2024届高考英语外刊阅读天天练：阅读理解模拟训练九

高考英语外刊阅读天天练：阅读理解模拟训练九 ① Gardeners’ attitudes to insects, like those of humans in general, are a mixed bag. Butterflies’ brief, fluttering lives make them beloved wonders. Bees have long been a source of fascination as well as honey. But the reason why some creepy-crawlies have been classified as pests while others haven’t goes beyond appearances. Horticulturalists, like farmers, generally object to insects that eat what they grow. This hasn’t saved the creatures that don’t consume crops or garden plants. Habitat loss resulting from urbanisation and deforestation, and pesticide use in agriculture, mean that global insect populations are in steep decline. In the UK, the number of flying insects is estimated – by looking at vehicle number plates – to have fallen by 58.5% between 2004 and 2021. The changes in land use and agriculture that will be needed to reverse these alarming trends depend on policymakers. The UK government has broken its promise to replace subsidies under the common agricultural policy with sustainability incentives worth the same amount. It also lags behind France and other countries by continuing to allow non-agricultural pesticide use. Next year’s ban on peat-based garden compost is a positive step but should have happened sooner. Gardeners as well as politicians have a role to play by adopting new techniques, and aesthetics, which reflect the needs of nature. Insects, birds and spiders need food and places to nest. Gardeners should include wildlife-friendly trees such as crab apples where possible, and avoid weedkiller as well as insect poisons. Other beneficial changes include planting a greater variety of plants, ideally including some native species, which are more hospitable to local wildlife because they evolved in tandem. Last month, Australian scientists showed that planting indigenous species in an urban green space caused insect numbers to multiply by seven times in three years. Experts as well as amateurs are changing their ways. Th