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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  57
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.
People have learned something new about whales that______.
选项 A、underwater sound outside their voice range affects their calling
B、sonar from nearby naval bases can seriously disturb their calling
C、they are endangered because their calling is influenced by human
D、communication helps them to keep the family groups together
答案A
解析 事实细节题。第二段第一句指出声纳可干扰鲸鱼并不是什么新闻。由定位句可知，该研究的不同之处在于它表明即便水下声音不在鲸鱼的音域内，也仍然能够影响鲸鱼的呼叫，故A)正确。B)“附近海军基地的声纳严重影响了鲸鱼的呼叫”、C)“由于它们的呼叫受到了人类的影响，因而濒临灭绝”和D)“交流帮助鲸鱼把家庭成员聚集在一起”都不是新发现，故排除。
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