四六级真题 | 2019年12月英语四级阅读真题及答案 第2套 Passage Two

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When we think of animals and plants, we have a pretty good way of dividing them into two distinct groups: one converts sunlight into energy and the other has to eat food to make its energy. Well, those dividing lines come crashing down with the discovery of a sea slug (海蛞蝓) that's truly half animal and half plant. It's pretty incredible how it has managed to hijack the genes of the algae (藻类) on which it feeds.

The slugs can manufacture chlorophyll, the green pigment (色素) in plants that captures energy from sunlight, and hold these genes within their body. The term kleptoplasty is used to describe the practice of using hijacked genes to create nutrients from sunlight. And so far, this green sea slug is the only known animal that can be truly considered solar-powered, although some animals do exhibit some plant-like behaviors. Many scientists have studied the green sea slugs to confirm that they are actually able to create energy from sunlight.

In fact, the slugs use the genetic material so well that they pass it on to their future generations. Their babies retain the ability to produce their own chlorophyll, though they can't generate energy from sunlight until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary genes, which they can't yet produce on their own.

"There's no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal cell," says Sidney Pierce from the University of South Florida. "And yet here, they do. They allow the animal to rely on sunshine for its nutrition. So if something happens to their food source, they have a way of not starving to death until they find more algae to eat."

The sea slugs are so good at gathering energy from the sun that they can live up to nine months without having to eat any food. They get all their nutritional needs met by the genes that they've hijacked from the algae.

单词

中文解释

英文解释

sea slug

海蛞蝓

A type of marine gastropod mollusk

chlorophyll

叶绿素

A green pigment in plants that absorbs light energy

kleptoplasty

偷盗质体

The ability of certain organisms to retain and use photosynthetic organelles from other organisms

solar-powered

太阳能驱动的

Powered by energy from the sun

genetic material

遗传物质

DNA and RNA that are passed down from parents to offspring

alga

藻类

Simple nonflowering aquatic plants with unicellular or multicellular forms

nutrition

营养

The process of providing or obtaining food necessary for health and growth

starvation

饥饿

The condition of suffering or dying from lack of food

词缀

词汇

构词法

同义词

词源

reorganize

前缀 re + 动词

rearrange

Latin: re- again + organize

unexpected

前缀 un- + 形容词

surprising, unforeseen

Old English: un- not + expected

colorful

后缀 -ful

vibrant, bright

Middle English: -ful full of

hopeful

后缀 -ful

optimistic, positive

Middle English: -ful full of

employer

后缀 -er

boss, manager

Anglo-French: em-ploy employer

musician

后缀 -ian

artist, singer

Latin: -ian/-anus belonging to

happiness

后缀 -ness

joy, contentment

Old Norse: -ness state of

kindness

后缀 -ness

compassion, consideration

Middle English: -ness state of

biography

后缀 -graphy

life story, memoir

Greek: -graphia writing

telegraph

后缀 -graph

telegram, wire

Greek: tele- far off + -grapho write

Reading Questions：

51. What is the distinctive feature of a sea slug?

A) It looks like both a plant and an animal.

B) It converts some sea animals into plants.

C) It lives half on animals and half on plants.

D) It gets energy from both food and sunlight.

52. What enables the sea slug to live like a plant?

A) The genes it captures from the sea plant algae.

B) The mechanism by which it conserves energy.

C) The nutrients it hjacks from other species.

D) The green pigment it inberits from its ancestors.

53. What does the author say about baby sea slugs?

A) They can live without sunlight for a long time.

B) They can absorb sunlight right after their birth.

C) They can survive without algac for quite some time.

D) They can produce chlorophyl on their own.

54. What does Sidney Pierce say about genes fom an alga?

A) They are stolen from animals like the sea slug.

B) They can't function unless exposed to sunlight.

C) They don't usually function inside animal cells.

D) They can readily be converted to sca slug gencs.

55. What do we learn about sea slugs from the passage?

A) They behave the way most plant species do.

B) They can survive for months without eating.

C) They will turn into plants when they mature.

D) They will starve to death without sunlight.

滑动查看答案

Answers

51.D，52.A，53.D，54.C，55.B

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