题目内容
Tens of thousands of baby penguins face starvation after two giant icebergs broke off the Antarctic ice sheet and blocked their parents' way to feeding areas.
Adelie and emperor penguins nesting on the Ross Island are now forced to walk long distances over the icebergs to obtain food for their chicks, born during the November
December breeding season.
“The penguins are having to walk 50 km further than usual to reach the sea.”said Dean Peterson. The flightless birds travel on land at just one to two km per hour.
The problem could halve the chick survival (存活) rate at the three Adelie penguin colonies on Ross Islandestimated at 130,000 breeding pairs. In all Antarctica, there is an estimated three million Adelie penguin breeding pairs.
Around 12,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins, the largest penguin species at up to four feet tall, are also affected.
The iceberg broke from the vast Ross Ice shelf, south of New Zealand, in March 2000 and are now sandwiched between Ross Island and Franklin Island, 93 miles to the earth.
Scientist Peterson estimated that penguins were taking days to make the round trip to the sea to fish, and then back to their casts to regurgitate(反刍) food for their chicks.
“At that point they were quite tired and probably don't have much to regurgitate,”he said. Penguins already have long odds on reaching adulthood, with only 10 percent surviving beyond adolescence (青春期).
“We are probably looking at halving that againwe are sitting down at maybe the five percent rate.”Peterson said, adding some penguins already appeared to be leaving the Ross Island to breed elsewhere.
Penguins come ashore to breed and then take it in turns to leave the nest to fetch fish and other sea food to feed their young.
Researchers say large blocks of the Antarctic ice sheet are breaking off for several reasons, including global warming.
Emperor and Adelie penguins are limited to Antarctica. The emperors weigh up to 66 pounds while Adelie penguins are much smaller, weighing around 11 pounds.
1．After the long trip, the mother penguins ________.
[ ]
A．are too tired to feed their young
B．can't bring up much to feed their young
C．are too hungry themselves
D．have already eaten up all the food
2．The underlined phrase“have long odds on”probably means ________.
[ ]
A．have little chance of
B．have no difficulty in
C．spend long time in
D．have great hope of
3．From what scientist Peterson said, we infer that ________.
[ ]
A．the survival rate of penguins is dropping
B．there are few penguins left on Ross Island
C．the present situation can cause the penguins to die out
D．penguins usually have a high survival rate
4．Which of the following best supports the main idea of the passage?
[ ]
A．Global warming caused the icebergs to break off.
B．The long trip made mother penguins too tired to feed their young.
C．The change of weather affects penguins.
D．Broken icebergs endanger penguin chicks.
解析：
|
1．B 提示：从文中可知：Penguins were quite tired and probably don't have much to regurgitate after they took days to make the round trip to the sea to fish, and then back to their nests to regurgitate food for their chicks。 2．A 提示：从后面那句话：…with only 10 percent surviving beyond adolescence可推知“have long odds on”的意思为：可能性比较小。 3．A 提示：由Peterson说的“We are probably…halving that again…”可知。 4．D 提示：文章开头给出了答案。 |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||