People often say that the earth is like our mother. She gives life to all the living things on the earth and provides us with air, food, water and other essential things we need for living.

Once she was beautiful and rich, but now she becomes dirtier and dirtier, poorer and poorer. It is due to what we have done to her. Please have a good look at her: polluted rivers and lakes, growing deserts, the destruction of the forests and wild life, and the depletion (消耗，用尽) of the ozone layer (臭氧层)...

Can she bear to see her children putting the waste here and there? Can she bear to see her children cutting down the trees and destroying the grassland, to see the acid rain destroying everything? Can we bear to see our mother suffering (受苦) so much? Isn’t it time for us to ask ourselves whether this is the way to treat our mother?

Floods, droughts, acid rain..., these are the punishments (惩罚) from nature. Everyone should know that there is only one earth. If we go on treating her like this, it won’t be fit for us to live in any longer. It’s time for us to love her, take good care of her and cure her. We should save the earth so as to save ourselves.

小题1: What does the earth look like now?

A．It has clean rivers, lakes and green forests.

B．It is like a beautiful girl.

C．It is more beautiful and richer.

D．It is dirtier and dirtier, poorer and poorer.小题2: What is the meaning of the underlined word?

A．Know

B．Stand

C．Imagine

D．Hear小题3: What is the best title of the passage?

A．The earth—our mother.

B．Defenders of the Earth (地球卫士).

C．The earth is very beautiful and healthy.

D．The water on the earth is very clean.