If you want to learn about bringing back extinct animals, reading John Smith's Back from the Dead is a good start. But I have to say I can't agree with everything he says.
From his book, I can see Smith is an advocate of bringing extinct animals back. He says we have lost many animals because we made their living spaces too dirty. He also thinks we must do everything we can to bring them back. However, I don't know how much time and money we would need to make the world a better place for them, and honestly no one knows if they could actually come back.
Smith also says that bringing back extinct animals may be good for us. He talks about an extinct frog that grew tadpoles in its stomach. Some women's babies die before they are born, and Smith believes bringing back the frog may be an answer to the problem. According to him, by studying how the tadpoles grow inside the frog's stomach, we might be able to find new ways to help these women successfully keep their babies. But I don't think things are as easy as Smith thinks. We have spent ten years and millions of dollars on this kind of frog, but all we have got are only a few dead frog eggs. If we can't see a real frog, how can we be sure women will get the help they need?
Dr. Solomon Wang from the Animal Saving Office says the study of bringing back extinct animals is "throwing good money after bad." And he's right. A lot of hard work has been put into this expensive dream, but we haven't seen anything come out of it. So should we still keep going down this road?
extinct 絕種的
tadpole 蝌蚪
likely 可能
What does it mean when someone is an advocate of something?
線索就在畫線詞的下一句。文章說 Smith 是 an advocate of bringing extinct animals back,緊接著解釋他的主張:他認為動物是因為環境被弄髒才消失的,而且 we must do everything we can to bring them back(我們必須竭盡所能讓牠們回來)。「認為應該做、而且要全力做」,這不就是選項 (B) 的白話版嗎?畫線詞題有個固定套路,答案通常藏在畫線詞的前一句或後一句,出題者會把定義用例子演一次給你看。
誘答分析
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(A):整篇書評都在批評 Smith 想得太美,讀出這個氛圍的人,容易把「作者對 Smith 的評價」錯灌進 advocate 這個字裡。但單字本身是中性的「提倡者」,不帶「光說不練」的貶義。