2022年福建英语专业四级考试时间通知

Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because they've been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe, and so did people, who —as they multiplied and organized —pat pressure on competitors at the top of the food chain. Now lions hold only a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that split from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former domain.

India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live primarily in a 560-square-mile (1,450-square-kilometer) sanctuary. It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forest —and no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and greatness. A tiger will slink through the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground, curious and unafraid —lionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Gir's lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. It's odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Gir has as many lions as it can hold —too many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions prowl the periphery of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. That's one reason India is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of disease or natural disasters. In 1994 canine distemper killed more than a third of Africa's Serengeti lions —thousand animals —a fate that could easily befall Gir's cats. These lions, saved by a prince at the turn of the 20th century, are especially vulnerable to disease because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals. "If you do a DNA fingerprint, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins," says Stephen O'Brien, a geneticist who has studied them. Yet the perils are hidden, and you wouldn't suspect them by watching these lords of the forest. The lions exude vitality, and no small measure of charm.

Though the gentle intimacy of play vanishes when it's time to eat, meals in Git are not necessarily frenzied affairs. For a mother and cub sharing a deer, or a young male relishing an antelope, there's no need to fight for a cut of the kill. Prey animals are generally smaller in Gir than they are in Africa, and hunting groups tend to be smaller as well. The lions themselves aren't as big as African lions, and they have shorter manes and a long fold of skin on their undersides that many lions in Africa don't have.

What impressed the author most when he went to watch the lions in the Gir Forest?

A．The lions were on the brink of extinction.

B．They were suffering from a fatal disease.

C．They allowed him to see their vitality and charm at close quarters.

D．Mother lion and her cub shared a deer.

SECTION B INTERVIEW

Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.

Now listen to the interview.

听力原文：Interviewer: Well Charles, I must say that your shop is pretty remarkable. Um, it's basically a sweetshop, but you also do stationery and greeting cards and tobacco and fireworks

Shopkeeper: And newspapers.

Interviewer: And newspapers. Ah. And apart from all that, you've got photocopiers...

Shopkeeper: That's right.

Interviewer: And a fax machine.

Shopkeeper: Indeed.

Interviewer: Yes. How did. I mean, why the photocopiers?

Shopkeeper: Everything that's happened in my shop has almost happened by accident. But when I got into Clifton, I needed a photocopy one day and no one could tell me where to go. So it struck me that if I didn't know where to go, other people were in the same situation, so that's why I started it. And then I added on a facsimile machine because it seemed like a natural progression at the time. And all sorts of people use it.

Interviewer: Yes, who, what sort of people do use it?

Shopkeeper: Um, a lot of professional people —surveyors, engineers — particularly people who need to send plans. Because in the past you could send messages via telex, but a telex can't express a plan, whereas facsimile has that dimension, the added dimension.

Interviewer: Right. And do people send these fax messages abroad, or is it just to this country?

Shopkeeper: Well, it's surprising because when I started, I thought I'd be sending things to London and maybe Birmingham but, in fact, a high percentage of it is sent abroad, because it's immediate, it's very speedy. You can send a message and get an answer back very quickly.

Interviewer: And how much would it cost, for example, if I wanted to send a fax to the United States?

Shopkeeper: Well, a fax to the United States would cost you five pounds for a page. And when you think that in England by the Royal Mail, it would cost you twelve pounds to send a page by special delivery, it's actually a good value.

Interviewer: OK. What about your hours? How long do you have to spend actually in the shop?

Shopkeeper: Well, the shop is open from, essentially from eight in the morning until six at night, six days a week, and then a sort of fairly flexible morning on a Sunday. Um, and of those hours, I'm in it quite a lot.

Interviewer: And how long have you actually had the shop?

Shopkeeper: I started to have my shop in 1982, the 22nd of December, oh, sorry, the 22nd of November. It sticks in my brain.

Interviewer: And did you enjoy it?

Shopkeeper: Yes, overall I enjoy it. Running a business by yourself is jolly hard work and you never quite like every aspect all the time. 95% of the customers I love. Uh, 2% I really, you know, I'm not too bothered about. And 3% I positively hate.

Interviewer: What, What's the problem with those? Are they people who stay around and talk to you when you're busy or complain or what?

Shopkeeper: Um, it's bard to categorize really. I find people who are just totally rude, urn, unnecessary, and I don't really need their custom. And I suppose they form. the volume of the people that I don't like. But it's a very, very, very small percentage.

Interviewer: But is there a danger that shops like yours will disappear, more and more?

Shopkeeper" I think there's a very, very great danger that the majority of them will disappear.

Interviewer: Why's that?

Shopkeeper: Simply because costs of running a shop have just become very, very high. To give you some example, in the time that I've been there, my rent has quadrupled, the local property tax have doubled, other costs have gone up proportionately. And at the end of the day it is a little bit hard to try to keep u

A．cigarettes

B．exercise books

C．photocopiers

D．chocolates

How many generators does the shuttle carry?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.