学生啦：课时作业（三）Unit 1 Section II Extended readingProject Assessment阅读理解The Pacific island nation of Naur used to be a beautiful place.Now it is an ecologicaldisaster area.Nauru's heartbreaking story may have one good result-other countries might leamfrom its mistakes.For thousands of years,Polynesian people lived on the remote island of Nauru,far fromwestern civilization.The first European to arrive was John Feam in 1798.He was the Britishcaptain of the Snow Hunter,a whaling ship.He called the island Pleasant Island.However,because it was very remote,Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first.The whaling ships and other traders began to visit,bringing guns and alcohol.These elementsdestroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island.A ten-year civil war started,which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a mining company discovered phosphate (on the island.In fact,it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate,which is a veryimportant fertilizer for farming.The company began mining for the phosphate.A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground;it is a strip mine.When a company strip-minesphosphate,it removes the top layer of soil.Then it takes away the material it wants.Strip miningtotally destroyed the land.Gradually,the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.In 1968,Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world.Every year the govemmentreceived millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.Unfortunately,the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars.Inaddition,they used millions more dollars for personal expenses.Soon people realized that theyhad a terrible problem-their phosphate was running out.Ninety percent of their island wasdestroyed and they had nothing.By 2000,Nauru was almost financially ruined.Experts say that itwould take nearly 433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island.This will probablynever happen.1.What might be the author's purpose of writing the text?A.To seek help for Nauru's problems.B.To give a waming to other countries.C.To show the importance of money.2.What did the ecological disaster in Nauru result from?A.The soil pollution.B.The phosphate overmining.C.The farming activity.D.The whale hunting.3.Which of the following is a cause of Nauru's financial problem?A.Its leaders misused the money.B.It spent too much repairing the island.