Millions of people visit Yosemite National Park every year to see the tall waterfalls and mountains. The mountains are a splendid sight when viewed from the valley floor. Lots of stores, hotels, and restaurants are needed to handle the crowds. Also, water, roads, and other service systems are part of the infrastructure(基础设施)that must be maintained.
Unfortunately, these systems are starting to break down. It’s not just in Yosemite but in national parks around the nation.
Yosemite is thirty years old according to Dennis Galvin, a National Park Service worker. The park is not only old but worn out. Two or three times as many visitors come every year. That is too many visitors for the park to deal with.
Four years ago a storm washed out a water pipeline in the Grand Canyon. The National Park service had to send water trucks to provide water for the visitors. Last month pipes almost broke again and roads had to be closed for a while.
Why hasn’t the National Park Service kept up the park repairs? There is a lack of money. The United States has 378 monuments, parks, and wilderness areas. Between three and four billion dollars are needed for repairs.
Yosemite is one national park that does have money for repairs. It has two hundred million dollars but cannot spend it any way it chooses. When the park workers started widening the road, they were forced to stop by the Sierra Club. The club claimed that the road work was damaging the Merced River that runs through the park.
A Sierra Club lawyer, Julia Olson, feels that the infrastructure needs to be moved out of Yosemite. That way less pressure will be put on the already crowded park.
According to the text, the mountains in Yosemite look most splendid when they are appreciated from _______.
A.the bottom of the valleys | B.the top of the mountains |
C.the side of the mountains | D.the edge of the valleys |
National parks like Yosemite in the U.S. find it increasingly difficult to meet the need of visitors because ________.
A.the transport management needs improving |
B.they spend too much on their service systems |
C.their service systems frequently go out of order |
D.they need help from environmental organizations |
The main problem of Yosemite National Park is its _______.
A.rundown water pipes | B.overcrowdedness | C.lack of money | D.narrow roads |
According to the text, the Sierra Club is most likely to be ______.
A.an environmental group | B.an information center |
C.a travel service | D.a law firm |