阅读理解。
Every year more people recognize that it is wrong to kill wildlife for "sport." Progress in this direction
is slow because shooting is not a sport for watching, and only those few who take part realize the cruelty
and destruction.
The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments
through independent thought are led along way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to
advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and guncarrying as a way
of putting redder blood in the veins (血管). They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring
the chase and the kill. In school they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how
to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate (刺激) a desire to own a gun. Wildlife
is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wildland habitat (栖息地). Habitat loss will
continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? There
doesn't seem to be any chance if the serious condition of our birds is not improved.
Wildlife belongs to everyone and not to the gunners alone. Although most people do not shoot, they seem
to forgive shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring
the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people.
Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same right to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or
right about a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunners like to describe
what they do as character-building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony
of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human-
character, then perhaps we should encourage war.
1. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because _____.
A. they have little knowledge of it
B. it helps to build human character
C. it is too costly to stop killing wildlife
D. they want to keep wildlife under control
2. The underlined word "agony" in the last paragraph probably means _____.
A. form
B. condition
C. pain
D. sadness
3. According to the text, the films children watch at school actually _____.
A. teach them how to deal with guns safely
B. praise hunting as character-building
C. describe hunting as an exercise
D. encourage them to have guns of their own
4. It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to _____.
A. blame the majority of people
B. worry about the existence of wildlife
C. be in favour of war
D. be in support of character-building
