水木艾迪：阅读理解冲刺之新题型四_大学英语阅读

水木艾迪：阅读理解冲刺之新题型四

　　Whether this frightening creature does indeed soar like other eagles in search of prey is open to conjecture. For less in know about the harpy than any other eaglethe remoteness of its habitat sees to that. 42)_______________.

　　This eagle s extraordinary eyesight is one of its greatest assets. Like many other eagles, it can see between four and eight times as much detail as can humans. 43)___________. The latter is an obvious requirement if prey is to be snatched at speed.

　　Its hard to believe that a creature so well equipped to survive could ever find itself under threat. But with huge tracts of rainforest being felled in Central and South Amirica, the harpys food sources are harder to find.

　　The threat posed could soon be similar to that facing the harpys near relative, the Philippines monkey-eating eagle. 44)_________.

　　Like this Filipino cousin, the harpy eagle nests in the tops of the largest forest trees. It therefore needs an intact forest to breed. The seemingly invincible harpy is vulnerable for another reason. A mating pair is thought to produce only one eagle every two years. Harpy eggs take up to 60 days to hatch and chicks take a further 60days before they learn to fly. What is more, the youngster is fed by the parents for many moths after it has learned to fly. Annual breeding then is impossible.

　　The harpy eagle does not face the same immediate threat as its Filipino cousin. But if the destruction of its forest habitat continues at its present rate, the largest of avian predators, too, could join those birds already on the endangered species list. The British naturalist Leslie Brown wrote in 1976 that nearly half of the 59 species of eagle were under threat. 45)_________.