新高级阅读前（双语）43（1375）

PASSAGE FORTY-THREE

The meaning of Easter

1.Easter is still a great day for worship, candy in baskets and running around the yard finding eggs, but every year it gets quite a bit worse for bunnies.

2.And no, not because the kids like to pull their ears. The culprit is climate change, and some researchers found that rising temperatures are having harmful effects on at least five species of rabbit in the U.S..

3.Take the Lower Keys Marsh rabbit, for instance. An endangered species that lives in the Lower Florida Keys, this species of cottontail is a great swimmer—it lives on the islands!—but it is already severely affected by development and now by rising sea levels.

4.According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an ocean level rise of only 0.6 meters will send these guys jumping to higher ground and a 0.9—meter rise would wipe out their habitat completely.

5.The snowshoe hare, on the other hand, has a color issue. Most of these rabbits change their fur color from white in the wintertime to brown in the summer, each designed to give them better cover from predators.

6.As the number of days with snow decreases all across the country, however, more and more bunnies are being left in white fur during brown dirt days of both fall and spring, making them an easier mark for predators.

7.Researchers know that the color change is controlled by the number of hours of sunlight, but whether the rabbit will be able to adapt quick enough to survive is a big question.

8.The National Wildlife Federation has reported that hunters have noticed their numbers are already markedly down.

9.American pikas or rock rabbits, a relative of rabbits and hares, might be the first of these species to go extinct due to climate change.

10.About 7-8 inches long, pikas live high in the cool. damp mountains west of the Rocky Mountains.

11.As global temperatures rise, they would naturally migrate to higher ground—but they already occupy the mountaintops.

12.They can’t go any higher. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they might not be able to stand the new temperatures as their habitat heats up. The volcano rabbit has the same problem.

13.These rabbits live on the slopes of volcanoes in Mexico, and recent studies have shown that the lower range of their habitat has already shifted upward about 700 meters, but there are not suitable plants for them to move higher, so they are stuck in the middle.

14.Scientists are concerned about their populations. Native to the U.S., pygmy rabbits weigh less than 1 pound and live in the American West.

15.They are believed to be the smallest rabbits in the world. Their habitats have been destroyed by development.

16.Several populations, such as the Columbia Basin pygmy, almost went extinct and were saved by zoo breeding programs.

17.Pygmy rabbits also rely on winter cover by digging tunnels through the snow to escape predators, but lesser snowfall is leaving them exposed.

18.All of this gives new meaning to dressing up in a giant bunny costume this Easter.

第四十三篇

复活节的意义

1.复活节仍然是一个伟大的礼拜日，在篮子里装糖果，在院子里跑来跑去找鸡蛋，但对兔子来说，每年都变得更糟。

2.不，不是因为孩子们喜欢扯耳朵。罪魁祸首是气候变化，一些研究人员发现，气温上升对美国至少五种兔子产生了有害影响。

3.以低基斯沼泽的兔子为例。一种生活在下佛罗里达群岛的濒危物种，这种棉尾是一个伟大的游泳者-它生活在岛上!但它已经受到发展的严重影响，现在又受到海平面上升的影响。

4.根据生物多样性中心的说法，海平面上升0.6米就会让这些家伙跳到更高的地方，上升0.9米就会彻底摧毁它们的栖息地。

5.另一方面，雪鞋兔有一个颜色问题。这些兔子中的大多数会把它们的皮毛颜色从冬天的白色变成夏天的棕色，每一种颜色都是为了更好地躲避捕食者。

6.然而，随着全国降雪天数的减少，越来越多的兔子在秋天和春天的棕色泥土天气里被留下白色的皮毛，这使它们更容易成为捕食者的目标。

7.研究人员知道，颜色的变化是由阳光照射的小时数控制的，但兔子是否能够足够快地适应生存是一个很大的问题。

8.美国国家野生动物联合会报告说，猎人已经注意到它们的数量已经明显下降。

9.美洲鼠兔或岩兔，兔子和野兔的亲戚，可能是这些物种中第一个由于气候变化而灭绝的物种。

10.鼠兔身长约7-8英寸，生活在阴凉的高处。落基山脉以西潮湿的山脉

11.随着全球气温上升，它们自然会迁移到更高的地方，但它们已经占据了山顶。

12.它们不能再高了。美国国家野生动物联合会报告称，随着栖息地变暖，它们可能无法忍受新的温度。火山兔也有同样的问题。

13.这些兔子生活在墨西哥火山的斜坡上，最近的研究表明，它们栖息地的较低范围已经向上移动了大约700米，但没有适合它们向高处移动的植物，所以它们被困在了中间。

14.科学家们担心它们的数量。侏儒兔原产于美国，体重不到1磅，生活在美国西部。

15.它们被认为是世界上最小的兔子。它们的栖息地被开发破坏了。

16.一些种群，如哥伦比亚盆地侏儒，几乎灭绝，并被动物园的繁殖计划所拯救。

17.侏儒兔也依靠在雪中挖隧道来躲避捕食者，但较少的降雪使它们暴露在外。

18.所有这些都赋予了这个复活节穿上巨型兔子服装新的意义。