单选题 Few creatures on earth are as cute as the black lion tamarin, and few have as dramatic a story line. Pug-nosed and diminutive, with a comic fringe of hair, these monkeys dwell in trees in small tracts of forest in southeastern Brazil. Or they did until 1905, when they were declared extinct. No one saw a black lion tamarin again in the wild until 1970. Later, in the 1990s, some Brazilian researchers turned up a small set of isolated, inbred populations scattered over a wide region. Since that time, they have been engineering tamarin migration, doing everything they can to save the world's most distinctive primates.
Although they are no larger than house cats, tamarins have brains big for their size and a family life organized like our own. They live in groups anchored by an adult male andadult female, along with their offspring. When a mother bears young, she usually produces twins, and although members of the group share in their upbringing, it is most often the father who carries them around in the trees, where the families feed on fruits, insects and bird's eggs.
Unhappily for the lion tamarins, their tree-bound niche began to disappear after the Portuguese landed in Brazil and began clearing forest to make room for Rio de Janeiro, the settlements and farms. As is the case for so many threatened species, the breakup of their habitat sounded the death knell for tamarins, depriving them of the continuity of forest they require to remain abundant and safe from potential threats in any single vicinity. The animals avoid predators by hardly ever coming down from the trees, so even a narrow logging road through a forest can begin the breakup by preventing them from moving from one patch of forest to another.
A simple solution was to build bridges across roads, allowing the monkeys to move from one forest to another. With some lumber and the researchers' work, habitats that had been separated became continuous again, improving opportunities for migrating and mating.
The next step was to broaden the distribution of the population. The researchers captured two families of black lion tamarins and moved them to a new forest. After a year, the moves were declared a success: Not only had 80 percent of the tamarins survived, but they had also produced new offspring. So far, so good. The researchers had learned the animals could adjust to the new habitats, even if the insects there tasted a little different or the trees were a slightly different size.
The techniques for saving species in the wild vary. Species with less stringent habitat requirements, like wild turkeys, have been rescued by moving them into new settings as well as outlawing their killing. More challenging to preserve are species that require a lot of land, like elephants, and species that have highly specific requirements for habitat and prey -- like black-footed ferrets. Ultimately, as in all challenges, knowledge is power to save wild species from extinction.

单选题 A tamarin can be called any of the following EXCEPT ______.
A. a monkey B. a primate
C. a house cat D. a lion tamarin
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 是非题型
选项A在第一段第三行中有所提及;选项B在第一段第八行中有所提及;选项D在第一段第一行中有所提及;因此C为答案。
单选题 According to Paragraph 1, the tamarin story can be retold chronologically as follows:
Ⅰ. Tamarins were declared extinct.
Ⅱ. No one saw a tamarin in the wild.
Ⅲ. Tamarins used to live in forests in southern Brazil.
Ⅳ. The researchers have been doing everything they can to save tamarins.
Ⅴ. Some researchers found by chance a small set of tamarins.
A. Ⅳ--Ⅱ--Ⅰ--Ⅲ--Ⅴ B. Ⅲ--Ⅰ--Ⅱ--Ⅴ--Ⅳ
C. Ⅱ--Ⅰ--Ⅲ--Ⅴ--Ⅳ D. Ⅰ--Ⅱ--Ⅲ--Ⅳ--Ⅴ
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题型
Chronologically 表示:按年代顺序排列地。Ⅰ.的内容在第四行中提及,发生在1905年一 1905年宣称tamarin(绢毛猴)已灭绝;Ⅱ.的内容在第五行中提及,发生在1970年,
直到1970年没有人见过黑脸狮狨猴;Ⅲ.的内容在第三行中提及,发生在1905年前,这些猴栖息在巴西东南部森林间的空旷地域的树上;Ⅳ.的内容在第六行中提及,发生在二十世纪九十年代,从那时起巴西的一些研究人员就一直在尽他们所能来挽救世界上最与众不同的灵长类,设计绢毛猴的移民;Ⅴ.的内容在第五行中提及,发生在二十世纪九十年代一巴西的一些研究人员发现了一小群与世隔离的天生绢毛猴分散在广阔的地域;因此按时间顺序分,它们应是Ⅲ—Ⅰ—Ⅱ—Ⅴ—Ⅳ;答案为B。
单选题 Which of the following is NOT characteristic of a tamarin family?
