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高考维“升”素7——环境保护 （时间：分钟） 维A 阅读理解(2017·北京卷) Wilderness “In wilderness (荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism.The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection：whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved. As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out，there is a strong appeal in images of the wild，the untouched；more than anything else，they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly.The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong，and the danger exploitation (开发) brings to such landscapes (景观) is real.Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests，for example，store carbon in vast quantities.To Mr. Sauven，these “ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation. Lee Lane，a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute，takes the opposing view.He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services，such as water conservation.But that is not，he argues，a reason to avoid all human presence，or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation.There are ever more people on the Earth，and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives，rather than merely struggle for survival.While the ways of using resources have improved，there is still a growing need for raw materials，and some wildernesses contain them in abundance.If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide，the argument goes，there is no further reason not to do so.Being untouched is not，in itself，a characteristic worth valuing above all others. | 
