中考真题2024年四川省德阳市阅读理解C篇-韦斯特曼群岛居民独特方式助小海鹦“起飞”

中等

说明文

动物

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了韦斯特曼群岛的人们试图拯救海鹦宝宝的行动。

If you see a girl and a boy throwing two baby puffins (海鹦) off a cliff (悬崖) on the Westman Islands, you may not understand why they’re doing so. In fact, they are just trying to help save them.

如果您看到一个男孩和一个女孩把两只小海鹦从韦斯特曼群岛的悬崖上扔下去，您可能不明白他们为什么要这么做。事实上，它们只是想帮助拯救它们。

Puffins are the most common birds on the Westman Islands in Iceland. Different from most sea birds, they are able to go under water to 60 meters deep to catch fish. Each spring, they lay eggs in holes on cliffs. 40 days later, they will fly back to the sea, leaving the young there. Baby puffins would spend about six weeks in the holes alone before they are ready to fly to the sea.

海雀是冰岛韦斯特曼群岛上最常见的鸟类。与大多数海鸟不同，它们能够潜入水下 60 米深处捕鱼。每年春天，它们在悬崖上的洞里产卵。40 天后，它们会飞回大海，把幼鸟留在那里。小海鹦在准备飞向大海之前，会在洞里独自待上六周。

In the past, young puffins could easily find the sea with the help of the moonlight. But now, bright lights of the city often make them lose their way. Many of them end up flying into the town. However, it’s not an easy thing for young puffins to fly up and find food in the town, so they may lose their lives there.

过去，小海鹦可以借助月光很容易地找到大海。但现在，城市里明亮的灯光常常让它们迷失方向。很多海雀最后都飞进了城里。然而，小海鹦要飞到城里找到食物并不是一件容易的事，因此它们可能会在那里丧命。

That’s why people on the Westman Islands have decided to help those young puffins. In late summer, when young puffins leave their holes, local people often go out to look for the missing puffins at night. If they find one, they would pick it up and put it in a box. The next day, they would take it to the cliff and throw it off. In this way, young puffins can fly safely to their new home for the next few years.

因此，韦斯特曼群岛上的人们决定帮助这些小海鹦。夏末，当小海鹦离开它们的洞穴时，当地人经常在夜间外出寻找失踪的小海鹦。如果他们发现了一只，就会把它捡起来放进一个盒子里。第二天，他们会把它带到悬崖边扔下去。这样，年幼的海雀就能在接下来的几年里安全地飞到新家。