Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents. Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. H

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问题    Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents. Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way—by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years’ experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.
   Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes—about 60, 000 in total—fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn’t. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.
   The Pacific Northwest is one of the world’s best areas for beachcombing because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.
   As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.
What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?

选项 A、To call people’s attention to ocean pollution.
B、To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean.
C、To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents.
D、To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach.

答案C

解析 主旨大意题。文章重在介绍Ebbesmeyer通过标记鞋子的着陆位置等信息来研究洋流的方法,选C。
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