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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) for each question. Write your answer in the numbered boxes.
Our Vanishing Night
If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal species on this planet who feel at home in it. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun's light. This basic fact is engrained deep in our genetic make-up, even though most of us don't think of ourselves as diurnal beings any more than we think of ourselves as primates or mammals or Earthlings. Yet it's the only way to explain what we've done to the night.
We've somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat of damming a river. Its benefits come with consequences - called light pollution - whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it's not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever manmade light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life - migration, reproduction, feeding - is affected.
For most human history, the phrase 'light pollution' would have made no sense. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth's most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, making do, as they always had, with candles, torches and lanterns. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to smell London than to see its dim collective glow.
We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being 'captured' by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop. Migrating at night, birds are apt to collide with brightly lit tall buildings; immature birds on their first journey suffer disproportionately. Some birds - blackbirds and nightingales, among others - sing at unnatural hours in the presence of artificial light.
It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need an undiminished view of the night sky for our work, but like most other creatures we do need darkness. Denying darkness is futile. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as light itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn't operate as it should, causing various physical ailments. The regular oscillation of waking and sleep in our lives is nothing less than a biological expression of the regular oscillation of light on Earth. So fundamental are these rhythms to our being that messing with them is akin to altering our center of gravity.
In the end, humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs in a pond near a brightly lit highway. Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage - the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way- the edge of our galaxy - arching overhead.
1. In the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest about darkness?
A. It is linked to our survival instinct. B. Early humans became accustomed to it.
C. We are one of the few animals who fear it. D. Our response to it is intrinsic to our species.
2. The writer refers to damming a river to underline the fact that _______
A. beneficial modifications can have negative effects.
B. water and light are equally crucial to human and animal life.
C. light pollution might have a variety of sources.
D. it's inadvisable to interfere with key environmental features.
3. What point is the writer making about London in 1800?
A. It was virtually invisible at night. B. It was famed for its resourceful lighting.
C. Its inhabitants were subject to strict laws regarding lighting.
D. Its lack of illumination made it a dangerous place.
4. In the fourth paragraph, the writer suggests that light pollution has caused some animals to _______
A. develop physiological adaptations to brighter conditions. B. alter behavioural patterns.
C. risk becoming endangered species. D. be more susceptible to predation.
5. In the fifth paragraph, the writer draws a comparison between 'denying darkness' and _______
A. maintaining our biological welfare. B. modifying our internal clockwork.
C. causing various physical ailments. D. altering our centre of gravity.
6. The overall tone of the article is one of _______
A. concern about how escalating light pollution will affect species in the future.
B. regret at the loss of a fundamental aspect of our relationship with nature.
C. optimism about our increasing awareness of a key environmental issue.
D. doubt as to whether the effects of light pollution can ever be reversed.
Our Vanishing Night
If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal species on this planet who feel at home in it. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun's light. This basic fact is engrained deep in our genetic make-up, even though most of us don't think of ourselves as diurnal beings any more than we think of ourselves as primates or mammals or Earthlings. Yet it's the only way to explain what we've done to the night.
We've somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat of damming a river. Its benefits come with consequences - called light pollution - whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it's not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever manmade light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life - migration, reproduction, feeding - is affected.
For most human history, the phrase 'light pollution' would have made no sense. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth's most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, making do, as they always had, with candles, torches and lanterns. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to smell London than to see its dim collective glow.
We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being 'captured' by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop. Migrating at night, birds are apt to collide with brightly lit tall buildings; immature birds on their first journey suffer disproportionately. Some birds - blackbirds and nightingales, among others - sing at unnatural hours in the presence of artificial light.
It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need an undiminished view of the night sky for our work, but like most other creatures we do need darkness. Denying darkness is futile. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as light itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn't operate as it should, causing various physical ailments. The regular oscillation of waking and sleep in our lives is nothing less than a biological expression of the regular oscillation of light on Earth. So fundamental are these rhythms to our being that messing with them is akin to altering our center of gravity.
In the end, humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs in a pond near a brightly lit highway. Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage - the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way- the edge of our galaxy - arching overhead.
1. In the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest about darkness?
A. It is linked to our survival instinct. B. Early humans became accustomed to it.
C. We are one of the few animals who fear it. D. Our response to it is intrinsic to our species.
2. The writer refers to damming a river to underline the fact that _______
A. beneficial modifications can have negative effects.
B. water and light are equally crucial to human and animal life.
C. light pollution might have a variety of sources.
D. it's inadvisable to interfere with key environmental features.
3. What point is the writer making about London in 1800?
A. It was virtually invisible at night. B. It was famed for its resourceful lighting.
C. Its inhabitants were subject to strict laws regarding lighting.
D. Its lack of illumination made it a dangerous place.
4. In the fourth paragraph, the writer suggests that light pollution has caused some animals to _______
A. develop physiological adaptations to brighter conditions. B. alter behavioural patterns.
C. risk becoming endangered species. D. be more susceptible to predation.
5. In the fifth paragraph, the writer draws a comparison between 'denying darkness' and _______
A. maintaining our biological welfare. B. modifying our internal clockwork.
C. causing various physical ailments. D. altering our centre of gravity.
6. The overall tone of the article is one of _______
A. concern about how escalating light pollution will affect species in the future.
B. regret at the loss of a fundamental aspect of our relationship with nature.
C. optimism about our increasing awareness of a key environmental issue.
D. doubt as to whether the effects of light pollution can ever be reversed.
