2014创新设计高考英语一轮复习【配套Word版文档】必修5　Module 6　Animals in Danger.docVIP

Module 6　Animals in Danger　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　维A 阅读理解(2012·浙江)Easter(复活节) is still a great day for worship worse for bunnies. 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 US. 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. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, (栖息地)completely. rabbits change their fur color from white in the wintertime to brown in the summer, each designed to give them better cover from predators(捕食者)．As the number of days with snow decreases all across the country, in white fur during brown dirt days of both fall and spring，making them an easier mark for predators.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. The National Wildlife Federation has reported that hunters have noticed their numbers are already markedly down. 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. About 7-8 inches long, pikas live high in the cool，damp mountains west of the Rocky Mountains.As global temperatures rise, they would naturally migrate(迁移)to higher ground-but they already occupy the mountaintops.They cant go any higher. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they might not be 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.Scientists are concerned about their populations. Native to the US, pygmy rabbits weigh less than 1 pound and live in the Ameri