2005年TOEFL考试模拟题(4-2)
READING COMPREHENSION
Questions 1-11
??? With its radiant color and plantlike shape, the sea anemone looks more like a flower than
an animal. More specifically, the sea anemone is formed quite like the flower for which it is
named, with a body like a stem and tentacles like petals in brilliant shades of blue, green,
pink, and red. Its diameter varies from about six millimeters in some species to more than
ninety centimeters in the giant varieties of Australia. Like corals, hydras, and jellyfish, sea
anemones are coelenterates. They can move slowly, but more often they attach the lower
part of their cylindrical bodies to rocks, shells, or wharf pilings. The upper end of the sea
anemone has a mouth surrounded by tentacles that the animal uses to capture its food.
Stinging cells in the tentacles throw out tiny poison threads that paralyze other small sea?
animals. The tentacles then drag this prey into the sea anemone s mouth. The food is?
digested in the large inner body cavity. When disturbed, a sea anemone retracts its tentacles?
and?shortens its body so that it resembles a lump on a rock. Anemones may reproduce by
forming eggs, dividing in half, or developing buds that grow and break off as independent
animals.
1. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?
(A) The varieties of ocean life
(B) The?characteristics of the sea anemone
(C) A comparison of land and sea anemones
(D) The defenses of coelenterates
2. The work "shape" in line 1 is closest in meaning to
(A) length
(B) grace
(C) form
(D) nature