Plant diversity in Yunnan云南植物的多样性

周艳霞

生物多样性在维持气候、保护水源和土壤及维护正常的生态过程中做出了巨大的贡献。云南省内的生物多样性的现状和未来又是什么样的呢？

主题语境：环境保护 篇幅：305词 建议用时：6分钟

Yunnan， located in the southwest border of China， has a complex natural environmentand rich biological resources. It is known as the“Kingdom of Animals and Plants”. It isone of the 17 biodiversity hot spots in China and one of the 34 biodiversity hot spots in theworld. Although its land area only accounts for 4.1% of China， Yunnan nearly harbors halfof the total number of higher plant species of China （about 19，000 species）， which has al?ways drawn the attention of researchers all over the world.

The research groups for Plant Diversity and Evolution from the Kunming Institute ofBotany have been continuously focusing on the plant diversity of Yunnan. Based on theavailable data from the latest released publications and online resources， the researchersanalyzed the current situation of the plant diversity in Yunnan Province.

They found that the northwest， south and southeast of Yunnan are the areas with thelargest number of species， endemic （地方性的） species and new species published in re?cent seven years. The southeast of Yunnan is a hot spot of plant species with an extremelysmall population.

In addition， combined with the data of the nature reserves， the result showed that al?though there are currently 160 protected areas in Yunnan， only 109 of the 129 county?leveladministrative units have protected areas.

Moreover， the protected areas in central and eastern Yunnan are low?grade， with smallareas and relatively fragmented （分散的） distribution， which may be related to the frequenthuman activities in central and eastern Yunnan.

On this basis， in order to better protect biodiversity resources and achieve sustainabledevelopment in the future， the researchers put forward many suggestions for the future de?velopment of plant diversity in Yunnan. They claimed that government support was neededfor scientific research.

The related studies were recently published in Plant Diversitys special issue.

Reading Check

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about？

A. Yunnans biodiversity. B. Yunnans landscape.

C. Yunnans hot spots. D. Yunnans harbors.

2. Which part of Yunnan has a lot of rare plant species？

A. The northwest. B. The southwest.

C. The southeast. D. The northeast.

3. What problem is shown by the research result？

A. There are too few administrative units.

B. Some protected areas are too small.

C. Some protected areas are too close.

D. There is too little human participation.

4. What did researchers do to protect biodiversity resources？

A. They did a lot of experiments.

B. They volunteered at local reserves.

C. They stood against the government.

D. They offered useful advice.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentences in the text1. Although its land area only accounts for 4.1% of China， Yunnan nearly harbors halfof the total number of higher plant species of China （about 19，000 species）， which has al?ways drawn the attention of researchers all over the world. 云南虽然土地面积仅占中国的4.1%，但其高等植物种类却占中国的近一半（约1.9万种），这引起了世界各国研究者的关注。

【点石成金】句中的Although引导的是让步状语从句；which引导的是非限制性定语从句，代指前面的内容，且在从句中作主语。

2. They found that the northwest， south and southeast of Yunnan are the areas with thelargest number of species， endemic species and new species published in recent sevenyears. 他们发现云南西北部、南部和东南部是近七年来公布的物种数量、地方性物种和新物种数量最多的地区。

【点石成金】本句为主从复合句。that引导的从句作found的宾语；with the largestnumber of species...为with的介词结构作定语，修饰the areas；published in recent sevenyears为过去分词结构作定语。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

be located in 位于……

be known as 作为……而著名

account for 占……

draw the attention of 吸引……的注意力

focus on 集中于

be based on 以……为基础

put forward 提出