A. A tamarin family consists of Father, Mother and their children.
B. The family life is organized like humans.
C. All the family members share the responsibility in the upbringing.
D. Tamarin brains are big for their size.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 是非题型
A、B、C选项的内容在第二段讲的绢毛猴科的特性中都有提及,只有选项D的内容没有提及,因此D为答案。
单选题 Tamarins lost the paradise of their tree-bound niche mainly because the Portuguese ______.
A. cut down trees to make rooms of the houses
B. cleared the forests to set up cities and farms
C. deforested some regions for playgrounds
D. hunted the most distinctive monkeys
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题型
见第三段第一句:Unhappily for the lion tamarins,their tree-bound niche began to disappear after the Portuguese landed in Brazil and began clearing forest to make room for Rio de Janeiro,the settlements and farms. 在葡萄牙人抵达巴西后开始砍伐森林以腾出空地来修建定居地和开垦农田以后,不幸的是绢毛猴赖以生存的生活环境就开始消失。因此B为答案。
单选题 The breakup of the habitats resulted in the following EXCEPT ______.
A. a lack of food for tamarins to live on
B. potential threats to tamarins coming nearby
C. tamarins' hardly coming down trees to avoid predators
D. a good fortune for many other threatened animals
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 是非题型
见第三段第二句:As is the case for so many threatened species, the breakup of their habitat sounded the death knell for tamarins,depriving them of the continuity of forest they require to remain abundant and safe from potential threats in any single vicinity. (正如许许多多濒危物种一样,绢毛猴们赖以生存的生活环境的崩溃为他们敲响了丧钟,任何一块聚居地的潜在威胁也剥夺了他们保持大量种群和安全所需的连片的森林);因此选项A,B,C中提到的食物短缺、潜在威胁的逼近及原本为逃避那些食肉动物在树上生活所需的连片森林都是原因,因此D为答案。
单选题 The lumber bridges were devised to ______.
A. improve chances for tamarins to meet and mate
B. connect once separated habitats for the sake of research
C. make use of some lumber cut down
D. both A and C
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题型
见第四段:一个简单的解决办法就是建造横跨大路的大桥,以便这些猴子们可以从一片森林向另一片移动。有了这些伐木做的桥和研究工作者们的帮助,原先被分隔开的栖息地又成为连片的了,这大大提高了猴子们移居和交配的机率。因此A为答案。
单选题 What did the researchers learn from the second step?
A. The trees in the new forest were in different size.
B. The insects in the new forest had a different taste.
C. Tamarins could get used to the new environment.
D. Above 80% of tamarins survived.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题型
见第五段最后一句:The researchers had learned the animals could adjust to the new habitats,even if the insects there tasted a little different or the trees were a slightly different size. 这句主要讲得是动物们可以适应新的生活环境;even if 后面的两个让步状语从句分别为选项A、B中的内容,因此答案为C。
单选题 The advice the author missed giving in saving wild species is ______.
A. having a thorough understanding of the requirements needed
B. having enough human and financial resources
C. outlawing the killing of the protected species
D. different techniques for different animals
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 是非题型
A的内容在第六段最后一句有所提及;C的内容在第六段第二句有所提及;D的内容在第六段第一句有所提及;因此B为答案。
单选题 To save the wild species from extinction, the author put the stress on ______.
A. knowledge B. technique
C. persistence D. confidence
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题型
见第六段最后一句:Ultimately,as in all challenges,knowledge is power to save wild species from extinction. (从根本上来讲,在所有的挑战中知识是挽救野生物种免遭灭绝的力量);因此答案为A。
单选题 The author wants to tell us that ______.
A. the primatologists have been devising ways to save the threatened tamarins
B. the black lion tamarin is the most distinctive animal of all animals
C. the tamarins organize their family life like our own
D. the Portuguese were the disaster-makers to the tamarins
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题型
通读全文可知,本文先从濒危物种之一的tamarins说起,……它们的遭遇,研究工作者们的努力……;因此可推断出本文作者想要告诉我们这些研究工作者们(灵长类动物学家们the primatologists)想尽办法来挽救这些濒危的tarmarins。因此答案为A。