Shipping noise affects penguins

主題語境：動物保護 篇幅：322詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1Penguins in South Africa are being driven from their native environment because of noise from shipping activities.

2The African penguin lives on St.Croix Island off the east coast of South Africa.The animals are already endangered.But a new study has found that African penguins are leaving their natural environment to escape noisy ship refueling operations.The island once was the world's largest bird breeding ground.But the population of African penguins has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea seven years ago,the study found.

3Lorien Pichegru is an acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University,which led the study.She said that the organization had found that noise levels in the area had doubled since the refueling activities began.Scientists say high noise levels affect the ability of ocean animals to find and catch other animals for food.Noise also makes it more difficult for the animals to communicate with each other and map travel paths.

4In 2016,the South African Maritime Safety Authority(SAMSA)awarded the country's first offshore refueling operator's license to Aegean Marine.Later,it gave two licenses to SA Marine Fuels and Heron Marine.An order to halt any new licenses has been in place since August 2019.It will only be lifted after an environmental study is completed by port officials.The study is expected this year.Oil-covered penguins were found in 2019 in Algoa Bay after an oil spill from ship-to-ship refueling.Environmental groups have called for the activities to be banned in the bay.

5Pichegru said penguins in the area were already struggling to reproduce because of a series of issues,including industrial fishing operations.She added that the refueling activities did not kill all the penguins.“It was just the thing that made the whole ecology tip over and then the penguins couldn't cope with that,”she said.

Reading Check

Detail

1.Why are African penguins leaving their native habitat?

A.To get away from oil.

B.To hunt for more food.

C.To avoid shipping noise.

D.To escape the hot weather.

Detail

2.What directly caused the decrease of African penguins'population?

A.The refueling activities.

B.The loss of their abilities.

C.The reduction of their habitat.

D.The rising of sea level.

Vocabulary

3.What does the underlined word“halt”in paragraph 4 mean?

A.Award.

C.Design.

D.Stop.

Inference

4.What does Pichegru want to express about the penguins in the last paragraph?

A.Measures of saving them.

B.Their promising future.

C.Their present situation.

D.Reasons for their extinction.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentences in the text

1.But the population of African penguins has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea seven years ago,the study found.研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，自從南非七年前開始允許該地區(qū)的船只在海上加油以來，非洲企鵝的數(shù)量急劇下降。

我們現(xiàn)代人對工筆花鳥瓷畫進行解讀的時候可以見證它讓人過目難忘的藝術(shù)魅力，在品味工筆花鳥瓷畫藝術(shù)魅力的時候需要從它外在的形式美進行考究，從它的結(jié)構(gòu)形式上進行探索，更重要的是需要領(lǐng)會其內(nèi)在的文化價值，即畫者內(nèi)心世界的表達，也就是畫面塑造的意境美。

【點石成金】本句是一個復(fù)合句。句中，the study是主句的主語，found是謂語，前面的整個句子是賓語從句；從句中有一個since 引導(dǎo)的時間狀語從句，故前面的主句中的謂語動詞使用現(xiàn)在完成時。

2.Lorien Pichegru is an acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University,which led the study.洛里安·皮切格魯是納爾遜·曼德拉大學(xué)海岸和海洋研究所的代理所長，該研究所領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了這項研究。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復(fù)合句。句中，which 引導(dǎo)的是一個非限制性定語從句，which在從句中作主語。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

shipping activity 航運活動

noise level 噪聲水平；噪聲等級

communicate with 與……聯(lián)系；與……交往

in place 在工作；準備就緒

cope with 應(yīng)付；處理