A
(2019·湖南衡阳二模，B)By the time Robert Porter Allen was born in 1905, the whooping crane(鸣鹤) was already in trouble. The beautiful bird was once commonly found across North America. By 1941, the whooping crane population had dwindled to the double digits.The tallest species in North America were critically endangered.
In the 1940's, the remaining cranes migrated (迁徙) every year from the Gulf Coast of Texas to somewhere in the north of Canada to breed (繁殖)．The conservation community didn't know where the birds went. The wetlands where they used to spend winters were growing rarer and rarer as they were dried and built on, and the birds were dying in large numbers on the long migration flight. A tiny, nonmigrating group of whooping cranes was alive in Louisiana in 1941, but the group had disappeared by the time Allen started his research.
In 1942, Allen undertook the whooping crane project. Over the next three years, he did almost constant field work that took him from Texas up the cranes' migration route to Nebraska, and on into Saskatchewan in search of the nesting ground of the birds.
Studying the bird in its breeding habitat and seeing how many birds were born would allow conservationists to understand how to help the birds on their journey. But finding the whooping crane's nesting site meant difficult and fruitless air searches over northern Canada.
In 1952, Allen wrote a report on the whooping crane.The report was a warning call to the conservation community：only 33 migrator? “whoopers” remained, and their nesting site still hadn't been found. Two years later, the whooping crane's breeding grounds in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park were finally found, and Allen headed north to study them firsthand，an “incredibly difficult journey，” in Sprunt's words. Allen's work laid the groundwork for conservationists to save the birds.
Their efforts paid off as the numbers reached 57 by 1970 and 214 by 2005. Today, the whooping crane is still listed as endangered, but there are roughly 600 birds alive.
【语篇解读】 本文为记叙文，讲述了一名动物保护者保护濒危动物鸣鹤的故事。
1．What is the passage mainly about?
A．It is a story about Allen's searching for a lost bird.
B．It is a story about the cranes' long migration flight.
C．It is a story about the crane surviving the winters.
D．It is a story about conserving the whooping crane.
D [主旨大意题。本题题干意为：本文的主要内容是什么？第一至二段介绍了鸣鹤的濒危程度，第三至五段介绍了Robert Porter Allen为保护濒危动物鸣鹤所做的工作，最后一段介绍了他所做工作取得的成效。综上所述，本文主要讲述了有关保护鸣鹤的故事，故答案为D项。]
2．What does the underlined word “dwindled” mean in the first paragraph?
A．Increased. B．Reduced.
C．Stayed. D．Limited.
B [词义猜测题。本题题干意为：第一段中画线词“dwindled”的意思是什么？根据上下文尤其是本句中的“double digits”(两位数字)可知答案为B项(减少)。A：增加；C：保持；D：限制。]
3．According to the passage, which of the following is mainly responsible for what happened to the remaining whooping cranes?
A．Habitat loss. B．Illegal hunting.
C．Natural disaster. D．Deadly diseases.
A [细节理解题。本题题干意为：根据本文，下列哪一项应对剩余的鸣鹤所发生的事负主要责任？根据第二段中“The wetlands where they used to spend winters were growing rarer and rarer as they were dried and built on，and the birds were dying in large numbers on the long migration flight.(随着湿地的干涸以及人们在湿地上搞建筑，它们过去过冬的湿地越来越少，这种鸟在长距离迁徙过程中大量死亡。)”可知答案为A项(栖息地的丧失)。B：非法捕猎；C：自然灾害；D：致命疾病。]
4．Which of the following events took place in 1954?
A．The nonmigrating group of whooping cranes disappeared.
B．Robert Porter Allen undertook the whooping crane project.
C．The whooping crane's breeding grounds were discovered.
D．Robert Porter Allen wrote a report on the whooping crane.
C [细节理解题。本题题干意为：在1954年发生了下列哪个事件？根据题干中的“1954”在文中寻找1954年或接近1954年的段落，由此可知定位到第五段；根据第五段中的“In 1952”及该段中“Two years later，the whooping crane's breeding grounds in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park were finally found，...”可知答案为C项(鸣鹤的繁衍地被发现)。]
