阅读理解

Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A., B., C. and D. You should decide on the best choice and write down your answer on the Answer Sheet.

 

Passage 3

It started last year when a group of middle school children on a biology field trip in south-central Minnesota spotted some unusual-looking frogs. One was missing a leg, some had withered arms, others had shrunken eyes. Of the 22 frogs caught that day, 11 were deformed. Their teacher told officials. Reports of strange frogs began to mount: a frog with nine legs; a clubfooted frog; a frog with three eyes, one of them in its throat.

At first, investigators from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul assumed that the problem was restricted to their state, and the agricultural part at that. They were wrong. Deformed frogs have since turned up in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Vermont and up into Canada.

“Abnormalities like this get me worried,” says David Hoppe, a University of Minnesota researcher. “We don’t know how far this is going to go.” Because frogs spend much of their life in water, pesticides or harmful metals were prime suspects. But now possible causes include acid rain, global warming and increased ultraviolet light. Hoppe observes that different deformities seem to be concentrated in frogs from different regions. It may be, he says, that more than one cause is at work.

What some scientists fear is that the frogs could be a sign that something is very wrong with the environment. “We may have a large problem here,” says Robert McKinnell, a University of Minnesota cancer researcher, who has collected hundreds of deformed frogs. “If frogs are not able to handle whatever it is that is causing this, it may turn out that people can’t either.” 

单选题 What is the meaning of the word “deformed” in the first paragraph?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据后文“Reports of strange frogs began to mount…”可知deformed应该与strange相对应, 表示形状奇怪、 畸形。
单选题 The following are the possible causes of strange frogs EXCEPT _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】倒数第二段列举了原因“pesticides or harmful metals were prime suspects”、 “possible causes include acid rain, global warming and increased ultraviolet light”, 因此B项人口增加不是其原因。
单选题 Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】由倒数第二段“Hoppe observes that different deformities seem to be concentrated in frogs from different regions”可知, 不同的畸形似乎集中于来自不同地区的青蛙。
单选题 The following words appearing in the passage have similar meanings EXCEPT _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】A、 B、 D三项在文中都指青蛙的形状畸形, 因此C项意思不同。
单选题 Robert McKinnell’s remarks imply that _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】最后一段中Robert McKinnell说到“If frogs are not able to handle whatever it is that is causing this, it may turn out that people can’t either”, 由此可见既然青蛙无法解决这一问题, 那么人类也很有可能无法解决。