阅读理解

　　At first sight, you would think the collection of hundreds of colored shards(碎片)could be a work of abstract art．But the objects are the contents of the stomach of a sea turtle that lost its battle with plastic pollution．

　　Environmentalists examined the stomach of the turtle found off the coast of Argentina．What they found is the symptom of the increasing threat to sea turtles from a human addiction to plastic．

　　Sea turtles often mistake plastic items for jellyfish or other food．Ingesting(摄取)ocean pollution can cause a digestive blockage and internal cuts．The result can be dangerous, followed by death．

　　Humans produce 260 million tons of plastic a year．When those products are pulled into the sea’s currents, the plastics are just broken into smaller pieces which are consumed by marine life at the bottom of the food chain．An examination of a green turtle found off Florida discovered that, over the course of a month, the animal’s faeces(粪便)had contained 74 foreign objects, including “four types of balloons, different types of hard plastic, a piece of carpet-like material and two 2-4 mm tar balls．”

　　“The oceans have become on giant refuse bin for all manner of plastics．All sea turtle species may be seriously harmed, ” according to the biologists Colette Wabnitz, from the University of British Columbia．“The symptom of this growing crisis can be seen inside and on sea turtles as well as their oceanic and terrestrial habitats．It is urgently necessary to directly confront the source of plastic pollution, redesign packaging and rethink the very idea of ‘throwaway culture’．”

　　Almost all marine species, from plankton to whales, have ingested plastic．But, even in small quantities, plastic can kill sea turtles, the biologists said．

　　Fifty out of 92 turtles found dead, stranded on the shorelines of Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil, had ingested a “considerable amount of man-made debris”．