Passage Five
Every year gray whales migrate from the Bering Sea in Alaska to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.
Eleven gray whales have died in the San Francisco Bay in the last three weeks. No one knows why the whales are dying.
Last year 270 whales died along the whales’ migration route. Many people think starvation is the cause. This year the dead whales seem to have more blubber (fat) on them.
Twenty years ago, the gray whale was listed as an endangered species.
Some scientists think that the larger number of whales makes it hard to find enough food. More whales create more pressure on the food supply, a supply that some scientists say may have dwindled as a result of the warm waters of E1 Nino.
Most of the whales have been dead for many days before they are found and studied. This makes it hard to find the reason for death.
65 whales have been seen in the San Francisco Bay Area this year compared to 17 last year
A. the whales travel such a long distance
B. there are more whales than there used to be
C. the whale bodies are too old to study by the time they are found
D. the whales are endangered
Every year thousands of people are arrested and taken to court for shop-lifting. In Britain alone, about HK $3,000,000’s worth of goods are stolen from shops every week. This amounts to something like HK $150 million a year, and represents about 4 per cent of the shops’ total stock. As a result of this "shrinkage" as the shops call it, the honest public has to pay higher prices. Shop-lifters can be divided into three main categories: the professionals, the deliberate amateurs, and the people who just can’t help themselves. The professionals do not pose much of a problem for the store detectives, who, assisted by closed circuit television, two-way mirrors and various other technological devices, can usually cope with them. The professionals tend to go for high value goods in parts of the shops where security measures are tightest. And, in any case, they account for only a small percentage of the total losses due to shop-lifting. The same applies to the
A. can possibly steal things because of their poverty.
B. can possibly take away goods without paying.
C. have never stolen goods from the supermarkets.
D. are difficult to be caught when they steal things.
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