四、閱讀測驗
In a summer camp, the scientist, Orley R. Taylor, was demonstrating the procedure of “tagging the butterflies.”
He told a dozen small-game hunters, “Pinching a bright orange butterfly in one hand and a sticky tag the size of a
baby’s thumbnail in the other, you want to lay it right on this cell here, the one shaped like a glove.” The
small-game hunters are about 7 years old and each of them is armed with a net. “If you pinch it for about three
seconds, the tag will stay on for the life of the butterfly, which could be as long as nine months.”Dr. Taylor runs the
Monarch Watch project at the University of Kansas. He is using the tags to follow one of the great wonders of the
natural world: the annual migration of monarch butterflies between Mexico and the United States and Canada.
Butterfly enthusiasts were looking forward to the northward migration this spring. It was the biggest in many
years. The 4,000-mile round trip made by millions of monarchs is a central mystery that Dr. Taylor and a network of
entomologists are trying to solve. It is said that monarchs are one of the few creatures on earth that can orient
themselves both in latitude and longitude—a feat that, Dr. Taylor notes, human sailors did not manage until 1700’s.
In light of the threat to the migration, however, a drought in the Dakotas and Minnesota may prevent
butterflies from starting their return trip. In addition, the journey is likely to be a death march because of the lack of
hurricanes that normally soak the Texas grasslands and sprout the nectar-heavy wildflowers for the monarchs to
refuel. Moreover, the biologist at Sweet Briar College, Lincoln P. Brower, warned that nowadays the biggest threat
to the migration is the steady friction of forests resulting from illegal logging. Although the government turned
366,000 acres into a butterfly sanctuary, it has failed to protect them. Nearly half the preserve has been logged since
1984.“It’s unconscionable,” Dr. Brower said. “If it isn’t stopped, I’m afraid the whole migration will unravel.”
【題組】49. What may stop the monarch butterflies from starting their return trip?
(A)A drought that happened in the Dakotas and Minnesota.
(B)The hurricanes that soaked the Texas grasslands.
(C) The sufficient nectar-heavy wildflowers.
(D)The shortage of monarch experts.
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