五、任务型阅读。
主题群:自然生态
子主题:生态特征
语篇类型:说明文
难度:★★
Today more than $20\%$ of the land is desert, and this is growing. There is a picture, for example, from a cave in Algeria(阿尔及利亚). It shows cows and people. The area was very green, and plants and grass grew there. Many types of animals lived there. The picture is more than three thousand years old. Today, the cave is in a desert. Why are the deserts growing? There are three main reasons.
One reason is climate. The climate changed and rain did not come every year. The sun was very hot and all the water in the soil disappeared(消失). Another reason is animals. For hundreds of years, people who lived near deserts kept goats. Goats like eating plants. They ate the plants, and there weren't any plants to stop the wind. When the wind blew, it blew all the good soil away. Soon, there wasn't any good soil and it was very difficult for plants to grow. The third reason is people. People cut down trees, so no trees stopped the wind. Also, in some countries, people wanted to make electricity. They changed the direction of the rivers and they built dams(水坝). This changed the direction of the underground water in other countries.
In many places this is a very big problem. We have to be very careful about what we do to nature.
根据短文内容回答问题,每题答案不超过6个词。
1. How much land today is not desert?
Less than 80% of the land.
2. When was the picture drawn?
More than three thousand years ago.
3. What can stop the wind and keep the good soil from being blown away?
Plants.
4. What do we have to be careful about?
What we do to nature.
5. What are the three main reasons for the growth of deserts?
Climate, animals and people.
解析：
【分析】
这是一道细节类任务型阅读题，解题思路非常清晰：首先明确题目要求所有答案不超过6个词，之后带着每道题的问题关键词回到原文对应段落定位，优先提取原文给出的原信息，仅个别题目做简单的逻辑换算，就能快速得到符合要求的答案，不需要额外做复杂推导。
【解析】
1. 定位原文首句"Today more than 20% of the land is desert"，总土地占比为100%，因此非沙漠的土地占比为不到80%，直接得出对应答案。
2. 定位第一段倒数第三句"The picture is more than three thousand years old"，可知这幅画的创作时间是三千多年前，提取对应信息即可。
3. 定位第二段山羊啃食植物的相关描述：没有植物阻挡风，风就会吹走优质土壤，说明植物可以防风、留住好土壤，直接提取核心名词。
4. 定位全文最后一句"We have to be very careful about what we do to nature"，直接截取对应内容即可。
5. 第一段点明沙漠扩张有三个主要原因，第二段依次点明三个原因分别是气候、动物、人类，直接整合三个核心要素即可。
【答案】
1. Less than 80% of the land.
2. More than three thousand years ago.
3. Plants.
4. What we do to nature.
5. Climate, animals and people.
【知识点】
细节信息定位；原文信息提取
【点评】
本题围绕自然生态的沙漠扩张主题命题，难度适中，绝大多数答案都可以直接从原文定位获取，仅第一题需要做简单的占比换算，同时设置了答案不超过6个词的限制，既考察学生快速抓取关键信息的阅读能力，也能引导学生树立保护自然的生态意识。
【难度系数】
0.7
