Twelve years ago,a young traveler named Rhett Butler from San Francisco,California, visited the Sabah rainforest on Malaysian Borneo. In one area of the rainforest,he watched a bird flying through the trees. The beautiful sight lett quite an impression on him. But weeks later,back home, Rhett Butler got the news that trees had been cut down in the area hevisi1ed.
That experience led Rhett Butler to begin writing a book about rainforests and threats to their existence. But he did not publish the book. Instead, in 1999, he used his research for the book to create a website,Mongabay. com. His purpose was to inform the public about tropical rainforests. But the subject quickly developed. As a former businessman,he became a respected writer of science and environmental stories.
The popularity of Mongabay. com attracted advertisers. Small ads on the site pay for its operations. Mongabay. com has grown and led to other sites. For example,there is a site for children which is called Kids. Mongabay. com. Another one,WildMadangascar. o rg, is allabout the island nation that Rhett Butler calls his favorite place.
To keep his website going, he travels around the world on several major trips each year. His working tools are a laptop computer,cameras and sometimes diving equipment. He often calls on experts for information. For example,he interviewed Alison Jolly,a top expert on lemurs (狐猴). He interviewed Rodney Jackson,a biologist who established the Snow Leopard Conservancy.
Stories like these have made Mongabay a favorite place on the Internet for researchers, students and teachers. In April, Time, com named it one of the fifteen top climate and environment websites in the world.
Rhett Butler didn’t publish his book about rainforests because________.
A.he didn’t want to become a writer |
B.the book was not about rainforest protection |
C.he wanted to use the information to create a website |
D.making websites earned more money than writing books |
To keep his website going,Rhett Butler___________.
A.kept visiting rainforests |
B.raised rare snow leopards |
C.traveled around and interviewed experts |
D.produced a great number of advertisements |
We can learn from the text that ________.
A.Rodney Jackson was once a businessman |
B.Kids. Mongabay. com has many stories written by kids |
C.Mongabay. com is loved by researchers as well as students |
D.WildMadangascar. org is better known than Mongabay. com |
What’s the main idea of the text?
A.Rhett Butler and his website. |
B.Rainforests on Malaysian Borneo. |
C.How Rhett Butler protected rare animals. |
D.How Rhett Butler made his website popular. |