Day 28

Passage 28

Development of Fish and Fur Industry in Canada

① Canada is characterized by its vast expanses of wilderness and its sparse population: it is the second largest country in the world, but it has about the same population as the state of California, which is about 4 percent of its size. This is because the north of Canada, with its harsh Arctic and sub-Arctic climates, is not suitable for habitation, and most Canadians live in the southern part of the country. Not in proportion to its low-density population, Canada has impressive reserves of natural resources. And, until recent years, much of Canada's wealth has been generated through the extraction and processing of these resources, of which, the most exploited two are fish and fur.

② Canada is one of the world's largest exporters of fish and seafood. Its commercial fishing dates back nearly 500 years, and has been a mainstay of its economic life for many years. Over 75 percent of the country's catch is exported, which is over 1 percent of the total value of goods exported. Canadian fish and seafood are sold to many countries, but the primary markets are the United States, Japan, and the European Union. In 2003, exports of Canadian fish to the United States accounted for 72 percent of the total fish exported.

③ With increased use of larger, more sophisticated boats, the industry once had a period of rapid booming, but declined recently as the number of fish has decreased. Cod, one of the most important exports from the Atlantic coast once, is a typical case.

④ In the century before 1950, fishers worked in small boats using hand-operated equipment, and took about 250,000 metric tons a year from the Atlantic waters, off Newfoundland and Labrador. After 1950, Canadians increased their catching capacity by using larger, longer-range vessels with new nets, highly powered equipment, and electronic navigation. Modern European vessels also moved in. In 1968, the northern cod catch peaked at 800,000 metric tons. This figure surged to 1.32 million metric tons in 2004, a number so high as to drive the fish to near extinction. In 1977, therefore, Canada extended its fishing zone to 200 nautical miles (230 mi/370 km) to protect stocks; other conservation measures and stricter enforcement were implemented to protect small fish and spawning stocks in 1992. These measures, however, were proved insufficient. Followed by a total collapse of the fishery, an unprecedented two-year ban in 1993 on the commercial fishing of cod in the northern fishery extending from southern Labrador to the northern Grand Banks, was imposed. The fishing ban was later extended indefinitely because of the near-extinction of the fish.

⑤ The fur industry, on the other hand, is an area of commerce that encompasses farming or trapping certain fur-bearing animals, processing their skins for sale to manufacturers of fur garments, and marketing finished garments to retail outlets. It has also exerted great influence on the history of Canada. Much of the pre-Confederation history revolves around the competition between the French and the British for the control of the profitable fur trade. When French explorer Jacques Cartier visited eastern Canada in 1534, he was greeted by members of the Mi'kmaq nation holding fur-bearing animal skins, which they seemed to want to trade. Even at this early date, long before the settlement of Jamestown and Quéec, visiting fishermen from France, England, and Spain had been bringing copper pots, glass beads, iron knives, and ax heads to northeastern America, and bartering them for furs. For the next 300 years, the fur trade would drive the exploration of North America, shape relations with the indigenous people, and aff ect the history of empires.

⑥ In recent years, Canadian fur trappers and farmers have come under increasing pressure from foreign competition. By the late 1990s, the Scandinavian countries produced 68 percent of the world supply of peltries; the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) supplied 13 percent; the United States, 5 percent; China, 3 percent; Poland, 3 percent; and Canada, 2 percent. Retail sales of furs in the United States grew from less than $400 million in the early 1970s to $1.8 billion in the late 1980s, but then remained between $1.8 billion and $2 billion annually. The fur industry has also been hurt by protests from animal rights activists and the increasing popularity of artificial fur.

——2012年4月20日北美机经

The word “fishery” in Paragraph 4 refers to____ .

A. Canada's fish and seafood market

B. all the fish in Canada's sea area

C. Canada's cod industry

D. Canada's small fish and spawning stocks

核心词汇：

词汇练习：

阅读下列句子，用所给单词（或词组）的正确形式填空：

unprecedented indigenous extraction exploit collapse

1. Even given the best____ techniques, only about 30 to 40 percent of the oil in a given pool can be brought to the surface.(TPO-4:Petroleum Resources)

2. Some plants are woody in type—an adaptation designed to prevent____ of the planttissue when water stress produces wilting.(TPO-26:Survival of Plants and Animals in Desert Conditions)

3. Hundreds of tiny plant remains show how the inhabitants____ nut harvests in nearby pistachio and oak forests.(TPO-20:Early Settlements in the Southwest Asia)

4. In order to create a sense of structure to this picture, researchers have relied on a distinction that still underlies the forms of much____ visual culture—a distinction between geometric and figurative elements.(TPO-23:Rock Art of the Australia Aborigines)

5. This____ development of a finite groundwater resource with an almost negligible natural recharge rate—that is, virtually no natural water source to replenish the water supply—has caused water tables in the region to fall drastically.(TPO-3:Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer)

参考答案：

1. extraction 2. collapse 3. exploited 4. indigenous 5. unprecedented