Directions:

　　In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41——45, choose the most suitable one from the list A——G to fit into each of numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

　　From Southeast Asia to the Black Sea, fishing nets have become deathtraps for thousands of whales, dolphins and porpoises-species whose survival will be threatened unless fishing methods change.

　　The World Wildlife Fund, a U.S. based environmental group, lists species threatened by accidental catch, and recommends low cost steps to reduce their entanglement in fishing gear.

　　(41).

　　Dolphins in the Philippines, India and Thailand are urgent priorities.

　　Threatened populations include Irrawaddy dolphins in Malampyaya Sound off the Philippines' Palawan Island, about 220 miles south of Manila. Only 77 remain.  Dolphins also face the threat of traders who sell them to aquariums, especially in Asia.

　　(42) .

　　The WWF report said up to 3,000 Spinner dolphins may be caught each year in gillnets, which stretch from the sea floor to the surface and are hard for dolphins to see or detect with their sonar.

　　(43).

　　Dolphins are also under threat in Indonesia, Myanmar, India's Chilka Lake and Thailand's Songkhla Lake.

　　Fishing gear kills thousands of porpoises each year in the Black Sea. Atlantic humpback dolphins face the same fate off the coasts of Ghana and Togo in Africa, as do Franciscana dolphins in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Indo-Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins often die in nets off the south coast of Zanzibar.

　　(44) .

　　U.S. fisheries in 1993——2003 introduced changes that reduced by a third the number of dolphins accidentally killed by fishing, or bycatch. But few other countries have followed that example and in much of the rest of the world, progress on bycatch mitigation has been slow to nonexistent.

　　(45).

　　Slight modifications in fishing gear can mean the difference between life and death for dolphins.

　　[A] In the Pacific Ocean, bottlenose dolphins are found from northern Japan and California to Australia and Chile. They are also found offshore in the eastern tropical Pacific as far west as the Hawaiian islands. Off the California coast bottlenose dolphins have been observed as far north as Monterey, particularly during years of unusual warmth.

　　[B] Researchers estimate that fishing gear kills about 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises a year in the world's oceans.

　　[C] If the mammals are trapped underwater in nets and can't get to the surface to breathe, they drown.

　　[D] According to IWC reports, in the 2003/2004 season, Japan killed, under "special permit," 443 minke whales in the Antarctic, and in the North Pacific, 151 minkes, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales, and 10 sperm whales. Japanese media have reported that Japan plans to expand its annual whale hunt to take two new species-humpback whales and fin whales-as well as nearly doubling its planned catch of minke whales. Both humpback and fin whales are on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species.

　　[E] Other threatened populations include Spinner and Fraser's dolphins in the Philippines' Sulu Sea.

　　[F] Most of the animals are threatened by the widespread use of one type of fishing gear-gillnets.

　　[G] These accidental deaths can be significantly reduced, often with very simple, low-cost solutions.

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