墨尔本PTE Summarize written text 总结归纳段落 12
2015/05/31墨尔本PTE Summarize written text 总结归纳段落 14
2015/05/31
Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the key points in the passage.
Most sea creatures, from whales and dolphins to fish, sharks, shrimps and possibly even anemones respond to sound, and many can produce it. They use it to hunt and to hide, find mates and food, form and guide shoals, navigate ‘blind’, send messages and transmit warnings, establish territories, warn off competitors, stun prey, deceive predators, and sense changes in water and conditions.
Marine animals click bones and grind teeth; use drum-tight bladders and special sonic organs to chirp, grunt, and boom: belch gases; and vibrate special organs. Far from the ‘silent deep’, the oceans are a raucous babel.
Into this age-long tumult, in the blink of an evolutionary eye, has entered a new thunder: the throb of mighty engines as 46,220 large vessels plough the world’s shipping lanes. Scientists say that background noise in the ocean has increased roughly by 15 decibels in the past 50 years. It may not sound like much in overall terms; but it is enough, according to many marine biologists, to mask the normal sounds of ocean life going about its business. At its most intense, some even say noise causes whales to become disoriented, dolphins to develop ‘the bends’, fish to go deaf, flee their breeding grounds or fail to form shoals – enough to disrupt the basic biology of two thirds of the planet.
‘Undersea noise pollution is like the death of a thousand cuts’, says Sylvia Earle, chief scientist of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ‘Each sound in itself may not be a matter of critical concern, but taken all together, the noise from shipping, seismic surveys, and military activity is creating a totally different environment than existed even 50 years ago. That high level of noise is bound to have a hard, sweeping impact on life in the sea.’
Many ocean creatures are dependent on underwater sound to live and breed, but in the last 50 years, noises made by human activity have increased background ocean noise levels by about 15 decibels, which may have a very negative and disruptive effect on sealife and may lead to extinction.
