1 965438+On September, 2004 1 Sunday, all news stations in the United States reported that Martha died in Cincinnati Zoo on that afternoon1. Martha is the last pigeon to travel on earth.
When pigeons are extinct, people often talk bitterly about the little boy in Park Town, Ohio, who shot down the last wild pigeon in the sky on March 24th. 1900. The last person who woke up tried to cultivate the surviving pigeons in the zoo. However, the dove who lost the blue sky has lost everything. 1909, leaving the last three, 19 14, leaving the last1-people stood outside the cage and watched it die in despair.
Who can believe that homing pigeons were once the most numerous birds on the earth?
Only 100 years, long, but so short.
18 13 It was an ordinary afternoon, and there were huge and messy cries in the sky. Mr. audubon looked up: the huge birds slowly covered the North American forest, the sun disappeared, and the earth was dark. Pigeons with a width of 16km flew over Mr. audubon's head for three days. The most famous ornithologist at that time predicted: "Travelling pigeons will never be wiped out by human beings."
At this time, there were as many as 5 billion traveling pigeons on the American continent, which was 5.5 times of the total number of human beings at that time.
However, Europeans came.
It is impossible to repeat their torture of pigeons. They burn grass, or sulfur under the grass roots, so that pigeons flying over the sky suffocate and die. They even chased pigeons by train. Shooting, shelling, poisoning, net catching, gunpowder explosion ... they used all the means that their imagination could think of, and they did everything they could. Killing pigeons is not only for eating, but also for feeding pigs, even just for fun. Once, a shooting club shot and killed 50,000 traveling pigeons in a week, and someone shot and killed 500 pigeons in one day. They recorded these sins one by one-that was the result of their competition.
Some people even came up with such a method-sewing the eyes of a traveling pigeon, tying it to a branch and opening the net. Its companions heard the news and were arrested one by one. Sometimes, you can catch thousands at a time. This method must be very popular, because they even created a term for the unfortunate traveling pigeon-"carrier pigeon".
"Media pigeon" is the original name of "informer". People call these poor birds this way because they always attract more people who are caught-this heartless name comes from the most emotional human beings.
1878, except Michigan, there were no flocks of traveling pigeons in the United States. People know this, but the guns in Michigan never stop. This year, for a profit of $60,000, Michigan people killed 3 million pigeons in a nesting site near Pei Toschi. Two years later, there were only a few thousand birds that could cover the sky. 19 14 When World War I broke out, when people were busy killing each other, the last passenger pigeon in the world died in its cage. Gray back, seems to be a little blue, bright red chest, like a burning fire, beautiful Martha, standing in a branch of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, USA, with a long mouth and a pointed tail, spreading her wings. However, it can no longer move, eat or sing.
Depressed Americans erected a monument for the passenger pigeon, which read: "The passenger pigeon became extinct because of human greed and selfishness."
The monument is just a cold stone. In the past century, the extinction rate of species under human intervention was faster than that of nature 1000 times. There are 75 species extinct every day and 3 species extinct every hour in the world. Many species have disappeared from the earth forever before being described by scientists.
Under the pigeon monument, Leopold, the master of environmental ethics, sighed sadly: "Those trees shaken by a living wind when they were young are still alive, but ten years later, only the oldest oak tree remembers these birds, and finally, only the sand dunes know them."
Question:
1, please summarize the main contents of the article in concise language.
2. What are the functions of the underlined descriptive sentences in the text?
3. What did disillusioned people do to save pigeons? What was the result?
4. What is the root cause of the extinction of passenger pigeons?
5. What is the real meaning of Leopold's "lament" at the end of the article?
Reference answer:
1. describes the process and reasons of the extinction of passenger pigeons.
2. There are a huge number of writing about traveling pigeons.
After awakening, people tried to cultivate the surviving pigeons in the zoo. It's no use. The last pigeon died.
4. Selfishness and greed of human beings in order to obtain economic benefits; Do not know how to cherish life; A cruel heart without compassion for animals.
5. The destruction of ecology by human beings will inevitably lead to the extinction of a large number of species; Animals and plants will disappear sooner or later, and human beings cannot survive; This language predicted the consequences of destroying nature and aroused people's vigilance.
Mobile deep-sea breeding cage
Independent breeding cages driven only by ocean waves and controlled by satellites will protect the environment: fish in cages can find food independently in open water. GPS positioning system can avoid collision with ships. When the fish grow up, the cage can automatically return to the port.
As we all know, fish farming in fishing grounds is more effective than fishing boats, but a large number of fish concentrated in a narrow space may harm the environment. So American scholars showed a fishing ground where they could swim by themselves. This huge spherical cage is equipped with an underwater engine so that it can move to the open sea by itself. With its help, too deep ocean can also be used to fix traditional aquaculture cages in water. In addition, the propeller injects fresh seawater into the cage at the same time, which makes it possible to increase the number of fish and further reduce the use of seawater by the country.
This system can even stand the test of storms. American scholars say that the initial experiment on the coast of Puerto Rico has been successful. At the same time, they think it is possible to equip with GPS navigation system in the future, which can bring back the breeding cage when the fish grow up. Cliff, head of the offshore aquaculture engineering center at MIT? The ancient explanation said: "The experiment shows that the mobile feeding cage scheme is technically feasible." He is working with Ocean Farm Technology Company, which is the developer of this underwater fish cage called Aquapod. The cage is made of polyethylene and fiberglass mesh, which provides buoyancy and enough stability to resist the attack of carnivorous fish.
Gudai's team equipped an Aquapod with a diameter of nearly 19 meters with two large underwater propeller engines, each with 5.5 horsepower and running slowly. The breeding cage is driven by a diesel engine on the water through a cable. The prototype was put into use in the waters of Culebra, Puerto Rico. Under the propulsion of 30 cm per second, the mobile fishing boat is very convenient and flexible to move.
In the future, researchers will also equip the cage with a GPS receiver and route calculation software, so that it can be manipulated freely when it floats out of an appropriate ocean current or has to avoid a storm. The same idea is to use renewable energy to drive the system, such as solar energy and wave energy.
In the ocean, communication system, especially safety, is essential to avoid the collision between swimming cages and ships. According to ancient times, in addition, the economic feasibility of deep-sea fishing grounds should be reviewed repeatedly, because only large-scale projects can have economic value.
Question:
1. According to the meaning, with its help, too deep ocean can also be used to fix cages in traditional water. What does "it" mean?
2. What are the functions of the words added in the following sentences? Please analyze it briefly.
But a large number of fish concentrated in a narrow space may endanger the environment (add words: possible)
3. Summarize the advantages of Aquapod underwater cage according to the meaning in paragraphs 2-4. Please list them in different articles.
4. From the full text, what are the reasons why independent culture cages can protect the environment in the future? Please summarize item by item.
Reference answer:
1 refers to the underwater engine.
2. Fish farming in fishing grounds mostly depends on the sea, and the breeding density is too high, which is easy to cause a large number of eutrophic organisms and other environmental problems.
3, a, using a wider ocean space, the cost is lower.
It is best to avoid the storm disaster.
Using GPS, it can be better managed.
4. There is only one, with a wide range of resources. People can get it in a cleaner way, so those resources with high pollution and high consumption will be used less!