五、阅读理解
The ocean is full of amazing animals. It's also full of plastic. That's bad news for sea animals like deep-diving whales. They can mistake the plastic for food and eat it.
How do whales mix up plastic and food? A team at the Duke University, which has been looking into this question for some years, has recently published their study. It all comes down to echolocation (回声定位): a natural way that allows whales to "hear" objects in the darkest parts of the sea. There's little light at those deep parts, so it's too dark for the whales to see. But they can hear by echolocation.
The whales make a sound and then listen. They hear echoes from nearby objects. These echoes allow the whales to hunt. The scientists found that rubbish and sea animals cause similar echoes. To the whales, they "sound" the same. That can trick the whales into eating rubbish.
The scientists gathered objects such as bottles, bags, and rope. All of these have been found in the stomachs (胃) of whales. The team made sounds and recorded the strength (强度) of each echo off these objects. They then compared these echoes to those produced off the bodies of sea animals. The echoes from the plastic things were similar in strength to those returned by sea animals.
Eating rubbish is dangerous for whales. The plastic can build up in their stomachs, preventing food from passing through their bodies. This can be deadly (致命的). Merrill, the lead writer of the study, says, "The plastic impacts animals that are so far away from our daily life. This is really a big problem."
Everyone can play a part in cutting down plastic pollution. "People need to make real changes in their daily life, and then actively help deal with this problem," Merrill says.
(
A
) 1. Why do whales look for food by sound instead of by sight in deep sea?
A. Because the light there is very poor.
B. Because there is too much rubbish.
C. Because their eyes are badly hurt.
D. Because food is far away from them.
(
B
) 2. What do Paragraphs 3 & 4 mainly talk about?
A. What kind of sounds whales make.
B. How whales mistake rubbish for food.
C. How dangerous rubbish is to whales.
D. What objects scientists find in whales.
(
D
) 3. What does the underlined word "impacts" probably mean?
A. Stores food for.
B. Gives cover to.
C. Prevents whales from.
D. Has an effect on.
(
B
) 4. Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Dangerous Deep Sea
B. Bad News for Sea Animals
C. Changes of Animal Food
D. Sounds from Big Whales
