题目内容：

    Tiny water plants called phytoplankton (浮游植物) serve as food for many sea creatures, including whales, shrimp, jellyfish and snails.

Phytoplankton do well in cold water. But if water temperatures rise by only two degrees Celsius, the phytoplankton struggle. That is what happened in the last three or four years in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Researchers say an unusual area of warm water spread throughout the Northern Pacific. Scientists called the warm water ''the blob'', as if it were a character in an old science fiction movie. At its largest, the blob stretched 1,600 square kilometers and reached depths of 91 meters. This large mass of warm water had a damaging effect on the ocean food chain. Many fish that depend on phytoplankton swam away from the area. As a result, sea birds and sea lions that eat those fish starved.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington have found that the warm ocean ''blob'' caused a harmful algae bloom. That fast growth in algae hurt fishing grounds along the U.S. West Coast and Canada's British Columbia. The researchers recently published their study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. They looked at the algae, called P. australis. They found that the algae can grow much faster than normal if it is exposed to warm water. The higher levels of algae also produced more of a poisonous chemical that can cause problems for everything from shellfish to dolphins to sea lions. It also causes problems for humans if too much of the chemical builds up in their blood.

Researchers say algae blooms like this one will continue as ocean waters warm. The algae will hurt sea animals, birds, and fish. It may damage food resources for humans all over the world, the scientists say.

1.The root cause of the starvation of sea birds or sea lions is_____.

A.the depths of the vase sea

B.the large mass of warm water

C.the large amount of polluted sea water

D.the increasingly reduced phytoplankton in the sea

2.From the text, we can know that P. australis is the name of a(n) _____.

A.phytoplankton B.fish

C.algae D.bird

3.The following statements are true EXCEPT_____.

A.Generally, the algae grow much faster than normal if exposed to cool water.

B.The phytoplankton is very sensitive to the rise of water temperature.

C.More algae can bring about a poisonous chemical which endangers sea creatures.

D.Algae blooms will affect not only the existence of sea creatures but also that of humans the world over.

4.The text is most probably taken from_____.

A.a research paper B.a geography textbook

C.a class presentation D.a newspaper report