英语阅读——精选推荐.pdf

英英语语阅阅读读 Unit2 Part Two — Activity B Over the history of the earth, millions of animal and plant species have disappeared. Most of these species disappeared, or became e tinct, because of natural causes such as climatic changes or a catastrophic event, like an asteroid (⼩⾏星) hitting earth. What is different today is that most species that are in danger of becoming e tinct are not endangered because of natural causes but because of human activity. Today, we w ill look at some of the reasons that many plants and animals are endangered and how these reasons, or causes, are related to human activity. The single most important cause of endangered species today is the destruction and/or degradation of habitat. Most animals and plants are adapted to live and reproduce in a specific environment, or habitat. They cannot survive if they lose the habitat. There are many ways that human activity destroys habitat. For e ample, forests, grasslands, and deserts, w hich provide habitat to many plants and animals, arc cleared in order to develop residential areas for people to live in and industrial areas for people to work in. Land is also cleared to prepare to grow crops on. Swamps and marshes, w hich provide habitat to many animal and plant species, are often drained and filled in, also to provide land for development or agriculture. In addition, rivers are sometimes dammed in order to provide people w ith electrical power. All of these human activities, such as clearing forests, grasslands, and deserts; draining swamps and marshes, and damming rivers result in the destruction of habitats that many plants and animals need to live and reproduce in. Closely related to the destruction of habitat is the degradation of habitat, w hich also endangers many species. Some e amples of manmade causes that degrade habitat are oil spills, water pollution, and acid rain. You probably have seen pictures in newspapers or on TV of dead or dying marine animals and birds co