单选题     Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants and animals called plankton (浮游生物). Most of these plants and animals are too small for the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the currents, providing a basic food for many larger animals. Plankton has been described as the equivalent of grasses that grow on the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one. In the potential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates (碳水化合物) each year, the sea's plankton generates more than twice as much.
    Despite its enormous food potential, little effort was made until recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now, marine scientists have at least begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea's resources appear even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.
    No one yet has seriously suggested the 'planktonburger' may soon become as popular as hamburger around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.
    One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibility is a tiny shrimp-like creature called krill (磷虾). Growing to two or three inches long, krill provide the major food for the giant blue whale, the largest animal on Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one consumes more than one ton of krill daily. Krill swim about just below the surface in huge schools sometimes miles wide, mainly in the cold Antarctic. Because of their pink color, they often appear as a solid reddish mass when viewed from a ship or from air. Krill are very high in food value. A pound of them contains about 460 calories-about the same as shrimp or lobster, to which they are related.
    If the krill can feed such huge creatures as whales, many scientists reason, they must certainly be candidates as a new food source for humans.
单选题     Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the passage? ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】全义主旨题。第一、二、三段概述了浮游生物特征,随后两段以krill(磷虾)为例,进步阐述浮游生物的食物价值。
单选题     According to the passage, why is plankton considered to be more valuable than land grasses? ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。参见第一段最后二句“In the potential food value... the sea's plankton generates more than twice as much.”(然而,浮游生物的潜在食物价值远胜过陆地上的草。根据一位科学家的估计,全世界陆地草每年产出490亿吨宝贵的碳水化合物,而海洋浮游生物的碳水化合物产出最则是其两倍。)
单选题     Why does the author mention 'planktonburgers' in paragraph 3? ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。参见第三段:尽管还没有人认真提出“浮游生物包”会像汉堡包一样普及全球。但作为一种潜在的可培植的补充食物源,浮游生物正引起海洋科学家的极大兴趣。
单选题     What is mentioned as one distinguishing feature of krill? ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。参见第四段倒数第3句“because of their pink color...”。
单选题     The author mentions all of the following as reasons why plankton could be considered a human food source EXCEPT that it is ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。参见第一段第三句、最后一句。全文对plankton的化学成分是否含有污染物只字未提。