All Spaniards are interested in bullfight.（)

There would probably have been other successful commercial growers before Fish if Florida had not been under Spanish rule for some two hundred years. Columbus first brought seeds for citrus trees to the New World and planted them in the Antilles. But it was most likely Ponce de Le6n who introduced oranges to the North American continent when he discovered Florida in 1513. For a time, each Spanish sailor on a ship bound for America was required by law to carry one hundred seeds with him. Later, because seeds tended to dry out, all Spanish ships were required to carry young orange trees. The Spaniards planted citrus trees only for medicinal purpose, however, they saw no need to start commercial groves because oranges were so abundant in Spain.

What is the main topic of the passage？

A．The role of Florida in the American Revolution

B．The discovery of Florida by Ponce de Le6n in 1513

C．The history of the cultivation of oranges in Florida

D．The popularity of Florida oranges in London in the 1770's

Where Have All the People Gone？

Germans are getting used to a new kind of immigrant. In 1998, a pack of Wolves crossed the Neisse River on the Polish-German border. In the empty landscape of eastern Saxony, dotted with abandoned mines and declining villages, the wolves found plenty of deer and few humans. Five years later, a second pack split from the original, so there're now two families of wolves in the region. A hundred years ago, a growing land-hungry population killed off the last of Germany's wolves. Today, it's the local humans whose numbers are under threat.

Villages are empty, thanks to the region's low birth rate and rural flight. Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest fertility rate countries, Europe will lose 30 million people by 2030, even with continued immigration. The biggest population decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely three-fifths of children needed to maintain status quo, and as rural flight sucks people Europe's suburbs and cities, the countryside will lose a quarter of its population. The implications of this demographic (人口的) change will be far- reaching.

Environmental Changes

The postcard view of Europe is of a continent where every scrap of land has long been farmed, fenced off and settled. But the continent of the future may look rather different. Big parts of Europe will renaturalize. Bears are back in Austria. In Swiss Alpine valleys, farms have been receding and forests are growing back. In parts of France and Germany, wildcats and wolves have re-established their ranges.

The shrub and forest that grow on abandoned land might be good for deer and wolves, but is vastly less species-rich than traditional farming, with its pastures, ponds and hedges. Once shrub cover everything, you lose the meadow habitat. All the flowers, herbs, birds, and butterflies disappear. A new forest doesn't get diverse until a couple of hundred years old.

All this is not necessarily an environmentalist's dream it might seem. Take the Greek village of Prastos. An ancient hill town, Prastos once had 1000 residents, most of them working the land, Now only a dozen left, most in their 60s and 70s. The school has been closed since 1988. Sunday church bells no longer ring. Without farmers to tend the fields, rain has washed away the once fertile soil. As in much of Greece, land that has been orchards and pasture for some 2000 years is now covered with dry shrub that, in summer, frequently catches fire.

Varied Pictures of Rural Depopulation

Rural depopulation is not new. Thousands of villages like Prestos dot Europe, the result of a century or more of emigration, industrialization, and agricultural mechanization. But this time it's different because never has the rural birth rate so low. In the past, a farmer could usually find at least one of his offspring to take over the land. Today, the chances are that he has only a single son or daughter, usually working in the city and rarely willing to return. In Italy, more than 40% of the country's 1.9 million farmers are at least 65 years old. Once they die out, many of their farms will join the 6 million hectares--one third of Italy's farmland--that has already been abandoned.

Rising economic pressures, especially from reduced government subsidies, will amplify the trend. One third of Europe's farmland is marginal, from the cold northern plains to the dry Mediterranean (地中海) hills. Most of these farmers rely on EU subsides, since it's cheaper to import food from abroad. Without subsidies, some of the most scenic European landscapes wouldn't survive. In the Austrian or Swiss Alps, defined for centuries by orchards, cows, high mountain pastures, the steep valleys are labor-intensive to farm, with subsidies paying up to 90% of the cost. Across the border in France and Italy, subsidies have been reduced for mountain farming. Since

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

Above the dark treetops rose a mound, height and steep, and on top of the mound was a temple, bathed in cool moonlight. In the hush of the night it towered over the treetops like the Parthenon of some Mayan acropolis. It seemed to grow in size as they approached. The Indian guide dismounted, unsaddled his horse, and roiled out his blanket for the night’s sleep. Thompson could not tear his fascinated gaze from the great structure. While the guide prepared his bed, he sprang from his horse and continued on foot. Steep stairs overgrown with grass and bushes, and in part fallen into ruins, led from the base of the mound up to the temple. Thompson was acquainted with this architectural form, which was obviously some kind of pyramid. He was familiar, too, with the function of pyramids as known in Egypt. But this Mayan version was not a tomb, like the pyramids of Gizeh. Externally it rather brought to mind a ziggurat, but to a much greater degree than the Bablyloinan ziggurats it seemed to consist mostly of a stony hill providing support or the enormous stairs rising higher and higher, towards the gods of the sun and moon.

Thompson climbed up the steps. He looked at the ornamentation, the rich reliefs. On top, almost 96 feet above the jungle, he surveyed the scene, lie counted one two-three-a half dozen scattered buildings, half-hidden in shadow, often revealed by nothing more than a gleam of moonlight on stone.

This, then, was Chichen-ltza. From its original status as advance outpost at the beginning of the great trek to the north, it had grown into a shining metropolis, the heart of the New Empire. Again and again during the next few days

Thompson climbed on to the old ruins." I stood upon the roof of this temple one morning" he writes" just as the first rays of the sun reddened the distant horizon. The morning stillness was profound. The noises of the night had ceased, and those of the day were not yet begun. All the sky above and the earth below seemed to be breathlessly waiting for something. Then the great round sun came up, flaming splendidly, and instantly the whole world sang and hummed. The birds in the trees and the insects on the ground sang a grand Te Deum. Nature herself taught primal man to be a sun worshipper and man in his heart of hearts still follows the ancient teaching."

Thompson stood where he was, immobile and enchanted. The jungle melted away before his gaze. Wide spaces opened up, processions crept up to the temple site, music sounded, palaces became filled with reveling, the temples hummed with religious adjuration. He try to recognize his task. For out there in the jungle green he could distinguish a narrow path, barely traced out in the weak light, a path that might lead to Chichen-Itza’s most exciting mystery: the Sacred Well.

The territory, which Thompson was exploring _____.

A．had been abandoned by the Mayas about thirteen hundred years previously.

B．had been occupied and developed by the Mayas about thirteen hundred years before.

C．had been deserted by the Mayas as soon as the Spaniards arrived.

D．was conquered by the Mayas thirteen hundred years ago.

A.are all,are all

B. all are,all are

C. are all,all are

D. all are,are all

A.of all

B.in all

C.after all

D.at all

A.all the more

B.above all

C.after all

D.all in all

A.all these

B.these all

C.all this

D.both these