Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 31 to 35.
What do hurricanes mean for dolphins?
Hurricanes are typically associated with loss of life, loss of property and economic devastation. Hurricane Katrina, which blew through the gulf coast of North America in 2005, brought all those things and more. It also brought lots of baby dolphins. Hurricanes tend to be related to increased strandings of marine mammals, so why might a hurricane be associated with more dolphins, rather than fewer?
Scientist Lance J. Miller reasoned that there were probably several related phenomena that, combined, could explain the apparent increase. Firstly, after a female dolphin loses her calf, she can give birth again much sooner than if her calf had matured to adulthood. “If a large number of calves perished as a result of Hurricane Katrina, this would allow for a greater percentage of females to become reproductively active the following year.” By itself, this didn't seem to adequately explain the increase in dolphin calves. Something else was going on. That something was distinctively human.
When Hurricane Katrina blew through the gulf, the local shrimping, crabbing and fishing industries were ravaged. In Mississippi, according to one estimate, 87% of commercial fishing vessels were damaged or destroyed. This meanta decrease in the amount of seafood brought into shore, of nearly 15%. Despite the common notion that dolphins enjoy playing in the wakes created by boats, there is plenty of evidence that dolphins actually avoid them. Miller deduced that, with a reduction in the number of boats in the water, both commercial and recreational, dolphins may have been able to spend more time eating, and less time travelling or diving in an effort to avoid boats.
(Adapted from https://www.accuweather.com)
The passage is mainly about _____________.
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