学位英语

补全短文

下面的短文有5处空白，短文后有6个句子，其中5个取自短文，请根据短文内容将其分别放回原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。

Ants as a Barometer of Ecological Change

At picnics, ants are pests. But they have their uses. In industries such as mining, farming and forestry, they can help gauge the health of the environment by just crawling around and being antsy.

It has been recognized for decades that ants-which are highly sensitive to ecological change can provide a near-perfect barometer of the state of an ecosystem. Only certain species, for instance,will continue to thrive at a forest site that has been cleared of trees.1__________And still others will move in and take up residence.

By looking at which species populate a deforested area, scientists can determine how "stressed" the land is. 2__________Ants are used simply because they are so common and comprise so many species.

Where mine sites are being restored, for example, some ant species will recolonize the stripped land more quickly than others. 3__________Australian mining company Capricorn Coal Management has been successfully using ant surveys for years to determine the rate of recovery of land that it is replanting near its German Creek mine in Queensland.

Ant surveys also have been used with mine-site recovery projects in Africa and Brazil, where warm climates encourage dense and diverse ant populations. "We found it worked extremely well there," says Jonathan Majer, a professor of environmental biology. Yet the surveys are perfectly suited to climates throughout Asia, he says, because ants are so common throughout the region. As Majer puts it:"That's the great thing about ants. "

Ant surveys are so highly-regarded as ecological indicators that governments worldwide accept their results when assessing the environmental impact of mining and tree harvesting. 4__________Why not? Because many companies can't afford the expense or the laboratory time needed to sift results for a comprehensive survey. The cost stems, also, from the scarcity of ant specialists,5__________

A. This allowed scientists to gauge the pace and progress of the ecological recovery.

B. Yet in other businesses, such as farming and property development, ant surveys aren't used widely.

C. Employing those people are expensive.

D. They do this by sorting the ants, counting their numbers and comparing the results with those of earlier surveys.

E. The evolution of ant species may have a strong impact on our ecosystem.

F. Others will die out for lack of food.

1.F【解析】句意：其它的(蚂蚁种群)将会因食物缺乏而灭绝。

这一空前面的句子中有certain species，空后的句子中有still others，所以从这两点可以判断该空填“0ther….”;0ther指代的是“其他的蚂蚁种群”。

2.D【解析】句意：他们通过把蚂蚁分成几类，计算它们的数量，比较之前的几个调查结果(来做这件事)。

这一空前面一句说scientist can determine how“stressed”the land is.科学家可以判断出……，通过阅读六个选项可知，只有D项与这一句衔接比较紧密，完整的意思是“他们通过……来判断土地的硬度。”所以D项为最佳答案。

3.A【解析】句意：这使科学家们能够估测出生态恢复的持续发展状况。

空前一句中的recolonize恰好与A项中的ecological recovery相对应，并且选项A的句子是前面句子的后续句，所以A项为最佳答案。

4.B【解析】句意：然而，在其它商业领域中例如农业和房地产开发行业，蚂蚁分析法应用的并不是很广泛。

空前的句子中有ming，tree harvesting 等次，这些也是属于bussiness中的。意思是说蚂蚁分析法已经被……等领域广泛接受，但是在farming和property development 行业中的应用还不广泛。所以B项为最佳选项。

5.C【解析】句意：雇佣这些人的费用是昂贵的。

空前的句子中的scarcity意思是“缺乏，不足”，因为少，当然就expensive(昂贵)了。并且C选项中的those指代就是前一句中的specialists。所以C项是最佳答案。