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【完形填空】Cloze: Saving the Roller
In 2019, Marcus Whitfield, a 14-year-old with a talent (1) noticing details, was helping his mother, Dr. Elena Whitfield, survey tree hollows on Sycamore Ridge in southern Ohio.
His mother, a vertebrate ecologist, had been studying the ridge for eleven years.
The ridge was home to 47 breeding pairs of a small mammal called the roller, which depended (2) old-growth trees for survival.
Elena had watched its population (3) from 1,400 in 2008 to just 220 by 2018.
The timber company that owned the land had begun clear-cutting, and the damage was serious.
Under normal circumstances, the ridge could support 2,000 rollers, but now only patches remained.
"This isn't just about one species," Elena said. "It's about what happens when we divide a forest into slices too small to sustain anything."
Marcus pulled his arm out, holding a young roller, barely 80 grams, its fur damp. "Mom," he said. "This one's alive."
That July, Elena submitted a report to the state's environmental agency, (4) that the ridge's capacity to regenerate had fallen below a critical threshold.
The agency, however, responded with a letter (5) economic considerations.
The timber company employed 280 people in a county where the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.
To shut down operations would (6) those workers from their only income.
Elena understood the dilemma.
She had grown up in a similar town, 60 miles north, where her father had worked in a paper mill until it closed in 1996.
She knew what retrenchment meant, but she also knew the ridge was a remnant of an ecosystem that had once covered 40 percent of the continent.
"We can't just let it go extinct," she told the county board. "We have to find another way."
The board gave her six months to propose an alternative.
She had no funding, no staff, and no clear plan.
What she did have was 14 volunteers, a borrowed truck, and a growing sense of urgency.
Elena's breakthrough came from an unexpected source.
In September 2019, a local landowner named Harold Pines, a 67-year-old retired farmer with sharp business (7), approached her after a town meeting.
Harold owned 180 acres adjacent to the ridge.
He had been leasing it to the timber company for $12,000 a year. "I've been thinking," he said. "What if we turn this into something else?"
He proposed a wildlife corridor and a small eco-tourism site.
Elena was skeptical.
She had seen too many conservation projects fail because they relied on goodwill (8) commerce.
But Harold was persuasive.
He had already secured a $45,000 grant from a regional trust. "I'm not a regent of the forest," he said, laughing. "I'm just a guy who wants his grandchildren to see a roller."
By January 2020, they had planted 8,000 native saplings.
The work was hard, and the weather was hostile, but the saplings survived.
The roller population, however, continued to fall. By June 2020, only 160 remained.
"We're not out of the woods," Elena said. "But we're not done fighting."
Then came the winter of 2021.
A sudden ice storm toppled 3,000 trees across the ridge, including 40 percent of the remaining old-growth hollows.
The roller population crashed to 52.
Elena's volunteers, now numbering 31, were devastated.
Harold's eco-tourism project, which had attracted 1,200 visitors in its first year, was closed for repairs.
The timber company offered to buy Harold's land for $250,000.
He refused. "I've seen what happens when you sell," he said. "The forest becomes a parking lot."
Elena, meanwhile, had begun a captive breeding program.
She converted an old barn into a climate-controlled facility.
The first litter, born in March 2022, (9) of seven pups. Four survived.
It was a small victory, but it was something.
"We're not trying to reclaim the past," she told a reporter. "We're trying to create a future where the roller isn't just a memory."
The reporter asked if she was optimistic.
Elena paused. "I'm realistic," she said. "That's different."
By 2024, the ridge had become a patchwork of hope and loss.
The breeding program had produced 38 rollers, 22 of which had been released into the wild.
The population hovered at 89.
Harold's eco-tourism site had reopened, attracting 3,400 visitors and generating $78,000 in revenue.
The story of the roller is far from (10).
Choices
(1) A. for B. at C. in D. with
(2) A. for B. on C. in D. with
(3) A. to cascade B. cascade C. cascading D. cascaded
(4) A. emphasize B. emphasized C. emphasizing D. to emphasize
(5) A. highlighted B. highlighting C. to highlight D. highlight
(6) A. separate B. estrange C. alienate D. isolate
(7) A. insight B. acumen C. wisdom D. intelligence
(8) A. more than B. rather than C. less than D. other than
(9) A. comprised B. composed C. contained D. consisted
(10) A. ended B. done C. over D. finished