Nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed...

Fishermen on the high seas have plenty of worries, not the least of which are boat tossing storms, territorial squabbles and even pirates. Now Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has added another. After studying, among other things, global catch data over more than 50 years, he and a team of 13 researchers in four countries have come to a stunning conclusion. By the middle of this century, fishermen will have almost nothing left to catch. "None of us regular working folk are going to be able to afford seafood," says Stephen Palumbi, a Stanford University marine biologist and co-author of the study published in Science. "It's going to be too rare and too expensive."

Don't tell that to your local sushi chef. Over the past three decades, the fish export trade has grown fourfold, to 30 million tons, and its value has increased ninefold, to $ 71 Billion. The dietary attractiveness of seafood has stoked demand. About 90% of the ocean's big predators like cod and tuna--have been fished out of existence. Increasingly, fish and shrimp farms are filling the shortfall. Though touted as a solution to overfishing, many of them have--along with rampant coastal development, climate change and pollution devastated the reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds where many commercially valuable fish hatch.

Steven Murawski, chief scientist at the U. S. National Marine Fisheries Service, finds Worm's headlining prediction far too pessimistic, Industry experts are even more skeptical "There's now a global effort to reduce or eliminate fishing practices that aren't sustainable," says industry analyst Howard Johnson. "With that increased awareness, these projections just aren't realistic."

Perhaps. Still, the destructive fishing practices that have decimated tuna and cod have not declined worldwide, as Johnson suggests. Up to half the marine life caught by fishers is discarded, often dead, as bycatch, and vibrant coral forests are still being stripped bare by dragnets. Worm argues that fisheries based on ecosystems stripped of their biological diversity are especially prone to collapse. At least 29% of fished species have already collapsed, according to the study, and the trend is accelerating.

what's a fish eater to do? "Vote with your wallet," says Michael Sutton, who runs the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program in California. Since 1999, the aquarium has handed out pocket guides listing sustainably harvested seafood. The Marine Stewardship Council has partnered with corporations to similarly certify wild and farm-raised seafood. Some 370 products in more than two dozen countries bear the British group's "Fish Forever" label of approval. Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, among others, have made commitments to sell sustainably harvested seafood.

But that's just a spit in the ocean unless consumers in Japan, India, China and Europe join the chorus for change. "If everyone in the U. S. started eating sustainable seafood," says Worldwatch Institute senior researcher Brian Halweil, "it would be wonderful, but it wouldn't address the global issues. We're at the very beginning of this."

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ______.

A．fishermen are afraid of pirates and storms most.

B．people should take measures to secure fish supply.

C．about 50 years later, we won't be able to eat fish.

D．Worm expects global catch data to continue surging.

Text 3 In recent years, railroads have been combining with each other, mergingsintossuper systems, causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995,the top four railroads accounted for under 70 percent of the total ton-miles moved by rails. Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four railroads will control well over 90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers.

Supporters of the new super systems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reductions and better coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them by the throat.

The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such“captive”shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for the business. Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appeal to the federal government's Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extreme cases. Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it reduces everyone's cost. If railroads charged all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of keeping up the line. It's theory to which many economists subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail.“Do we really want railroads to be the arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace?”asks Martin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents shipper. Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be his with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortuning fortunes. still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the .2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail's net railway operating income in 1996 was just million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who's going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.

第51题：According to those who support mergers railway monopoly is unlikely because

A. cost reduction is based on competition.

B. services call for cross-trade coordination.

C. outside competitors will continue to exist.

D. shippers will have the railway by the throat.

That millionaire has even been tossed ________ of the house for he had no money to pay for the rent.

A.about

B.off

C.in

D.out

Over the years, pregnant women have asked Donald Redelmeier, at Torontos Sunnybrook Hospital , about the dangers of diving, hot tubs, flying, mountaineering, cycling, bear attacks and all sorts of other exotic risks.【C1】______they never【C2】______road accidents. His new study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal,【C3】______they should. Dr. Redelmeier and his colleagues wanted to know if【C4】______makes a woman driver more likely to be【C5】______in a car crash. So they【C6】______data from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, which records health visits for the Canadian provinces 13m residents. The researchers【C7】______women who, in the months before giving birth,【C8】______a hospital emergency unit after a car accident in which they had been driving. They【C9】______looked at those womens hospital visits in the three years before becoming pregnant and for one year【C10】______the birth. They found that being pregnant made the women 42% more likely to be in a serious car crash. The【C11】______peaked in the fourth month of pregnancy. It seems that being pregnant is about as【C12】______for drivers as having sleep apnoea, which【C13】______people to snore and choke themselves a-wake throughout the night, leaving them【C14】______during the day. Womens driving seemed to be affected【C15】______how rich or poor or old they were, whether their pregnancy was【C16】______or straightforward, or whether they already had children. To【C17】______the possibility that pregnant women simply had an increased【C18】______to seek care—or,【C19】______laymans terms, were neurotic—they looked at whether they were more likely to go to hospital when involved in crashes that they did not cause,【C20】______they were passengers or pedestrians. The answer was "no" .

【C1】

A．And

B．So

C．But

D．Hence

The tradition of christening and commissioning a ship dates back to ancient times when the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Vikings called upon the gods to protect their ships and crew from the perilous sea. Religion played an important role in these ceremonies. In fact, christenings originated as a way to appease the gods of the elements. Christening gave a ship its identity, and over the years, different cultures and people changed and shaped the way ceremonies were performed.

Some of these traditions have been carried over into modem times. A ship is traditionally christened or given its name at the time it is launched into the water. When a ship is christened, it is a tradition to break a bottle across the ship's bowl. This practice began in Britain in the late seventeenth century. Previously, an official would sip wine from a "standing cup," a large loving cup made of precious metal, then pour out the remaining wine onto the deck or over the ship's bow. The cup was then tossed overboard. This practice soon became too costly and a net was used to catch the cup so it could be re-used at other launchings. Wine was the traditional liquid used to christen a ship, although other liquids were used such as whiskey, brandy and water. At the close of the nineteenth century champagne became the popular liquid with which to christen a ship. However, during prohibition in America, ships were christened with water.

Ships' sponsors were generally royalty or senior naval officers. In the nineteenth century, women became ship sponsors for the first time. Women sponsored ships more and more frequently, although it was not the rule. The actual physical process of launching a new ship from a building site to the water involved one of three principal methods. Oldest, most familiar and most widely used, was the "end-on" launch in which the vessel slid, usually stern first, down an inclined slipway. The "side launch," whereby the ship entered the water broadside, came into nineteenth-century use on inland waters, rivers and lakes. It was given major impetus in America by the World War II building program. Another method involved ships built in basins or graving docks, which were floated by admitting water into the dock. The commissioning ceremony then completed the cycle from christening and launching, to full status for active service.

Why did the author write the passage?

A．To outline history.

B．To outline modern practices.

C．To explain traditions.

D．To explain a birth cycle.