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  3. Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators (猛兽

Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators (猛兽

admin2012-01-27  61
问题     Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators (猛兽) don’t exist. Without such problems, animals in zoos should live to a ripe old age.
    But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth. Scientists have known that elephants in zoos often suffer from poor health. They develop diseases, joint problems and behavior changes. Sometimes, they even become infertile.
    To learn more about how captivity (圈养) affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands. Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care. These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800 African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe.
    The team found that female African elephants bora in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years — more than three times as long. Female Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos, they lived 18.9 years, while those in the logging camps lived 41.7 years.
    Scientists don’t yet know why wild elephants seem to fare so much better than their zoo-raised counterparts. Georgia Mason, a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study, thinks stress and obesity (肥胖) may be to blame. Zoo elephants don’t get the same kind of exercise they would in the wild, and most are very fat. Social lives of elephants are also much different in zoos than in the wild, where they live in large herds and family groups.
    Another finding from the study showed that Asian elephants born in zoos were more likely to die early than Asian elephants captured in the wild and brought to zoos. Mason suggests stress in the mothers in zoos might cause them to have babies that are less likely to survive.
    The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos. While some threatened and endangered species living in zoos reproduce successfully and maintain healthy populations, that doesn’t appear to be the case with elephants. "Currently, zoos are net consumers of elephants, not net producers," Mason says.
What does the author suggest in the last paragraph?
选项 A、Elephants are no longer an endangered species.
B、It may not be wise to keep elephants in the zoo.
C、Zoos should try to increase the number of elephants.
D、Zoos should keep more animals except elephants.
答案B
解析 根据题干中的last paragraph将本题出处定位到末段。该段首先提到，这一研究向人们提出了一个问题：是否应该将更多的大象关进动物园。第2句提到，尽管有些濒危物种在动物园能够很好地繁衍生息、健康成长，大象却并非如此。由此可推知，作者认为不应该将更多大象关进动物园，也就是说，他认为将大象关进动物园可能并不明智，故答案为[B]，同时排除与这一观点相反的[C]。[A]在文中未提及。[D]是对末段第2句的错误理解，该句提到有些濒危物种在动物园能够很好地繁衍生息、健康成长，但这并不代表动物园需要圈养更多的动物。
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大学英语四级

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