独角鲸：海洋里的科考小帮手
Scientists studying the sea in East Greenland have found some unusual helpers: narwhals (独角鲸). These small whales swim deep into places where research ships cannot go. For many years the deep waters off East Greenland were a blind spot on the map of the ocean, because thick sea ice often forced ships to turn back.
Six narwhals changed that. Researchers caught them near Scoresby Sound, a huge area of deep water on the east coast, and fixed small sensors on their backs. The sensors recorded how cold and how salty the water was, and how deep the animals dived. The whales then swam as usual. The sensors stayed on for 85 to 332 days. Between 2017 and 2020 they collected 2,060 records, some from more than 1,500 metres down.
The results were surprising. Three hundred kilometres from the coast, the narwhals swam through water from the Atlantic Ocean. It was much warmer and saltier than the polar water around it. Near the glaciers, the team found that this warm layer has grown thicker, while the cold layer above it has become thinner.
This matters because the warm water melts glaciers from below. When the ice disappears faster, more fresh water runs into the sea, and that can change ocean currents and the weather far from the Arctic. The team put the new records together with older ones from 1960 to 2021. They found that the sea here has warmed by about 0.05 degree Celsius a year. Records like these can help scientists make better climate models.
The team says the new records give them a much more complete picture of the ocean. They hope to work with the animals again, and to improve the models that tell us how much ice Greenland will lose in the future.
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1.1. What does the underlined phrase “blind spot” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A A place with no light.
B An area hardly ever studied.
C A place that ships often visit.
D A part of the sea with no ice.
解析：选B。B 词义猜测题。线索就在本句的because分句：“because thick sea ice often forced ships to turn back”——厚冰常逼得科考船折返，说明这一带几乎没人测过，所以在海洋地图上是“空白/盲区”。A、D都按blind、ice的字面义误导；C与turn back相反。故选B。
2.2. In which order did the researchers do the following? ① They fixed sensors on six narwhals. ② The narwhals swam through the deep water. ③ The narwhals were caught near Scoresby Sound. ④ The new records were compared with older data.
A ①②③④
B ①③②④
C ③①②④
D ③②①④
解析：选C。C 细节理解题。第二段按“抓鲸→装传感器→照常游动”推进：“Researchers caught them near Scoresby Sound… and fixed small sensors on their backs”（先③后①），“The whales then swam as usual”（②）；与旧数据对比在第四段“The team put the new records together with older ones…”（④）。故选C。
3.3. What did the narwhals show about the water near the glaciers?
A The cold layer is growing thicker.
B The seawater is becoming less salty.
C The glaciers are growing larger.
D The warm layer is growing thicker.
解析：选D。D 细节理解题。第三段写明“this warm layer has grown thicker, while the cold layer above it has become thinner”，D 与之一致。A把两层说反；B说海水变得更淡，但文中说大西洋水比周围极地水更咸，且未支持“变淡”之说；C与第四段“the warm water melts glaciers”矛盾。故选D。
4.4. What can we learn from Paragraph 4?
A The melting ice may affect far places.
B The sea there is no longer changing.
C Fresh water can change sea life.
D Greenland will soon lose all its ice.
解析：选A。A 推理判断题。第四段的“When the ice disappears faster, more fresh water runs into the sea, and that can change ocean currents and the weather far from the Arctic.”说明“当冰层融化速度加快时，更多的淡水流入海洋，这可能改变远离北极地区的洋流和天气”，A项“融化的冰可能影响遥远的地方”与此对应。B说那里不再变化，与文中“海水每年约升温0.05摄氏度”的记录不符；C把“改变洋流和天气”偷换成“改变海洋生物”；D的soon／all太绝对，文中只说“消失得更快”，没说会全部失去。故选A。
5.5. What is the best title for the passage?
A Why Sea Ice Is Disappearing.
B A Day in a Narwhal’s Life.
C Saving Narwhals from Pollution.
D How Narwhals Map the Sea.
解析：选D。D 主旨大意题。全文的主线是“传统科考船进不去的海域，由独角鲸带着传感器替科学家测绘，从而发现暖水层的变化，并改进气候模型”，D“How Narwhals Map the Sea”同时含“独角鲸”和“测量海洋”两个主线要素。A只覆盖第四段提到的海冰消失，且把文章读成“解释冰为什么消失”；B把全篇写成一天的观察记录；C的“污染”全篇没提。故选D。