Blue whales may be the largest microplastic⁃piece eaters蓝鲸或是微塑料的最大进食者

谷战峰

主题语境：海洋生态 篇幅：317词 建议用时：7分钟

Researchers have estimated that blue whales takein about 10 million pieces of microplastics each day.

Microplastics are particles of plastic debris（碎片）that are less than 5 millimeters long. They comefrom the breakdown of many kinds of plastic productsand industrial waste. Particle levels have been build⁃ing up in the worlds oceans for many years. The possible health effects on whales from eat?ing microplastics are still not well understood.

Scientists studied three species of baleen whales（须鲸）—blue， fin and humpback.Baleen whales are born without teeth. But they have special plates in their mouths that fil⁃ter food. They feed on very small animals， mainly the shrimp⁃like creatures called krill（磷虾）.

A study by the researchers says the estimated 10 million pieces of microplastics thatblue whales eat daily weigh about 44 kilograms. The study found that fin whales may takein up to 6 million microplastic pieces a day. Humpbacks that mostly feed on krill likely eatabout 4 million microplastic pieces daily. Humpbacks that favor fish may take in a muchsmaller amount with about 200，000 pieces a day. About 99 percent of the plastic materialcame from other animals that the whales eat， not from the water they filter.

Blue whales can grow up to 30 meters long. Fin whales can reach 24 meters， whilehumpbacks are generally about 15 meters. The researchers estimated the daily microplasticintake by examining the food search behavior of 126 blue whales， 65 humpbacks and 29fins. They used measurements from electronic tag devices that they attached to the animalsbacks. The device was equipped with a camera， a microphone and a GPS tracker. Theythen considered levels of microplastics that exist in the travel path of the whales.

The new study found that the whales mainly feed at ocean depths of 50 to 250 meters.This is within the area with the highest measured microplastic levels in the open⁃oceanenvironment.

Reading

Check

1. Scientists studied baleen whales in order to find out .

A. what made up of their diet

B. how plastics affect their health

C. how their eating habits have changed

D. how much food they eat on a daily basis

2. Which species take in the smallest amount of plastics？

A. Baleen whales.

B. Blue whales.

C. Fin whales.

D. Humpbacks.

3. What can we learn from paragraph 4？

A. Humpbacks have plentiful food sources.

B. Fish are the main food source of humpbacks.

C. Blue whales are at the top of the food chain in the sea.

D. Most of plastics enter whales bodies through the food chain.

4. Whats the main function of the tag devices on the whales backs？

A. Taking pictures.

B. Giving directions.

C. Taking measurements.

D. Recording sounds.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

They used measurements from electronic tag devices that they attached to the animals'backs. 他们使用的测量结果来源于附着在这些鲸鱼背部的电子标签设备。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。that 引导一个定语从句，在从句中作及物动词attached的宾语。

Ⅱ. Text⁃centered chunks

take in 摄入；吸收

build up 逐渐积聚；集结

feed on 以……为主食

attach sth to 把某物附着在……上面

be equipped with 配备有……；装备着……