2019 高考英语复习 阅读理解 Getting (Too) Close to Nature 课文原文及教案+课文录音

Getting (Too) Close to Nature I WAS WALKING IN THE WOODS not too long ago, enjoying the fresh air and the autumn colors, and admiring the wonders of nature as it prepared for its long winter sleep. The woods were beautiful and quiet ... too quiet. I was alone, but I knew that somewhere, hidden by the trees and underbrush (灌木丛), I was surrounded by wildlife: deer, foxes, rabbits and groundhogs (土拨鼠). They were there, but at the first sight, smell and sound of a human, they hid until the danger (me) had passed. We all love animals, but not too many animals feel the same way about us. When we enter their wild world, we make them nervous. We are “unnatural” intruders into their homes. Apart from my own experience with shy animals, there was a video many of you may have seen on the internet recently of a bear and its cub (幼崽) climbing up a steep, snow-covered hill in Russia. The mama bear makes it to the top without too much trouble, but the baby bear keeps sliding back down. It takes three attempts to reach the top and, no doubt, many cheered at the cub’s never-give-up spirit. But nature scientists who saw the video didn’t cheer. Instead, the scientists were upset that the two bears had been frightened into making a dangerous, unnecessary climb by the drone that was filming them. Sophie Gilbert of the University of Idaho said, “It showed a pretty stark lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects his actions were having on the bears.” Other scientists have found that when a drone is hovering (盘旋) near, a bear’s heart rate can increase from 41 beats per minute to 162 beats per minute — a high enough rate to cause a heart attack. Human disturbance has actually been having a far-reaching influence on wildlife. Researchers at the University of Berkeley recently found that many mammals (哺乳动物) are turning into “night owls” again to avoid contact with humans. Such a shift might not only affect those species themselves, but also have numerous knock-on effects (