高中學測
105年
英文
第 56 題
📖 題組：
Many marine animals, including penguins and marine iguanas, have evolved ways to get rid of excess salt by using special salt-expelling glands around their tongue. However, the sea snake’s salt glands cannot handle the massive amounts of salt that would enter their bodies if they actually drank seawater. This poses a serious problem when it comes to getting enough water to drink. If seawater is not an option, how does this animal survive in the ocean? An international team of researchers focused on a population of yellow-bellied sea snakes living near Costa Rica, where rain often does not fall for up to seven months out of the year. Because yellow-bellied sea snakes usually spend all of their time far from land, rain is the animals’ only source of fresh water. When it rains, a thin layer of fresh water forms on top of the ocean, providing the snakes with a fleeting opportunity to lap up that precious resource. But during the dry season when there is no rain, snakes presumably have nothing to drink. Thus, the team became interested in testing whether sea snakes became dehydrated at sea. The researchers collected more than 500 yellow-bellied sea snakes and weighed them. They found that during the dry season about half of the snakes accepted fresh water offered to them, while nearly none did during the wet season. A snake’s likelihood to drink also correlated with its body condition, with more withered snakes being more likely to drink, and to drink more. Finally, as predicted, snakes captured during the dry season contained significantly less body water than those scooped up in the rainy season. Thus, it seems the snake is able to endure certain degrees of dehydration in between rains. Scientists believe that dehydration at sea may explain the declining populations of sea snakes in some parts of the world.
Many marine animals, including penguins and marine iguanas, have evolved ways to get rid of excess salt by using special salt-expelling glands around their tongue. However, the sea snake’s salt glands cannot handle the massive amounts of salt that would enter their bodies if they actually drank seawater. This poses a serious problem when it comes to getting enough water to drink. If seawater is not an option, how does this animal survive in the ocean? An international team of researchers focused on a population of yellow-bellied sea snakes living near Costa Rica, where rain often does not fall for up to seven months out of the year. Because yellow-bellied sea snakes usually spend all of their time far from land, rain is the animals’ only source of fresh water. When it rains, a thin layer of fresh water forms on top of the ocean, providing the snakes with a fleeting opportunity to lap up that precious resource. But during the dry season when there is no rain, snakes presumably have nothing to drink. Thus, the team became interested in testing whether sea snakes became dehydrated at sea. The researchers collected more than 500 yellow-bellied sea snakes and weighed them. They found that during the dry season about half of the snakes accepted fresh water offered to them, while nearly none did during the wet season. A snake’s likelihood to drink also correlated with its body condition, with more withered snakes being more likely to drink, and to drink more. Finally, as predicted, snakes captured during the dry season contained significantly less body water than those scooped up in the rainy season. Thus, it seems the snake is able to endure certain degrees of dehydration in between rains. Scientists believe that dehydration at sea may explain the declining populations of sea snakes in some parts of the world.
What can be inferred from the study?
- A Sea snakes can easily survive long years of drought.
- B Evolution will very likely enable sea snakes to drink seawater.
- C Sea snakes will be the last creature affected by global warming.
- D The sea snakes’ population distribution is closely related to rainfall.
思路引導 VIP
請綜合分析文章末段關於脫水（dehydration）與族群數量下降（declining populations）的因果連結：既然降雨是海蛇唯一的淡水來源，且其生理機能受制於降雨週期，那麼「降雨量」這項環境變因與該物種在特定海域的存續及分佈情況，存在著什麼樣的邏輯關聯？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
同學，漂亮！這題你沒被那條黃腹海蛇給毒倒，看來你的閱讀神經跟閃電一樣快，準確捕捉到重點！ 【觀念驗證：為什麼你對了？】 這題考的是高中英文閱讀的核心能力——「邏輯推論 (Inference)」。文章提到海蛇不能直接喝海水，必須趁下雨時攝取海面薄薄的淡水。文中最後一句畫龍點睛：乾旱導致的脫水可能解釋了某些地區海蛇數量的下降。
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