A
Lajamanu is a dry town in Australia. Can you imagine how surprised people were when live fish rained down from a dark gray cloud? It happens that there are similar cases in England and Honduras.
How do clouds make fish? The simple answer is that they don’t. There is a particular weather phenomenon called a waterspout. A waterspout is just like a tornado, which only forms above oceans, lakes, or rivers. Like a tornado, a waterspout moves in a circle at high speeds. When it moves above the water, it tends to carry the fish with it, as well as frogs or other small plants or animals.
Scientists couldn’t work it out at first. To make matters stranger still, the fish in Honduras were very much alive when they rained down to the ground, but they were all blind. In England and Australia, it rained fish and snakes, and none were blind. It was difficult to puzzle out, but the blind fish gave them a place to start.
Scientists knew that some fish that lived in deep, underground caves with no light sources often lost their eyesight. So when blind fish rained down on Honduras, scientists began to connect some dots. Clearly, these particular fish were pulled from an underground water source by force.
Historically, villagers thought the “fishes from the heavens” might be answers to prayers for food. But in 1990, a group of scientists in England happened to record what was happening when it rained fish from the sky and finally proved the fact of rains of fish. This huge breakthrough changed legends into true stories and provided scientific explanations for how fish came to live in deep caves.
【语篇概述】本文是一篇说明文。文章解释了神奇的天气状况: “雨中下活鱼”。 “盲鱼”让科学家们开始认为龙卷风理论似乎更有可能。科学家目击天上下“鱼雨”更是把神话传说变成了真实的故事, 同时为鱼如何生活在深海洞穴里提供了科学的解释。
1. According to the passage, a waterspout ________.
A. can make animals blind
B. is difficult to catch on film
C. can carry items with it
D. is a dangerous sea creature
【解析】选C。推理判断题。根据第二段中“When it moves above the water, it tends to carry the fish with it, as well as frogs or other small plants or animals. (当它移动到水上, 它可能会卷起一些鱼, 青蛙, 或者其他小的动植物。)”可知, 水上龙卷风可能携带一些物品。故选C。
2. The blind fish made the scientists start to think that ________.
A. raining fish was a warning of natural disasters
B. animals changed to match their environments
C. the weather system differed from place to place
D. the waterspout theory seemed more possible
【解析】选D。推理判断题。根据第三段最后一句“It was difficult to puzzle out, but the blind fish gave them a place to start. ”可知, “盲鱼”让科学家们开始认为龙卷风理论似乎更有可能。故选D。
3. The author writes the passage to ________.
A. tell us it may rain fish sometimes
B. explain what caused the fishy weather
C. persuade people to protect the environment
D. encourage people to do scientific research
【解析】选B。写作意图题。纵观全文, 特别是第一段中Can you imagine how surprised people were when live fish rained down from a dark gray cloud? 及下文的研究和结论可知, 作者写这篇文章是为了解释为什么会出现这种雨中下活鱼的天气。故选B。
