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  3. The residents of California’s Santa Monica Bay have some rather noisy neighbors—and they’re not happy about it. That is the conc

The residents of California’s Santa Monica Bay have some rather noisy neighbors—and they’re not happy about it. That is the conc

admin2012-08-10  50
问题     The residents of California’s Santa Monica Bay have some rather noisy neighbors—and they’re not happy about it. That is the conclusion of a new study which shows that blue whales feeding off the coast of California stop calling to each other when a nearby naval base powers up its sonar (声纳) for training exercises.
    It’s not exactly news that sonar can disturb whales. What’s different about this study is that it shows an underwater sound outside a whale’s voice range can still affect its calling behavior. Because the endangered blue whale may depend on communication to keep its family group together and alert them to the presence of food, the effects of that sonar are a serious concern.
    But it’s not only sonar that’s getting to them. When ships come by, sound of the engines falls within the blue whales’ vocalization range, which means the creatures have to raise their voices. Unsurprisingly, this sort of effect—like living inside a noisy, dark bar—is not ideal for intelligent and social animals trying to have a conversation.
    Luckily it’s not all bad news. Technology can help—if people are willing to pay for it. In terms of shipping noise, efforts are under way by the International Maritime Organization to develop and encourage the use of quieter engines on ships. Even the U. S. Navy is now working on the problem of ocean noise. In fact, over the last ten years the U. S. Navy has been the primary funder of marine mammal research on the planet.
    Some say this isn’t simply a conservation issue. It’s a moral one. Last month, a group of scientists and ethicists (伦理学家) presented a "Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans (鲸目动物)" to the largest science conference in the world, the AAAS meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The Declaration states that because of their intelligence and social complexity, whales and dolphins should be respected as non-human persons with a right to life. " We’ve had decades of work demonstrating what kinds of beings they are, what kind of brains they have," says Lori Marino, a senior lecturer in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University, whose groundbreaking work has shown that dolphins, like humans, can recognize themselves in the mirror. Science, it seems, is telling us how undersea noise is affecting whales and dolphins. It also may be telling us why we should do something about it.
The author implies in Paragraph 4 that______.
选项 A、the U. S. Navy has a way to solve the problem of ocean noise
B、the U. S. Navy has accomplished a marine mammal research
C、quieter engines have been encouraged and used on ships
D、investment on technology can help save blue whales
答案D
解析 推理判断题。本题考查对第四段信息的理解。作者提出，只要人们愿意在技术上投入资金，就能帮助解决蓝鲸受到噪音威胁的问题，故D)“在技术上进行投资能够拯救蓝鲸”正确。A)“美国海军有办法解决海洋噪声问题”和原文不符，原文只提到美国海军正在就海洋噪声问题进行研究，并未提出已找到了解决方法，故排除；B)“美国海军已经完成了一项海洋哺乳动物的研究”和原文不符，原文的说法是美国海军是一项海洋哺乳动物研究的主要资助者，并未说是由它来完成的，因此排除；C)“噪音更小的引擎已经被鼓励并运用到轮船上”和原文不符，原文提出人们正在发明和鼓励在轮船上使用噪音小的引擎．故排除。
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