Passage 3

　　Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because they’re been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe. Now lions hold only a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that spit from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former territory.

　　India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live primarily in a 560-square-mile sanctuary (保护区) . It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forest---and no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and greatness. A tiger will hide in the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground, curious and unafraid---lionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Gir’s lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. It’s odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Gir has as many lions as it can hold----too many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions move about near the boundary of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. That’s one reason India is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of disease or natural disasters. In 1994 a serious disease killed more than a third of Africa’s Serengeti lions----a thousand animals----a fate that could easily happen to Gir’s cats. These lions are especially vulnerable to disease because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals. “If you do a DNA test, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins,” says Stephen O’Brien, a geneticist (基因学家) who has studied them. Yet the dangers are hidden, and you wouldn’t suspect them by watching these lords of the forest. The lions display vitality, and no small measure of charm.

　　Though the gentle intimacy of play vanishes when it’s time to eat, meals in Gir are not necessarily frantic affairs. For a mother and her baby lion sharing a deer, or a young male eating an antelope (羚羊), there’s no need to fight for a cut of the kill. The animals they hunt for food are generally smaller in Gir than those in Africa, and hunting groups tend to be smaller as well.

　　56. In the first paragraph, the author tells us that Asiatic lions ______ .

　　A. have killed off other lions

　　B. have descended from African lions

　　C. used to span vast sections of the globe

　　D. have lost their habitat

　　57. What impressed the author most when he went to watch the lions in the Gir Forest?

　　A. Their friendliness.

　　B. Their size.

　　C. Their intimacy.

　　D. Their vitality

　　58. What does the sentence “…meals in Gir are not necessarily frantic affair” mean?

　　A. The lions do not show intimacy among them any more.

　　B. The lions may not deed to fight for food.

　　C. Food is not readily available in that region.

　　D. Meals can be obtained only with great effort

　　59. The lions in the Gir Forest are especially vulnerable to disease because ______ .

　　A. they have descended from a dozen or so ancestors

　　B. they are smaller than the African lions

　　C. they do not have enough to eat

　　D. they are physically weaker than the African lions

　　60. One of the reasons why India is creating a secondary sanctuary for the Asiatic lions is that ___

　　A. the present sanctuary is not large enough

　　B. scientists want to do more research on them

　　C. they have killed many people

　　D. the forest is shrinking in size

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