四、新素材 人造象牙 (2025·靖江期末改编)阅读理解(15 分)
①The world has done a lot to protect elephants, but many of them are still losing lives for their ivory(象牙). At the end of the 1970s, over 1.3 million elephants walked around Africa(非洲). But today, there are only 450,000 left. This is mainly because of people's hunting for ivory. With need for ivory in markets growing, people keep killing elephants. Now at least 20,000 African elephants die each year.
②People call ivory "white gold". Because of its unusual look, people often use it to make expensive things, such as jewellery(珠宝) and works of art. And the ivory material itself is so strong that people can store it for long. That's why many people are willing to pay high prices for things made of ivory.
③However, no matter how expensive the ivory is, it's wrong of humans to kill elephants. So some scientists are working hard on making the same beauty of ivory with no killing.
④Thaddäa Rath, from a college of Austria(奥地利), has created(创造) the man-made ivory called "Digory" with her team. The chemical structure(化学结构) of Digory is completely different from that of the natural ivory, but it looks so real that it is hard to tell the difference by eye.
⑤Another scientist, Fritz Vollrath from the UK, who is also working to protect elephants, felt excited that Digory could save many elephants from danger. He said, "We still need to do more work to improve Digory so that people around the world will accept Digory and like to buy and use it. And I believe that technology(技术) like this will help protect more wildlife."
()1. 新考法 推断代词指代 What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The elephant.
B. The work of art.
C. The ivory.
D. The expensive thing.

()2. 新考法 推断篇章结构 Which is the right structure of the article?
A. ①②/③④/⑤
B. ①/②/③④⑤
C. ①②③/④/⑤
D. ①/②/③④/⑤
()3. 新考法 推断作者写作意图 The writer writes the article to tell us .
A. Digory is a fine work of art
B. a lot of wildlife is now facing great danger
C. the ivory material is really strong and expensive
D. scientists are protecting wildlife through technology

四、[文章大意]本文通过介绍大象的现状引出科学家们正在通过技术保护更多的野生动物。
1.C [解析]代词指代题。根据"People call ivory 'white gold'. Because of its unusual look, people often use it to make expensive things"可知,人们称象牙为"白色黄金"。由于其独特的外观,人们经常用它来制作昂贵的东西。此处"it"指代"象牙"。故选C。
2.B [解析]篇章结构题。通读全文可知,第一段介绍了大象的现状;第二段解释了象牙的价值;第三、四、五段介绍了科学家们为保护大象所作的努力。故选B。
3.D [解析]写作意图题。通读全文,尤其是文章后三段可知,科学家们正在通过技术保护野生动物。故选D。
素养导向 本文考查学生的文化意识及思维品质,让学生了解保护大象的紧迫性,明白只有全人类一起努力,才能更好地保护野生动物。