Rachel Carson, born in rural Pennsylvania in 1907, had a great impact on the environment. Carson earned a master’s degree in zoology in 1932. It was as a writer and not as a research scientist, however, that she made her mark, sharing her view that human beings are just one element in a larger natural order. In the articles on natural history Carson wrote for various publications, she expressed dry facts in poetic and persuasive language. She wrote five books. Two of them, The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea, have been called “biographies of the ocean.” Carson also made the world aware of how scientific discoveries can harm as well as help living things. In her best-selling book Silent Spring, Carson challenged the profligate use of chemical pesticides by large agricultural and government organizations. She was the first to detail how the pesticide DDT had entered the food chain and damaged populations of bald eagles, falcons, and brown pelicans by causing the shells of their eggs to become so thin that they could not withstand the weight of the parent bird. Carson died of cancer in 1964. Today, the Rachel Carson Council collects and disseminates (散播) information on pesticide-related issues. In 1970, the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge, a large area of salt marsh and freshwater habitat in Maine, was dedicated to her memory. 小题1:Which of the following words is closest to the meaning of the underlined word in paragraph 3 ?
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