103 學年度學測英文 第 24 題

Every year tens of thousands of tourists visit Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Tanzania, Africa, to witness the scenes depicted in Earnest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro. They are attracted by the American writer’s 21 of the millennia-old glaciers. However, this tourist attraction will soon 22. According to the Climate Change Group, formed by environmentalists worldwide to document the effects of global warming, Mount Kilimanjaro’s snows and glaciers are melting and are 23 to disappear by 2020. Not only will the summit lose its tourist attraction, but the disappearance of the snows will also cause major damage to the ecosystem on the dry African plains at its base. 24 the snow covering the peak, there will not be enough moisture and water to nourish the plants and animals below. Rising temperatures, an effect of global warming, 25 threaten the ecosystem of this mountain area. The loss of snows on the 5,892m peak, which have been there for about 11,700 years, could have disastrous effects on Tanzania.