Plastic is everywhere. According to the United Nations, about 2,000 garbage trucks of plastic waste go into waterways such as oceans, rivers, and lakes each day. Now plastic was found on the backs of hermit crabs (寄居蟹). According to a recent study, hermit crabs are using plastic garbage as shells (壳).
Zuzanna Jagiello is a biologist at the University of Warsaw, in Poland. She thinks that the hermit crabs don’t have homes, so they use rubbish. Human activity has had a great influence on the environment. One example of that influence is hermit crabs using plastic waste as shells.
But according to a recent study, at least 386 hermit crabs have been recorded wearing garbage. Of the world’s 16 kinds of hermit crabs that live on land, 10 have been seen wearing garbage. Nearly 9 out of every 10 of those crabs were wearing plastic waste, such as bottle caps. The others wore glass, such as broken light bulbs (灯泡).
Jagiello says that she and her team first learned about hermit crabs wearing garbage when they noticed photos of them online. They decided to learn more by doing research. For their study, the researchers searched the Internet for photos of hermit crabs wearing garbage. They found photos from all over the world. Scientists agree that plastic pollution harms wildlife and habitats (栖息地) in many ways. But so far, it isn’t clear that the crabs are in great danger.
【小题1】Where was plastic garbage found now?| A．In hermit crabs’ mouths. | B．On hermit crabs’ backs. | C．Under hermit crabs’ feet. |
| A．A biologist. | B．A writer. | C．A reporter. |
| A．Hermit crabs are in great danger. |
| B．Most hermit crabs are wearing garbage. |
| C．Hermit crabs like to wear different kinds of garbage. |
| A．Plastic pollution is harmful to them. |
| B．Human activities are helping them find homes. |
| C．Scientists learned more about their wearing garbage by taking photos. |
