大学体验英语视听说3unit1(6)

Background InformationIndustrialization, economic development and population pressure have in the past two centuries combined to result in a rapid loss of biological diversity and an acceleration in the number of species disappearing from the face of the earth. According to the IUCN (World Conservation Union), in the last 500 years human activity has forced 816 species to extinction. As biological diversity is lost, we also lose the possibility of tapping as yet unknown resources for agriculture, industry, and health care. China’s biological resources are among th e world’s richest. This is not only due t o its size, but also due to the tremendous diversity of habitats it provides for wild plants and animals. The world’s highest and lowest points are in Chinese territory, and it has a variety of ecosystems that is unequalled else where, from glaciers t o coral reefs, from deserts to tropical rainforests. As a result, China ’s diversity of wild plants and animals is greater than all of North America or Europe, and equal to one eighth of all species on Earth.