Twelve years ago, a young traveler named Rhett Butler from San Francisco, California, visited the Sabah rain forest on Malaysian Borneo. In one area of the rain forest, he watched a bird flying through the trees. The beautiful sight left quite an impression on him. But weeks later, back home, Rhett Butler got the news that trees had been cut down in the area he visited.
That experience led Rhett Butler to begin writing a book about rainforests and the 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. The site is Mongabay, com. His purpose was to inform the public about tropical rain forests. 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, Wild Madangascar. org, is also about 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 experts 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.
What's the main idea of the passage?
A.Rhett Butler and his website. |
B.Rainforest on Malaysian Borneo. |
C.How Rhett Butler protected rare animals. |
D.How Rhett Butler made his website popular. |
Rhett Butler didn't publish his book about rain forests because __________
A.making websites earns more money than writing books |
B.he didn't want to become a writer |
C.the book was not about rain forest protection |
D.he wanted to use the information to create a website |
Which of the followings is NOT true about the Mongabay. com?
A.It was set up in 1999. |
B.It attracted many advertisers. |
C.At least two related websites grew from it. |
D.Rhett Butler made a lot of money from it. |
To keep his website going, Rhett Butler __________.
A.kept visiting the rain forest |
B.traveled around and interviewed experts |
C.raised rare snow leopards |
D.made a great number of advertisements |
We can learn from the passage that __________.
A.Mongabay. com was loved by researchers as well as students |
B.kids. Mongabay. com has many stories written by kids |
C.Wild Madagascar, org is better known than Mongabay. com |
D.Rodney Jackson was once a businessman |