澳大利亚重奖一只“英雄”狗

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, as is the case here, they even have tails! On Oct. 11, 2021, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) honored Bear, an Australian Koolie, with the “Animal of the Year” Award.

The six-year-old dog managed to sniff out(嗅出) over one hundred injured koalas from the forest fires that swept across New South Wales (NSW), Australia, from June 2019 to May 2020. NSW’s fires was one of the worst forest fires in modern history. The fire killed 26 people, destroyed over 2,000 homes, and burned more than 46 million acres. The World Wildlife Fund estimates the fires forced nearly 3 billion animals to move away from the area where they live. Even worse, over 143 million mammals — including 6,382 koalas, 180 million birds, and 51 million frogs were injured or killed.

Bear’s story is all known to people. He has a special sense of smell. He has no interest in killing the animals he finds. All he wants to do was play! Naturally, he becomes a perfect conservation dog.

“We think Bear really deserved this award because he’s been such a good boy in helping us find and save a lot of koalas, especially during the fires, and he works throughout the year to help us in our job to make a better and safer place for koalas.” says Bear’s owner. James Sawyer, the UK director of IFAW, said “Bear is truly an amazing dogs, it shows us the good relationship between animals and humans.”

1.How many koalas does the dog save during the fires?

A More than 100.

B 6,382.

C 46 million.

D Over 2000.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据第二段第一句The six-year-old dog managed to sniff out(嗅出) over one hundred injured koalas from the forest fires可知，这条狗救了100多只考拉。故选A。

2.Which word can be used to describe the fires in NSW?

A Valuable.

B Mystery.

C Helpful.

D Awful.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据第二段NSW’s fires was one of the worst forest fires in modern history.及整段内容可知，南威尔士的火灾对动物和人类都是一次巨大的灾难。故选D。

3.The underlined word “deserved” means “__________” in Chinese.

A 值得

B 降低

C 取消

D 争取

解析：选A。A 词义猜测题。根据第四段because he’s been such a good boy in helping us find and save a lot of koalas可知这条狗狗帮助人们找到并拯救了很多考拉，它“应得”这个奖项更符合文意，故选A。

4.Bear becomes a conservation dog for __________.

A its sense of smell

B it never kills animals

C its perfect shape and size

D both A and B

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据第三段可知，Bear之所以成为一个保护犬是因为它敏锐的嗅觉以及它从不伤害动物，故选D。

5.This passage is mainly talking about __________.

A a big fire in Australia

B the animals in danger

C a hero dog Bear

D human and nature

解析：选C。C 主旨大意题。全文主要讲一条名叫Bear的狗狗在森林火灾中搜救考拉的故事，故选C。