公共英语三级阅读文章《浮游生物》

备考下半年的公共英语三级考试要求考生做好阅读的准备。下面，小编为大家送上一篇公共英语三级阅读文章，欢迎阅读。

Plankton

Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants and animals called plankton. 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 the grasses that grow on the dry land continents,and the comparison is an appropriate one. In 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 each year,the sea's plankton generates more than twice as much.

Despite its enormous food potential,little effect was made until recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine scientists have at last begun to study this possibility,especially as the sea's resources loom even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.

No one yet has seriously suggested that "planktonburgers" may soon become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food source,plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.

One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny shrimplike creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches long,krill provide the major food for the great blue whale,the largest animal ever inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow to100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity,it is not surprising that each one devours more than one ton of krill daily.

浮游生物

数十亿吨的被称为"浮游生物"的小动物、植物散布在世界的海洋中。这些小的动、植物大多太小而难以被人眼看到。它们随波逐流，为许多较大的动物提供了基本的食物。

浮游生物曾被描述为生长在大陆陆地上的各种草类的海洋对应物。 这种比喻是恰当的。然而就潜在的食物价值而言，浮游生物远胜于草类。一位科学家曾经估计，世界上的草类每年生产大约 490 亿吨有用的碳水化合物，而海洋里的浮游生物每年生产的碳水化合物多于此数的两倍。

尽管浮游生物具备巨大的`食物潜能，但直到最近人们还很少象种植草类那样付出努力养殖浮游生物。现在，海洋科学家们至少已开始研究这种可能性。全球人口不断扩张，海洋资源作为食品的重要性日益突出。

现在还没有人认真说过"浮游生物汉堡" 会很快在世界上流行起来。然而，作为一种可能养殖的补充性食物资源，浮游生物正引起了海洋科学家们相当大的兴趣。

一种似乎具有很大收获可能性的微小的虾状浮游生物被称为鳞虾。鳞虾长至 2～3 英寸长时即成为地球上曾居住过的最大动物——蓝鲸的主要食物。成熟的蓝鲸可以达到 100 英尺长，150 吨重，所以每头鲸每天吞食 1 吨多的鳞虾一点也不让人吃惊。

附：公共英语三级阅读技巧之如何做原因性的题目

由于阅读理解的文章绝大多数是属于说明文体裁，而说明文的主要功能是对事物、现象的解释和阐述。因此许多题目都涉及到分析和辨别事物的原因或成因。例如：

The main reason for the failure of the organization to achieve the success is that _____.

Mouthwashes are not effective cure for bad breath mainly BECause _________.

Which of the following is mentioned as one of the causes for the earthquake ______.

在做寻找事物原因的题目时，有几点要特别注意。

1.问的是主要原因或真正原因，而命题人员总把一些次要的，非直接的，非根本的原因放进选项。由于这些次要的原因也是文章中提到的，因此考生如不仔细，往往会把次要原因当作答案。

这就告诉我们，做这类题目，首先要注意问题中的the main/chief/real cause (reason，factor) 这些词，提醒自己，问题问的是主要原因。然后分析事物的诸多的原因，理出最主要的，直接的，根本的原因。

2.问的是事物的原因，但出现在选项里的还有事物的后果、影响。由子这些后果、影响和原因一样，都是指一件事，且都出现在同一相关段，或相关句中，稍不留心，就会搞错。

这就告诉我们，做寻找原因的题目时，对文章所说的事物的原因、结果、影响，应理清它们之间的逻辑关系。不要错把结果当原因。