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初中英语外研(新标准)版八年级上册Module 12 Help 基础训练

作者UID:9673734
日期: 2024-11-26
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Billions of locusts (蝗虫) are moving through farms and fields in the East African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

Locusts are grasshoppers (蚱蜢). Normally grasshoppers don't travel in groups so they do little harm. But when there are lots of them, their bodies and behavior change. That's when they become locusts. Locusts travel in huge groups,

laying eggs along the way, which produces even more locusts. In a single day, a small swarm (群) of the insects can eat as much food as 35 , 000 people do.

The locust swarms in Ethiopia and Somalia are the worst in 25 years. These locusts are desert locusts. They began swarming about six months ago. By moving with the winds, desert locusts can travel up to 90 miles a day or more.

Locust swarms are more common when heavy rains follow a long dry period. The insects lay their eggs in the wet ground. This season, East Africa has had its heaviest rainy season in 40 years.

When the insects swarm (成群地飞来飞去), one square kilometer of land can hold as many as 150 million locusts. There are 700 square kilometers of land covered by the insects in Kenya alone.

The insects are athreatto lives in the regions, where food is already in short supply. Already many farmers who keep animals are struggling because locusts have eaten up the plants the animals usually live on

In East Africa, farmers have been shooting into the air or making noises in the fields, but that doesn't work against so many insects. Experts say that spraying pesticides (杀虫剂) over large areas from airplanes is the only way to reduce the number of the insects. The UN has released (释放) $ 10 million to help deal with the locust problem. The UN says about $70 million is needed to truly control the locusts with pesticides.

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The locusts(蝗虫) in East Africa continue plaguing(造成麻烦) Asian countries such as Pakistan after they "visited" Qatar, Kuwait,and Bahrain.

On Thursday, it's reported that China will send an army of 100, 000 ducks to Pakistan to help eat out the locusts there. By Thursday noon, the 100, 000 ducks ready to eat locusts in Pakistan has been one of the hottest topics of Sina Weibo.

There has been much discussion on domestic social media(国内社交媒体) networks about the problem. Besides ducks, many also suggest sending hens, while some make it further by suggesting catching the locusts, to cook and eat them.

The hen and duck strategy was used in 2000 when Xinjiang suffered its worst locust plague. An army of about 700, 000 hens, roosters and ducks were transported from Zhejiang Province to Xinjiang and helped defeat the locusts quickly.

However, neither the duck nor hen strategy can always be useful. Hens and ducks are good at picking locusts and eating them, but this time the locusts from Africa are mostly grown-up ones that can fly up to 2, 000 meters in the sky.Itis unrealistic to expect hens or ducks to eat all the locusts alone.

The best way of controlling a locust plague lies in the preventive(预防的) stage. One opinion among scientists is that the locust plague this year has much to do with the EI Nino effect of 2019, which caused heavier rainfall in East Africa, which in turn resulted in more locust eggs hatching.

The same effect caused droughts(干旱) in Australia and South America, which is an important reason why the wildfires in Australia have been so bad. It might be old talk, but it really is time to control climate change.

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