Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct.
For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Mako sharks get new protections
At the global wildlife trade meeting in Geneva, countries have decided to protect the endangered mako shark from trade. GENEVA made the proposal 【小题1】 more protections should be taken for both shortfin and longfin mako sharks and was adopted today after a 102-40 vote at the global wildlife trade summit. The vote still needs to be finalized at the full meeting at the end, when all appendix (附录) change proposals passed in committee are officially adopted.
The proposal, debated at this year’s CITES Conference, lists mako sharks under Appendix II, meaning that they can’t be traded 【小题2】 it can be shown that fishing wouldn’t threaten their chances for survival. Conservationists say this was the world’s last chance to prevent mako shark populations from collapsing.
【小题3】 (list) mako sharks on CITES Appendix II is great news for shark conservation. More than 50 of the 183 CITES members signed on as supporters of the proposal brought forth by Mexico. Nonetheless, conservationists feared that opposition from a few countries with fairly large mako fishing industries—primarily the United States, Canada, and Japan—【小题4】 tip the scale. Japan opposed the measure during the debates, and the United States announced afterward it 【小题5】 (vote) no.
In the past, the U.S. and others have supported listing other shark species under CITES, but not so in this case, 【小题6】 commercial interests. For a lot of these countries, they were happy to list shark species when it was ones they weren’t so heavily involved in fishing. Suddenly, when they’re being asked to be responsible, rather than asking other people to be responsible, they’re 【小题7】 (little) keen to take it on board.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which determines the conservation status of species claims that both species of mako sharks to be endangered, saying an 【小题8】 (estimate) 50 to 79 percent population decline over three generations, or about 75 years. They 【小题9】 (target) for their fins (鳍), used in shark fin soup—a dish in Asian countries, that’s often served at weddings as a sign of respect for guests. Their meat is more edible compared to 【小题10】 of other sharks, which is often acidic and is usually sold as a byproduct of the fin trade for “pennies on the dollar”.
