Only a handful of creatures on earth carry the dread title "man-eater". The great white shark is one, quick at times snap up swi

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问题     Only a handful of creatures on earth carry the dread title "man-eater". The great white shark is one, quick at times snap up swimmers and ship-wrecked sailors. People have been meals for lions and tigers. Crocodiles will attack human prey. But perhaps no creature is more blindly savage than a small fish of South America’s inland waters—the piranha.
    At first glance, the piranha seems harmless enough. Deep-bellied and flat, it looks like a sunfish a youngster might catch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It is actually a close relative to silver dollar—an ornamental and placid fish prized by aquarium enthusiasts. But towards the business end of a piranha, any similarity to its more docile brethren ends.
    The head of the piranha is massive by scale, its raked-back skull armored by thick bone. Its large, round eyes are sometimes blood red; its mouth is armed with triangular teeth as keen as razors. When the lower jaw, thrust forward in bulldog fashion, snaps shut, the upper and lower teeth mesh perfectly. The result on anything caught in between is that of surgical steel on butter. One bite and out comes a neat piece of flesh the size of a dollar.
    We had a chance to see those dread jaws in action ourselves when we hired a guide, Jorge, to take us fishing out from Manarus, in Brazil’s jungle. An hour after we left the city, Jorge cut the engine in an inlet off the muddy Amazon, and baited a hook with raw meat. Almost immediately, something struck, and Jorge hauled the line back in, flipping a struggling fish about 12 inches long into the bilge," Red piranha," he warned." Watch your hands and feet."
    Thrashing in the narrow boat bottom, sunlight glittering off its vermilion belly, it looked as handsome as any tropical fish we’d see. The fierce-looking jaws, however, were snapping wildly at the air, Jorge reached for an oar to deal it a blow just as the hook worked loose from the fish’s mouth. With a lightning-swift snap, the piranha chopped a neat semicircular chunk from the wooden oar. We now understand why so many fishermen in piranha country are missing fingers and toes.
Which of the following statements about the piranha is UNTRUE?

选项 A、The piranha is closely related to the silver dollar.
B、The piranha is flat and deep-bellied.
C、The piranha’s eyes are sometimes blood red.
D、The piranha is often prized by aquarium enthusiasts.

答案D

解析 A、B、C三项都在第三段中出现了,而D项“prized by aquarium enthusiasts”的是“silver dollar”,不是“piranha”。
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