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  3. Rescue workers had collected 820 birds from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the majority of them already dead. The current spill p

Rescue workers had collected 820 birds from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the majority of them already dead. The current spill p

admin2012-07-11  31
问题     Rescue workers had collected 820 birds from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the majority of them already dead. The current spill promises to be the largest in U. S. history,and as cleanup efforts stretch across the summer,it’s clear that more oiled birds will be found, stuck and suffering in the black sticky liquid. And as they do with every oil spill, rescue workers will go to great lengths to capture and clean the survivors hoping to restore them to their natural habitat.
    Is it worth the effort? Some scientists aren’t so sure. Because the stress of being captured and bathed is as significant as the horror of being immersed in oil, and because research suggests that many rescued birds die shortly after being released,some experts say euthanasia (安乐死) is a more humane option.
    Clean bird feathers repel water and regulate body temperature—dirty ones don’t. Oil in particular makes feathers heavier and diminishes their ability to trap air,which in turn makes birds more vulnerable to drowning, overheating and organ damage. Of course, being captured and cleaned is no picnic either. Some birds wind up returning to their destroyed habitats only to fall victim to the oil again. And those who manage to avoid a second oil bath suffer dramatically shortened life spans and lower reproductive success. Of the thousands of birds that were rescued from the Prestige oil spill off the coast of Spain in 2002, only 600 were released into the wild; most of the rest died after just a few days in captivity.
    However,bird rescuers say they have learned a lot about how to best help oil-soaked birds,and that therefore,survival rates stand to increase this time around. In the past,birds were cleaned right away, and volunteers often worked through the night bathing rescued birds. But now, captured birds are left to rest for a day or two before being cleaned, and only washed during the day, so as not to disrupt their cir-cadian (生理的) rhythms. But part of that increase may be due to greater selectivity on the part of rescuers. The workers do blood tests right in the field now and birds that are loaded with hydrocarbons (碳氢化合物 ) or don’t look like they’re going to make it are put down right away,rather than subjected to the stress of captivity and cleaning.
    And so far,while release rates may be improving,there is little evidence of better medium or long-term survival, especially for the more-difficult-to-save species. There still aren’t good biomedical proto-cols(协议) ,for repairing the internal organ damage. Nevertheless,rescue efforts will continue,in large part because the public demands that. Euthanasia is a difficult thing to do, especially for people who have built their lives around saving animals.
The case of Spain coast spill is applied to indicate______.
选项 A、thousands of birds were polluted by oil
B、the survival rate of oiled birds was very low
C、the efforts to rescue oiled birds were ineffective
D、captivity is an impractical method to rescue birds
答案B
解析 推理判断题。在列举西班牙石油泄漏事故之前，文章列举了油污鸟可能面临的遭遇，并指出清洗并非一劳永逸，他们随时面临死亡。紧接着定位句指出，在2002年两班牙海岸的威望号邮轮泄漏事故中，数以千计的鸟类被救援，但只有600只被放回了大自然；它们中的大多数在被捉后几天就死了。因此，B)“油污鸟的存活率很低”，为本题答案。A)“数以千计的鸟被石油污染”，是原文表达的事实，作者引用这次石油泄漏事故并不是只为了说明有多少鸟被污染，重点是有多少可以被救活，故排除；C)“救援油污鸟这项工作的效率不高”，此部分是从鸟的角度展开的，并未提到人的工作效率，故排除；D)“捕捉并不是一种拯救鸟类的实用方法”，原文无此意向，故排除。
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