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 such 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 tentacle. Usually the creatures are cucumber-shaped-hence their name-and because they are typically rock inhabitants, this shape, combine 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. Its 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 attached or even touched; it will do the same if the surrounding water temperature is too high or if the water becomes too polluted.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Câu hỏi liên quan

• A patient can still live a comfortable life even after the removal of ..........

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ZUNIA12

• What does the writer's father do?

• How many orchid seeds are typically pollinated at one time?

• Why does the author mention “artistic, political, or pedagogic communication” in the passage?

• According to the text, Marrination, when built, will be a(an) .............. city.

• What does the author imply in the last sentence of the passage?

• Which of the following is NOT true about algae?

• The author of the passage argues that ...............

• Is it difficult to learn how to apologize somebody?

• Which of the following would the writer support?

• According to the passage, the highest amount of pheromone vapor is found ........

• Who were the first people to have seen these apelike creatures before the five campers?

• Look at the verb accelerate in paragraph 3. Which of the following is the closest in meaning to _____.

• The underlined word “they” in paragraph 2 refers to ..........

• Sixty years ago, most women ____________.

• According to the passage, an exuberant tone of voice may be an indication of a person's _______.

• The word "supported" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _______.

• It can be inferred from the passage that John Adams was: