firefly colonies are re-established, not naturally though, by our hands. Entrepreneurs see interests in those luminescent insects; helping fireflies to build new habitats in cities can certainly attract city dwellers, and brings money to their pockets. However, whether this is good for fireflies is problematic. Can those fireflies live happily with the hustle and bustle of city life? Can they reproduce comfortably as if they were under the shimmering of stars?
All in all, I believe, as we are the major cause of the disappearing of fireflies, we have to take the responsibility of saving those venerable creatures, but not by bringing them to cities to entertain us, but by protecting their natural habitats and let them to live peacefully without human disruption.

【答案解析】

本题要求考生在阅读文章后作出评价, 并提出自己的观点。
首先要总结文章作者的观点。 作者提出, 萤火虫消失的原因到底是什么还不明确, 但是栖息地丧失, 有毒化学物质和光污染很有可能是造成萤火虫消失的原因。 另外, 作者对萤火虫的未来持积极态度, 因为中国的一些城市已经开始尝试在城市公园中重新引进萤火虫, 并且已有一定的成效。 范文总结了作者的观点, 并用自己的语言重新表达了一遍。
总结之后, 考生需要对作者的观点进行评价。 范文同意作者对于萤火虫消失原因的论述, 但是认为在城市引进萤火虫的做法很可能无法对萤火虫的生态恢复起到真正的良好作用。
最后需要结合实际, 提出我们自己的观点。 范文认为, 保护萤火虫种群最好的方法是保护萤火虫的自然栖息地, 让它们免受人类打扰地在自然环境中繁衍。