大全-76(13/22)

raikey

    Desertification, the creation of desert-like conditions where none had existed before, is the result of the vagaries of weather and climate or the mismanagement of the land or, in most cases, some combination of both. Such ecological deterioration in the Sahel (sahel: 荒漠草原(西非) ) has been linked in several ways to the increased size of livestock herds. During the fifteen years preceding 1968, a period of extremely favorable rainfall, the pastoralists (牧(羊)人)
        moved into the marginal regions in the north with relatively large herds. However, with the onset of a series of dry years beginning at the end of the rainy season in 1967, the pastoral populations found themselves overtaxing very marginal rangelands, with the result that the nomads viewed themselves as victims of a natural disaster. The mistaken idea that drought is an unexpected event has often been used to excuse the fact that long-range planning has failed to take rainfall variability into account. People blame the climate for agricultural failures in semiarid regions and make it a scapegoat for faulty population and agricultural policies

    Deterioration and ultimately desertification in the Sahel and in other ecosystems can be combated only if an ecologically realistic carrying capacity for the rangelands is determined. Although there appears to be widespread agreement that such a determination would be significant, there has been little agreement on how to make operational the concept of carrying capacity, defined as the amount of grazing stock that the pasture can support without deterioration of either the pasture or the stock. Should the carrying capacity (carrying capacity:承载能力) be geared to the best, the average, or the poorest years? Which combination of statistical measures would be most meaningful for the planning of long-term development of rangelands? On which variables should such an assessment be based, vegetation, rainfall, soil, ground and surface water, or managerial capabilities? Such inconclusiveness within the scientific community, while understandable, creates confusion for the land managers, who often decide to take no action or who decide that all scientific suggestions are of equal weight and, therefore, indiscriminately choose any one of those suggested. Given the downward spiral of land deterioration, it becomes essential that an ecologically acceptable carrying capacity be established and enforced.

    It will also be crucial that land managers know what statistical and quasi-statistical measures actually mean: no single number can adequately describe the climate regime of an arid or semiarid region. Land managers must supplement such terms as the “mean” with more informative statistical measures to characterize adequately the variability of the climate. The understanding of this high degree of variability will serve to remove one of the major obstacles to resolving the perennial problems of the Sahel and of other arid or semiarid regions.

5.     Which of the following best states the author’s view concerning the relationship between the ecological scientist and the land manager?

(A) The scientist has not provided the manager with clear guidelines that can be used in regulating the productivity of land.

(B) The scientist has provided theories that are too detailed for the manager to use successfully.

(C) The scientist and the manager, in attempting to regulate the use of semiarid land, have ignored the traditional behavior patterns of pastoral communities.

(D) The manager has misunderstood and hence misapplied the suggestions of the scientist.（A）

(E) The manager has chosen from among the scientist’s suggestions those that are economically rather than ecologically safe.

从第二段末"all scientific suggestions are of equal weight "看出: scientist确实给出了建议.

从"inconclusiveness"看出第二段中提到的几个问题都没法回答,并且从第二段末"an ecologically acceptable carrying capacity be established and enforced"可以确定上述问题就是有关ecological的问题.

由此,我认为scientist给出了明确的建议,只不过都没有考虑ecological问题, 故排除A.

至于E中的economical suggestions, 文章也没明确提到.并且ecological safe的suggestion实际上根本没有.也排除.

最后该题没得选了,因我觉得E所述内容接近第二段的最后那句话(都有ecologically一词),故猜了E.

请教高人这题到底怎么做?

7.     According to the passage, a statistical description of the climate regime of an arid or semiarid region would probably be

(A) misleading

(B) impossible

(C) complex

(D) meaningless（C）

(E) abstract

定位到文章第三段,这应该没错吧. 然而如何理解题目中的"a statistical description"? 如果理解为"一个统计学描述(即一个统计数字)"那我选D,

如果理解为"一种统计学描述",那我选C.

还望NN指点一下:如何取舍.

wei_wangyan

第5题，应该选A。LZ的定位没错，但理解上有些许偏差

Such inconclusiveness within the scientific community, while understandable, creates confusion for the land managers, who often decide to take no action or who decide that all scientific suggestions are of equal weight and, therefore, indiscriminately choose any one of those suggested. Given the downward spiral of land deterioration, it becomes essential that an ecologically acceptable carrying capacity be established and enforced.

蓝亮部分足以让A成为正确答案了，科学领域没有结论（尽管这是可以理解的）给land managers造成了极大的困惑，这些manager经常需要决定要么不采取行动，要么认为所有科学建议同样重要从而胡乱选了一个。A. The scientist has not provided the manager with clear guidelines that can be used in regulating the productivity of land. 科学家没有给manager提供能用于regulate productivity的清晰指导。

E是不正确的，从上述定位可以看出，manager是胡乱选择的，具体是economical的还是ecological的？也许他们刚好胡乱选了一个ecological的呢？文章没说，我们不能猜。其实文章这段是强调科学家们没给出guildlines以指导managers。

第7题，LZ定位也没错，但为什么你会认为D正确呢？理解成数量一个，你就认为没有意义meaningless了，是吗？我认为文章并没有否定statistical的意义，只是说这东西很复杂，你必须要辅助以很多其它东东才可以准确地characterize the variability of climate。说到这儿，突然想起一篇OG来，OG10的第11篇，注意supplement一词。

It will also be crucial that land managers know what statistical and quasi-statistical measures actually mean: no single number can adequately describe the climate regime of an arid or semiarid region. Land managers must supplement such terms as the “mean” with more informative statistical measures to characterize adequately the variability of the climate. The understanding of this high degree of variability will serve to remove one of the major obstacles to resolving the perennial problems of the Sahel and of other arid or semiarid regions.

raikey

根据"no single number can adequately describe the climate regime..."那么如果 a statistical description 是数量一个,也就是a single number,则对后面的"Land managers must supplement such terms as the “mean”..."取反,于是得到meaningless的结论.

对于第5题,非常感谢楼上的精彩解答. 

wei_wangyan

不好意思，刚才对第7题的理解不够彻底，经过LZ提醒，又有了新的认识。

a statistical description确切说是一项统计描述/说明（注意是形容词statistical），所以窍以为这里是一组数据统计说明，包括但不限于a single number。再来注意原文措辞no single number can adequately describe the climate regime of an arid or semiarid region. Land managers must supplement such terms as the “mean” with more informative statistical measures to characterize adequately the variability of the climate，既要有number,又要有informative statistical measures，要做一项统计说明（statistical description），即要有单纯的数据，又要有更informative的统计方法，真的是很complex了。

如果按照LZ的理解，一个数据，应该是a piece of statistic，名词statistic。

raikey

明白了!

gxgx

ppjelly

请问第2题为什么选E？哪位给讲讲？

ffice:smarttags">2.  According to the passage, which of the following contributed to the
desertification of the Sahel?

I.    The size of the livestock herds grazing on the land

II.   The quality of the land in the Sahel

III.  The amount of rainfall after 1967

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) III only

(D) I and III only（E）

(E) I, II, and III

 

[此贴子已经被作者于2008-11-14 23:57:02编辑过]

蓝狮爱我

擦，同问第二题！

时沉海

People blame the climate for agricultural failures in semiarid regions and make it a scapegoat for faulty population and agricultural policies.
看到牛人说的是原文提到半干旱地区了，所以第二条就对了。其实我也不太明白，前面不是说了人们把气候归于农业失败的原因吗？我没看出来哪里提到土地的质量了。还是希望高人出来知道吧！