Outside View (script)
Reporter: The trade in endangered animals is booming, as this collection of items seized by border agents shows. Ivory and rhino horn, trophy animals[可以保存下来做纪念品的猎物] and Chinese medicines, it's a multimillion pound black-market industry. This year, Sky News has filmed with rhinos in South Africa, clearly seeing the damage done by poachers[偷猎者], and it's thought the number of rhinos killed there might reach a record high this year.
Interviewee 1: Poaching levels are at … you know, unprecedented levels now, you know, they've gone through the roof[go through the roof: 超过最高峰，涨到最高限度]. The rhino … they're anticipating 1,000 rhinos to be slaughtered in South Africa, er, this year alone.
Reporter: In the past year, UK customs officials have seized 2.5 million illegal items. That's ten times more than the year before. Included in that, almost 4,000 kilos of illegally imported medicines, 93 endangered live animals, and over 300 items made from ivory.
Interviewee 2: Here we've got a pair of, er, snakeskin shoes of some sort, look like python[巨蟒].
Reporter: The items held in this warehouse have also been smuggled illegally, often in the form of packages sent by courier or parcel post, and intercepted[截获] at the UK's ports and airports. Endangered animals brought in alive are rehomed across the country.
Interviewee 3: There's a huge trade in reptiles[爬行动物], tortoises [陆龟]for example are enormous problems, and turtles[海龟], often confiscated. And it's extremely difficult trying to find homes for these, these, these sorts of animals.
Reporter: Many of these items will be passed on for education or research. But the rhino horn will be destroyed, and prevented from ever hitting the black market again. Harriet Hadfield, Sky News.
Answers
2 The true statements are 1, 3 and 5.
3 Answers
1 black-market industry
2 filmed; reach a record high
3 this year alone
4 inthe form of packages
5 a huge trade
6 hitting the black-market again
4 Answers
1(b) 2 (d) 3 (c) 4 (b) 5 (c) 6(d)
