阅读理解（31）
A large male emperor penguin waddles(蹒跚行走) slowly across the ice to the water. He dives deep into the cold salt water and then springs back onto the ice. Nearby a female penguin sleeps as her baby rests on the top of her feet. The penguins are enjoying another beautiful day of sunshine and freezing temperatures in the Penguin Encounter, a special home built for them in sunny California.
The Penguin Encounter is located at SeaWorld in San Diego. It was built to help study the emperor penguin,the largest of all penguins. The emperor penguins’ natural home is in the Antarctic, near the South Pole. Increases in Earth’s temperatures could cause large amounts of ice to break up. Scientists feared that this drastic(剧烈的) change in the environment could destroy the emperor penguins’ nesting areas. This would cause the number of emperor penguins to greatly decrease. A new home for them seemed to be the perfect solution.
Scientists wanted to make the Penguin Encounter a comfortable home for the black-and-white feathered birds. A team of scientists was sent to the Antarctic to learn more about the emperor penguins Scientist Frank Todd led the team. Todd is an expert on penguins. He has spent more than 25 years studying them.
Getting close to the emperor penguins in the Antarctic wasn’t difficult for the group of scientists. Sometimes they would waddle close to Todd and his team. The scientists concluded that this behavior could be the result of poor eyesight. Penguins are nearsighted, which allows them to see better in the water than on land. Another possible reason for their behavior was that they had little to fear on the ice. Their enemies, such as leopard seals and killer whales,hunt mainly in the water.
Todd and his team spent many months studying the diet and social habits of the emperor penguins. It was easy to get close to the penguins, but it wasn't easy to study them.
In the Antarctic, the temperature rarely rises above zero degree, which is perfect for penguins, hut not for scientists. Once Todd and his team had finally gathered enough information, they made plans for a new home in California for a number of emperor penguins. Scientists hoped to study the birds in conditions that were more scientist-friendly. When the "new Antarctic" was completed, Todd and his team brought several hundred emperor penguins to California from the Antarctic.
1.Which of the following words can replace the underlined word in the first paragraph?
A.Moves. B.Jumps. C.Holds. D.Flies.
2.Why did scientists need to study penguins in the Antarctic before building the Penguin Encounter?
A.They were afraid that the emperor penguins’ homes would be destroyed.
B.They wanted the Penguin Encounter just to be like the emperor penguins' natural home.
C.They wanted to see how the emperor penguins reacted to the rising temperatures.
D.They knew it would take long to gather enough emperor penguins for the Penguin Encounter.
3.Why do emperor penguins have little to fear on the ice?
A.It is easy to see their enemies on the white ice.
B.Their enemies usually hunt in the water.
C.They can easily escape on the smooth ice.
D.It is too cold for other animals to survive on the ice.
4.The passage mainly emphasizes _______.
A.scientists working as a team in the Antarctic
B.a science team finding a way to stop global wanning
C.how to protect the emperor penguins at Sea World
D.scientists building a special home to learn more about the emperor penguins
