Edward Davis was a professor who worked on ocean research. However, bored with writing death records of ocean species, he quit his job in 2007. Rather than spend any more of his life recording the dying, Edward decided to try to protect the living creatures in the few re-maining areas of the ocean.
These areas are the last wild places of the sea still undamaged by overfishing, pollution and climate change. “It is necessary for us to go to places that still look like the ocean as it was 500 years ago,” Edward says. “These places are the examples of sustainable(可持续的) development. Maybe we can’t bring all of the ocean back to this state, but these places show us what the potential is.” Beneath the surface of a stormy sea off Palau in the western Pacific lie various lively corals. The tiny island nation has protected 80 percent of its waters as a no-fishing area—the largest percentage of protected ocean area in the world. The remaining 20 percent can be fished only by Palauans.
To protect these places, Edward and his team started a project on ocean protection in 2008. Over the past years, the project has helped create 22 ocean reserves. These make up two-thirds of the world’s fully protected ocean areas. Now Edward and his team have set an even bigger goal—to protect more than a third of the world’s oceans for the purpose of keeping biological diversity.
For Edward, one of the most satisfying aspects of his job is working with local communi-ties in the places he and his team are seeking to protect. The team worked closely with about 50 local people on the island. “We showed them an underwater world they had never seen,” Edward recalls. “Huge schools of fish will surely swim in some of the clearest waters ever measured in the Pacific.”
【小题1】Why did Edward quit his previous job?| A．To record the dying. | B．To increase land species. |
| C．To write a book on the sea. | D．To protect the sea creatures. |
| A．20 percent of it is covered by the sea. | B．It is an area open to fishermen worldwide. |
| C．It is an example of sustainable development. | D．The surface of it is destroyed by water pollution. |
| A．Edward’s project. | B．Edward’s team members. |
| C．The ways of keeping biodiversity. | D．The ways of creating ocean reserves. |
| A．Confused. | B．Stressed. | C．Curious. | D．Positive. |
