Passage 2
On a frigid afternoon in May, I slipped through a crack in the sea ice and dropped into the Arctic Ocean. The icy water hit my face and neoprene-clad head so hard I thought I would vomit. I was diving just south of Lancaster Sound, off the northern tip of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. The water was 29 degrees (-2°C), about as cold as seawater gets before it freezes.
My teeth clenched the regulator as I tried to fight back nausea. Soon my breaths slowed, my head numbed to the shock, and I swam down into the blackness. At one point I looked back up at the ice, expecting it to appear as it most often does this early in the season-blue, featureless, lifeless. But something wasn't right.
The ice was stained green and brown. It moved. I blinked and checked my depth. I tried to make sure I wasn't suffering vertigo, which can be deadly to a diver working alone under the three-foot-thick (one meter) roof of ice. Then it hit me: It wasn't ice at all—I was watching a massive cloud of amphipods (短足目动物), tiny shrimplike crustaceans, as they fed on phytoplankton that grow on the underside of the ice in spring when the sun returns to the Arctic. I was seeing the foundation of the ecosystem, the combination of ice and minute life-forms upon which all the bigger animals—polar bears, whales, birds, and seals—depend.
I've lived in the Canadian Arctic all my life and have spent most of my career photographing the edge where ice meets open sea. When I began working, sea ice seemed invulnerable: Even in the warmest months much ice remained. Ice is not just a landscape. It is part of the biology of every creature that lives in this frozen vastness. Year-round, but especially in spring, polar bears roam and hunt on the ice. Seals rest and give birth on the ice. Massive bowhead whales arrive like squadrons of submarines to feed on amphipods and copepods. Beluga whales and narwhals join them and chase arctic cod, which hide as larvae in finger-thin channels of ice. An Arctic without ice is unimaginable.
Scarcely ten years later, things have changed. The Poles are melting at an alarming rate; as global warming grinds on, the possibility of an ice-free Arctic, at least during the summer, creeps closer each day. Lancaster Sound, one of the most productive marine habitats in the world and the eastern portion of the famed Northwest Passage, may soon witness a new chapter in maritime history: The sound and areas around it may see a significant increase in shipping as the ice diminishes, bringing large freighters and tankers into a region they rarely traveled before. Some scientists even believe the Arctic will be void of summer ice, dooming species such as polar bears to extinction in less than a century. This is one of the most disturbing predictions I've heard.
If global temperatures continue rising, the ice will likely disappear. An Arctic without ice would be like a garden without soil.
It could be inferred from the passage that the author's career is ________.
根据第四段第一句“and have spent most of my career photographing…”可知作者是一名摄影师，专门拍摄海洋与冰川接触的边缘。
The author was watching a massive cloud of amphipods instead of ice early in the season because ________.
根据第三段倒数第二句“as they fed on phytoplankton that grow on the underside of the ice in spring when the sun returns to the Arctic”可知春天太阳回到北极时，这种短足目动物的食物会出现在冰层底部。
According to the passage, polar bears depend on the Arctic sea ice because they ________.
根据第四段第四句“polar bears roam and hunt on the ice”可知北极熊需要在冰块上漫步觅食，因此十分依赖冰层。
The author's feeling about the predictions on the melting Arctic sea ice is ________.
根据第四段最后一句话“An Arctic without ice is unimaginable”以及倒数第二段最后一句话“This is one of the most disturbing predictions I've heard.”可知作者对于北极冰川融化是十分担忧的，他觉得没有冰的北极是难以想象的。
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
本文主要讲述了作者作为一个水下摄影师偶然发现了融冰下方的生物，继而联想到气候变暖可能导致 的北极冰川进一步融化，其后果是不可想象的。作者将篇幅大部分放在了冰川融化的现状和影响上。因此，以“消失的洋冰”为题最为恰当。