ĐỌC HIỂU CHỌN A, B, C, D
READING 1:
Certainly no creature in the sea is odder than the common sea cucumber. All
living creature, especially human beings, have their peculiarities, but everything about
the little sea cucumber seems unusual. What else can be said about a bizarre animal
that, among other eccentricities, eats mud, feeds almost continuously day and night but
can live without eating for long periods, and can be poisonous but is considered
supremely edible by gourmets?
For some fifty million years, despite all its eccentricities, the sea cucumber has
subsisted on its diet of mud. It is adaptable enough to live attached to rocks by its tube
feet, under rocks in shallow water, or on the surface of mud flats. Common in cool
water on both Atlantic and Pacific shores, it has the ability to suck up mud or sand and
digest whatever nutrients are present.
Sea cucumbers come in a variety of colors, ranging from black to reddish –
brown to sand – color and nearly white. One form even has vivid purple tentacles.
Usually the creatures are cucumber – shaped – hence their name – and because they are
typically rock inhabitants, this shape, combined with flexibility, enables them to
squeeze into crevices where they are safe from predators and ocean currents.
Although they have voracious appetites, eating day and night, sea cucumbers
have the capacity to become quiescent and live at a low metabolic rate-feeding
sparingly or not at all for long periods so that the marine organisms that provide their
food have a chance to multiply. If it were not for this faculty, they would devour all
the food available in a short time and would probably starve themselves out of
existence.
But the most spectacular thing about the sea cucumber is the way it defends itself.
It major enemies are fish and crabs, when attacked; it squirts all its internal organs into
the water. It also casts off attached structures such as tentacles. The sea cucumber will
eviscerate and regenerate itself if it is attacked or even touched; it will do the same if
surrounding water temperature is too high or if the water becomes too polluted.
Question 1: What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. The reason for the sea cucumber’s name
B. What makes the sea cucumber unusual
C. How to identify the sea cucumber