Question

【題目】 Whales, like all mammals（哺乳動物）,need air, and come to the surface to breathe through a blowhole. A drone（無人機(jī)）that floats over the blowholes of humpback whales as they are making annual journey along Australia's east coast is being used by Australian scientists for collecting nasal mucus（鼻腔粘液）of whales.

Vanessa Pirotta, a biologist at Macquarie University says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale. “It is the biological mixture that you see as a whale takes a breath as it surfaces from the water，” she said. You can hear sounds of sharp breaths as a whale breathes because, after all, they are animals like you and I. So as they take a breath it is a lot of lung bacteria coming out from their lungs, which we can collect to provide a brief idea of whale health.

Australian researchers have attached a special dish that is used in scientific tests to a drone which flies through the whale's nasal mist. As a whale comes to take a breath—you can actually see it coming to the surface on really good weather days —the drone then lowers, the dish is then opened, collecting nasal mucus for later research.

The research could help to solve one of the secrets of another impressive creature of the deep —the Southern right whale. Its numbers have recovered on Australia's west coast since hunting became suppressed but its population on the eastern seaboard remains stubbornly low.

In the past, studies into whale health had to rely on examining whales that were either killed or those whales that had been trapped on a beach. Drones allow scientists to collect nasal mucus from free-swimming whales to gather information in a safe way.

【1】What is the drone mainly used to do?

A. To gather information for researchers.

B. To record new species of whales.

C. To guarantee the safety of whales.

D. To take photos of whales' annual journey.

【2】How can a biologist find out a whale's health condition in the study?

A. By examining liquids from its breath.

B. By checking its lungs on a machine.

C. By listening to the sounds of its breath.

D. By studying its similarity with humans.

【3】What does the underlined word “suppressed” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. Commercial.B. Rewarding.

C. Hidden.D. Forbidden.

【4】Why is the Southern right whale mentioned?

A. To describe the difficulty to track it.

B. To show the increasing population.

C. To stress the urgency of doing the research.

D. To indicate the potential application of the research.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】A

【3】D

【4】D

【解析】

本文是一篇說明文，介紹了科學(xué)家利用無人機(jī)來收集鯨魚的鼻腔粘液以了解它們的健康狀況。

【1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第一段中的“A drone（無人機(jī)）that floats over the blowholes of humpback whales as they are making annual journey along Australia's east coast is being used by Australian scientists for collecting nasal mucus（鼻腔粘液）of whales.”可知，無人機(jī)是用來收集鯨魚的鼻腔粘液的，也就是為研究人員收集信息，故A項正確。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第二段中的“Vanessa Pirotta, a biologist at Macquarie University says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale.”可知，鼻腔粘液能夠反映出鯨魚的健康情況，由此可知，生物學(xué)家在研究中是通過檢查鯨魚呼出的粘液來了解鯨魚的健康狀況的，故A項正確。

【3】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)畫線詞前的“Its numbers have recovered on Australia's west coast since hunting became”可知，自捕獵活動受到禁止以來，澳大利亞西海岸的南露脊鯨數(shù)量已經(jīng)開始回升，南露脊鯨數(shù)量的回升得益于禁止非法捕獵，由此可知畫線詞詞義為“禁止”，故D項正確。

【4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段中的“but its population on the eastern seaboard remains stubbornly low.”可知，東部沿海的南露脊鯨的數(shù)量仍然很低，言外之意，可以利用這項研究來弄清楚東部沿海的南露脊鯨的數(shù)量低的原因，由此可知，文章提到南露脊鯨是為了指出這項研究的潛在應(yīng)用，故D項正確。

詞義猜測題的難度較大，對畫線詞上下文的理解是關(guān)鍵，例如本篇第3題，根據(jù)畫線詞前的“Its numbers have recovered on Australia's west coast since hunting became”可知，自捕獵活動受到禁止以來，澳大利亞西海岸的鯨魚數(shù)量已經(jīng)開始回升，根據(jù)常識可知，一個物種數(shù)量的回升得益于禁止非法捕獵，由此可知畫線詞詞義為“禁止”，故D項正確。