prelude2006年英语一阅读理解部分

2021年1月24日发(作者：悼念)
(2)
①
Stratford-on-Avon,
as
we
all
know,
has
only
one
industry
—
William
Shakespeare
—
but
there
are
two
distinctly
separate
and increasingly hostile branches.



②
There
is
the
Royal
Shakespeare
Company
(RSC),
which
presents
superb productions of the plays at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on
the Avon.


③
And there are the townsfolk who largely live off the tourists who come,
not
to
see
the
plays,
but
to
look
at
Anne
Hathaway's
Cottage,
Shakespeare's birthplace and the other sights.


①
The
worthy
residents
of
Stratford
doubt
that
the
theatre
adds
a
penny to their revenue.


②
They
frankly
dislike
the
RSC's
actors,
them
with
their
long
hair
and
beards and sandals and noisiness.


③
It's
all
deliciously
ironic
when
you
consider
that
Shakespeare,
who
earns their living, was himself an actor (with a beard) and did his share of
noise-making.


①
The tourist streams are not entirely separate.


②
The
sightseers
who
come
by
bus
—
and
often
take
in
Warwick
Castle
and Blenheim Palace on the side
—
don't usually see the plays, and some
of them are even surprised to find a theatre in Stratford.



③
However, the playgoers do manage a little sight-seeing along with their
playgoing.


④
It
is
the
playgoers,
the
RSC
contends,
who
bring
in
much
of
the
town's revenue because they spend the night (some of them four or five
nights) pouring cash into the hotels and restaurants.



⑤
The sightseers can take in everything and get out of town by nightfall.

①
The townsfolk don't see it this way and the local council does not
contribute directly to the subsidy of the Royal Shakespeare Company.


②
Stratford cries poor traditionally.


③
Nevertheless
every
hotel
in
town
seems
to
be
adding
a
new
wing
or
cocktail lounge.


④
Hilton is building its own hotel there, which you may be sure will be
decorated
with
Hamlet
Hamburger
Bars,
the
Lear
Lounge,
the
Banquo
Banqueting Room, and so forth, and will be very expensive.


①
Anyway,
the
townsfolk
can't
understand
why
the
Royal
Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy.


②
(The
theatre
has
broken
attendance
records
for
three
years
in
a
row.
Last year its 1,431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and this
year they'll do better.)



③
The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have
stayed low.

①
It
would
be
a
shame
to
raise
prices
too
much
because
it
would
drive away the young people who are Stratford's most attractive clientele.


②
They come entirely for the plays, not the sights.


③
They all seem to look alike (though they come from all over)
—
lean,
pointed, dedicated faces, wearing jeans and sandals, eating their buns and
bedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre to buy
the 20 seats and 80 standing-room tickets held for the sleepers and sold to
them when the box office opens at 10:30 a.m.






(3)
①
When
prehistoric
man
arrived
in
new
parts
of
the
world,
something strange happened to the large animals: they suddenly became
extinct.


②
Smaller species survived.
③
The
large,
slow-growing
animals
were
easy
game,
and
were
quickly
hunted to extinction.


④
Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.

①
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years.


②
What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown
is just how fast things are changing.


③
They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the
world.


④
Their
methods
do
not
attempt
to
estimate
the
actual
biomass
(the
amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of
the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time.


⑤
According
to
their
latest
paper
published
in
Nature,
the
biomass
of
large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery
is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation.