Which sentence uses incorrect parallel structure?
A. Students who participate in sports also learn teamwork, confidence, and they learn to manage their time better.
B. My autumn Saturday work projects usually include raking the leaves, cleaning out the rain gutters, and putting away the garden hoses.
C. In order to achieve academic success, a student needs to study for tests, not have many absences, and complete all assigned readings.
D. Hoping to get in better physical shape, Janet started her workout program by jogging a mile a day, carrying light weights around the house, and eating healthier foods.
A student is writing a research report about the Iditarod Trail and annual dogsled race in northern Alaska. Read the paragraphs from her report and the directions that follow.
Alaska's Iditarod National Historic Trail has a long and rich history of travel and trade routes, including during the Gold Rush of the nineteenth century. Located close to the Arctic Circle, the one-thousand-mile trail system is known for its rugged terrain and harsh winters. But it is primarily known for the internationally famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, commonly referred to as simply the Iditarod. The Iditarod was founded in the 1970s by a few Alaskans determined to commemorate the state's rich history of dogsledding and to honor a famous event: the halt of a serious diphtheria epidemic in 1925, when a crucial medical serum was delivered by dogsled to the Alaskan citizens in need.
`The Iditarod is an epic challenge for man and man's best friend: it's a grueling 1150-mile trek from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Although held in early spring, the conditions are extremely harsh. Each team consists of a human captain (also called a musher) leading a team of more than a dozen sled dogs-mostly Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, or Eskimo Dogs. Together, they brave frigid conditions, including frozen tundra and icy forests. "The Last Great Race on Earth," as it is also called, starts during the first week in March with teams generally reaching home in 10-15 days.
Choose two credible sources that would most likely give the student more information for her paragraphs.
A. "Snow Huskies" Commercial Film This 1998 PG-13 film is a heartwarming tale about a team of ragtag Alaskan Malamutes who save their owner's ranch by winning the nation's premier dogsled race.
B. www.northernparks.com This website has information about all of Alaska's state parks for tourists planning a visit to the country's largest state.
C. www.racetheiditarod.com Our business will provide you with all the information you will need to race in the Iditarod. Let our team of experts help you register your dogs, find local veterinarians, and secure housing and supplies.
D. Balto: Our Hero by C.R. Benson This book, first published in 1957 by children's literature author C.R. Benson, tells the true dramatic tale of Balto, the lead sled dog in a race against time to deliver serum during the 1925 diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska.
E. "The Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race" United States Geographical Society www.usgeog.com/iditarod In celebration of its 100-year history of documenting our planet's uniqueness, our staff ventured to the 49th state to cover the Iditarod. This article chronicles the history of one of the most grueling competitions in the world, nicknamed "The Last Great Race."
F. "MUSH! Alaska's Most Challenging Race" Documentary Film This 2007 six-hour miniseries documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Bernard Kerns, details the history and route of the famous Iditarod.
A student is writing a report for class about her favorite sport. Choose two sentences that are correctly punctuated.
A. Basketball is a fun and exciting sport to play; but it takes hard work and dedication to develop the necessary skills to become a star player.
B. To be a good basketball player, a person must be in good condition; basketball requires a great deal of running up and down the length of the count.
C. Having one really goof player on a basketball team is great; however, basketball is a team sport that requires each person to perform his or her role.
D. Only five players from each team can be on the court at the same time during a basketball game, other sports; such as football and soccer; allow more players to be on the field.
E. A high school basketball game consists of four quarters and two halves separated by halftime; with players usually going to their locker rooms so the coaches can go over plays for the second half.
F. Learning to dribble the ball; using the correct form to shoot the ball; and making sure one makes good passes are all important skills; players must practice these skills a great deal if the team is going to win.
A student is writing an article about safety in high school athletics. Read the draft of the article and complete the task that follows.
Just how safe are high school athletics? Critics would argue that most sports are highly dangerous to those teens who participate in them. Recently football has been the most closely scrutinized. The dangers of the high school gridiron are many: head injuries, knee injuries, and heat exhaustion. It seems as if every year more studies are released implicating the immediate and long-term effects of this highly physical sport. Football, however, is not the only sport that has drawn attention. Any sport that involves contact (basketball, hockey, lacrosse) can leave its players vulnerable to injury. The question then becomes: what is being done to prevent thee injuries?
Steps are being taken to reduce the most serious complications of all sports. One way that these issues are being addressed is through the development of new equipment. Another way is through more stringent rules that govern practices as well as game time situations. Most importantly, educating players, coaches, and parents to the real dangers of athletics has taken a new priority. Through education, regulations, and equipment, high school sports can continue to be a source of entertainment, not danger.
Choose the two sentences that provide the best evidence to support the main idea of the paper.
A. It has been estimated that nearly half of all high school participates in athletics on some level.
B. This school district reports that each high school has a minimum of five varsity sports; this number does not include junior varsity or community leagues.
C. Bob Jones, Southern High's athletic director, added this comment: "We had a very successful season; injuries did not play a measurable role in our record."
D. District wide data indicates that students are injured on school property at a relatively low rate; last year only thirty-three accidents were reported that resulted in student injury.
E. One of the most visible educational campaigns has been launched by the National Football League (NFL); it is entitled "Heads UP" and trains coaches and student athletes on techniques to avoid head injuries.
F. In a 2010 study, American University found that close to 80 percent of high school athletes had reported injuries during their athletic careers; approximately 25 percent of these injuries were considered serious.
A student is writing a persuasive speech for his speech class about the value of fine arts programs in public education, Read the paragraphs from the student's draft and complete the task that follows.
Value of the Arts
Fine arts programs in public education furnish critical thinking. Artists must evaluate their work for form and substance to ensure it accurately represents their vision and make any adjustments that are needed. Musicians must practice their
skills continually and evaluate accuracy of their performance.
Arts programs also encourage goal setting. Both artists and musicians must make a vision of what they want their skills to be, and work to achieve that vision. They must constantly evaluate their abilities and decide what they must do to reach
their goals. Goal setting is a skill that will be valuable to them not only in the arts, but also in other areas of life.
What are more concrete or specific words to replace the two underlined words? (Choose two.)
A. promote
B. provide
C. supply
D. establish
E. implement
F. start
A student is writing an editorial for the school newspaper about volunteering in the community. Read the excerpt from a draft of the editorial and complete the task that follows.
The Value of Volunteering
There are many positive aspects to volunteering. You gain valuable hands-on experience wherever you are working. If you volunteer in a homework help program at the library, you learn how to teach others. Some students use volunteering as a way to try out a career direction. A student who wants to be a children's doctor can volunteer in the children's wing of a hospital. You can learn leadership skills as a volunteer. If you work in an afterschool program at the local recreation center, you might find yourself leading a group of children in a game of basketball.
Many teens simply do not have the time to fit another activity into a busy schedule that includes schoolwork, sports, clubs, jobs, and a social life. Some students view their extracurricular activities as a way to accomplish the same goals that volunteering does. You can gain leadership skills as the captain of the volleyball team or organizational skills by working on the high school yearbook.
But one thing you gain from volunteering that you cannot get from other activities is the sense that you are making a difference in the world. This is an intangible benefit that is perhaps the most important aspect of volunteer work. One of the main goals in educating our youth is to teach them to become productive members of society. As a way to reach that goal, there is very little to compare with volunteering.
Choose the transition sentence that would improve the links between the first and the second paragraph.
A. The negative aspects of volunteering should not be overstated.
B. Many teens need to be convinced that volunteering should be mandatory.
C. However challenging volunteering may be, it will, in the end, provide many benefits.
D. It is understandable why students feel they can not commit to volunteering in the community.
Read the text and answer the question.
Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food
Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from waters across the Gulf coast.
The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water. But the crab larvae discovery was an ominous sign that crude had already infiltrated the Gulf's vast food web – and
could affect it for years to come.
"It would suggest the oil has reached a position where it can start moving up the food chain instead of just hanging in the water," said Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans.
"Something likely will eat those oiled larvae . . . and then that animal will be eaten by something bigger and so on."
Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, Thomas said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal "megadoses."
Marine biologists routinely gather shellfish for study. Since the spill began, many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast
Research Laboratory.
"In my 42 years of studying crabs I've never seen this," Perry said.
She wouldn't estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil from the spill.
While fish can metabolize dispersant and oil, crabs may accumulate the hydrocarbons, which could harm their ability to reproduce, Perry said in an earlier interview with Science magazine.
She told the magazine there are two encouraging signs for the wild larvae – they are alive when collected and may lose oil droplets when they molt.
Tulane University researchers are investigating whether the splotches also contain toxic chemical dispersants that were spread to break up the oil but have reached no conclusions, biologist Caz Taylor said.
If large numbers of blue crab larvae are tainted, their population is virtually certain to take a hit over the next year and perhaps longer, scientists say. The spawning season occurs between April and October, but the peak months are in July
and August.
How large the die-off would be is unclear, Perry said. An estimated 207 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion triggered the spill, and thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals have been
dumped.
Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they're a "keystone species" that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said.
Richard Condrey, a Louisiana State University oceanographer, said the crabs are "a living repository of information on the health of the environment."
Named for the light-blue tint of their claws, the crabs have thick shells and 10 legs, allowing them to swim and scuttle across bottomlands. As adults, they live in the Gulf's bays and estuaries amid marshes that offer protection and abundant
food, including snails, tiny shellfish, plants and even smaller crabs. In turn, they provide sustenance for a variety of wildlife, from redfish to raccoons and whooping cranes.
Adults could be harmed by direct contact with oil and from eating polluted food. But scientists are particularly worried about the vulnerable larvae.
That's because females don't lay their eggs in sheltered places, but in areas where estuaries meet the open sea. Condrey discovered several years ago that some even deposit offspring on shoals miles offshore in the Gulf.
The larvae grow as they drift with the currents back toward the estuaries for a month or longer. Many are eaten by predators, and only a handful of the 3 million or so eggs from a single female live to adulthood.
But their survival could drop even lower if the larvae run into oil and dispersants.
"Crabs are very abundant. I don't think we're looking at extinction or anything close to it," said Taylor, one of the researchers who discovered the orange spots.
Still, crabs and other estuary-dependent species such as shrimp and red snapper could feel the effects of remnants of the spill for years, Perry said.
"There could be some mortality, but how much is impossible to say at this point," said Vince Guillory, biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Perry, Taylor and Condrey will be among scientists monitoring crabs for negative effects such as population drop-offs and damage to reproductive capabilities and growth rates.
Crabs are big business in the region. In Louisiana alone, some 33 million pounds are harvested annually, generating nearly $300 million in economic activity, Guillory said.
Blue crabs are harvested year-round, but summer and early fall are peak months for harvesting, Guillory said.
Prices for live blue crab generally have gone up, partly because of the Louisiana catch scaling back due to fishing closures, said Steve Hedlund, editor of SeafoodSource.com, a website that covers the global seafood industry.
Fishers who can make a six-figure income off crabs in a good year now are now idled – and worried about the future.
"If they'd let us go out and fish today, we'd probably catch crabs," said Glen Despaux, 37, who sets his traps in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. "But what's going to happen next year, if this water is polluted and it's killing the eggs and the larvae? I
think it's going to be a long-term problem."
Excerpt from "Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food Web" by John Flesher. Copyright © 2010 by The Associated Press. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Press.
Read the sentence from the text.
Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they’re a “keystone species” that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said.
Which statement best describes what the phrase keystone species adds to the meaning of the text?
A. It emphasizes the strength and durability of the blue crabs' outer shells.
B. It emphasizes the mystery and uncertainty of blue crabs' future in the Gulf.
C. It emphasizes the importance of the blue crabs' role in the Gulf's ecosystem.
D. It emphasizes the blue crabs' ability to survive the threats to their environment.
Read the text and answer the question.
Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food
Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from waters across the Gulf coast.
The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water. But the crab larvae discovery was an ominous sign that crude had already infiltrated the Gulf's vast food web – and
could affect it for years to come.
"It would suggest the oil has reached a position where it can start moving up the food chain instead of just hanging in the water," said Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans.
"Something likely will eat those oiled larvae . . . and then that animal will be eaten by something bigger and so on."
Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, Thomas said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal "megadoses."
Marine biologists routinely gather shellfish for study. Since the spill began, many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast
Research Laboratory.
"In my 42 years of studying crabs I've never seen this," Perry said.
She wouldn't estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil from the spill.
While fish can metabolize dispersant and oil, crabs may accumulate the hydrocarbons, which could harm their ability to reproduce, Perry said in an earlier interview with Science magazine.
She told the magazine there are two encouraging signs for the wild larvae – they are alive when collected and may lose oil droplets when they molt.
Tulane University researchers are investigating whether the splotches also contain toxic chemical dispersants that were spread to break up the oil but have reached no conclusions, biologist Caz Taylor said.
If large numbers of blue crab larvae are tainted, their population is virtually certain to take a hit over the next year and perhaps longer, scientists say. The spawning season occurs between April and October, but the peak months are in July
and August.
How large the die-off would be is unclear, Perry said. An estimated 207 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion triggered the spill, and thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals have been
dumped.
Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they're a "keystone species" that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said.
Richard Condrey, a Louisiana State University oceanographer, said the crabs are "a living repository of information on the health of the environment."
Named for the light-blue tint of their claws, the crabs have thick shells and 10 legs, allowing them to swim and scuttle across bottomlands. As adults, they live in the Gulf's bays and estuaries amid marshes that offer protection and abundant
food, including snails, tiny shellfish, plants and even smaller crabs. In turn, they provide sustenance for a variety of wildlife, from redfish to raccoons and whooping cranes.
Adults could be harmed by direct contact with oil and from eating polluted food. But scientists are particularly worried about the vulnerable larvae.
That's because females don't lay their eggs in sheltered places, but in areas where estuaries meet the open sea. Condrey discovered several years ago that some even deposit offspring on shoals miles offshore in the Gulf.
The larvae grow as they drift with the currents back toward the estuaries for a month or longer. Many are eaten by predators and only a handful of the 3 million or so eggs from a single female live to adulthood.
But their survival could drop even lower if the larvae run into oil and dispersants.
"Crabs are very abundant. I don't think we're looking at extinction or anything close to it," said Taylor, one of the researchers who discovered the orange spots.
Still, crabs and other estuary-dependent species such as shrimp and red snapper could feel the effects of remnants of the spill for years, Perry said.
"There could be some mortality, but how much is impossible to say at this point," said Vince Guillory, biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Perry, Taylor and Condrey will be among scientists monitoring crabs for negative effects such as population drop-offs and damage to reproductive capabilities and growth rates.
Crabs are big business in the region. In Louisiana alone, some 33 million pounds are harvested annually, generating nearly $300 million in economic activity, Guillory said.
Blue crabs are harvested year-round, but summer and early fall are peak months for harvesting, Guillory said.
Prices for live blue crab generally have gone up, partly because of the Louisiana catch scaling back due to fishing closures, said Steve Hedlund, editor of SeafoodSource.com, a website that covers the global seafood industry.
Fishers who can make a six-figure income off crabs in a good year now are now idled – and worried about the future.
"If they'd let us go out and fish today, we'd probably catch crabs," said Glen Despaux, 37, who sets his traps in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. "But what's going to happen next year, if this water is polluted and it's killing the eggs and the larvae? I
think it's going to be a long-term problem."
Excerpt from "Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food Web" by John Flesher. Copyright © 2010 by The Associated Press. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Press.
How does the last paragraph affect the presentation of information? (Choose three.)
A. It illustrates the possible economic effects of the Gulf oil spill.
B. It makes the report more personal by showing its effects on one individual.
C. It provides a contrasting point of view to those expressed earlier in the text.
D. It reinforces the idea that the oil contamination in the Gulf will have long-lasting effects.
E. It summarizes the main types of damage scientists have identified in the Gulf ecosystem.
F. It provides predictions about the length of time scientists expect the effects of the oil spill to last.
Read the text and answer the question.
Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food
Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from waters across the Gulf coast.
The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water. But the crab larvae discovery was an ominous sign that crude had already infiltrated the Gulf's vast food web – and
could affect it for years to come.
"It would suggest the oil has reached a position where it can start moving up the food chain instead of just hanging in the water," said Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans.
"Something likely will eat those oiled larvae . . . and then that animal will be eaten by something bigger and so on."
Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, Thomas said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal "megadoses."
Marine biologists routinely gather shellfish for study. Since the spill began, many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast
Research Laboratory.
"In my 42 years of studying crabs I've never seen this," Perry said.
She wouldn't estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil from the spill.
While fish can metabolize dispersant and oil, crabs may accumulate the hydrocarbons, which could harm their ability to reproduce, Perry said in an earlier interview with Science magazine.
She told the magazine there are two encouraging signs for the wild larvae – they are alive when collected and may lose oil droplets when they molt.
Tulane University researchers are investigating whether the splotches also contain toxic chemical dispersants that were spread to break up the oil but have reached no conclusions, biologist Caz Taylor said.
If large numbers of blue crab larvae are tainted, their population is virtually certain to take a hit over the next year and perhaps longer, scientists say. The spawning season occurs between April and October, but the peak months are in July
and August.
How large the die-off would be is unclear, Perry said. An estimated 207 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion triggered the spill, and thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals have been
dumped.
Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they're a "keystone species" that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said.
Richard Condrey, a Louisiana State University oceanographer, said the crabs are "a living repository of information on the health of the environment."
Named for the light-blue tint of their claws, the crabs have thick shells and 10 legs, allowing them to swim and scuttle across bottomlands. As adults, they live in the Gulf's bays and estuaries amid marshes that offer protection and abundant
food, including snails, tiny shellfish, plants and even smaller crabs. In turn, they provide sustenance for a variety of wildlife, from redfish to raccoons and whooping cranes.
Adults could be harmed by direct contact with oil and from eating polluted food. But scientists are particularly worried about the vulnerable larvae.
That's because females don't lay their eggs in sheltered places, but in areas where estuaries meet the open sea. Condrey discovered several years ago that some even deposit offspring on shoals miles offshore in the Gulf.
The larvae grow as they drift with the currents back toward the estuaries for a month or longer. Many are eaten by predators, and only a handful of the 3 million or so eggs from a single female live to adulthood.
But their survival could drop even lower if the larvae run into oil and dispersants.
"Crabs are very abundant. I don't think we're looking at extinction or anything close to it," said Taylor, one of the researchers who discovered the orange spots.
Still, crabs and other estuary-dependent species such as shrimp and red snapper could feel the effects of remnants of the spill for years, Perry said.
"There could be some mortality, but how much is impossible to say at this point," said Vince Guillory, biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Perry, Taylor and Condrey will be among scientists monitoring crabs for negative effects such as population drop-offs and damage to reproductive capabilities and growth rates.
Crabs are big business in the region. In Louisiana alone, some 33 million pounds are harvested annually, generating nearly $300 million in economic activity, Guillory said.
Blue crabs are harvested year-round, but summer and early fall are peak months for harvesting, Guillory said.
Prices for live blue crab generally have gone up, partly because of the Louisiana catch scaling back due to fishing closures, said Steve Hedlund, editor of SeafoodSource.com, a website that covers the global seafood industry.
Fishers who can make a six-figure income off crabs in a good year now are now idled – and worried about the future.
"If they'd let us go out and fish today, we'd probably catch crabs," said Glen Despaux, 37, who sets his traps in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. "But what's going to happen next year, if this water is polluted and it's killing the eggs and the larvae? I
think it's going to be a long-term problem."
Excerpt from "Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food Web" by John Flesher. Copyright © 2010 by The Associated Press. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Press.
What does the conflicting information about the effects of oil on blue crab larvae reveal abot the author's point of view?
A. It reinforces the author's belief that scientists do not yet know how the oil will affect the blue crab population.
B. It suggests that the author disagrees with scientists who predict long-term damage to the blue crab population.
C. It reinforces the author's feeling that scientists may never know the true effects of oil on the blue crab population.
D. It suggests that the author feels scientists have not devoted enough attention to the effects of oil on blue crab larvae.
Read the text and answer the question.
Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food
Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from waters across the Gulf coast.
The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water. But the crab larvae discovery was an ominous sign that crude had already infiltrated the Gulf's vast food web – and
could affect it for years to come.
"It would suggest the oil has reached a position where it can start moving up the food chain instead of just hanging in the water," said Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans.
"Something likely will eat those oiled larvae . . . and then that animal will be eaten by something bigger and so on."
Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, Thomas said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal "megadoses."
Marine biologists routinely gather shellfish for study. Since the spill began, many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast
Research Laboratory.
"In my 42 years of studying crabs I've never seen this," Perry said.
She wouldn't estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil from the spill.
While fish can metabolize dispersant and oil, crabs may accumulate the hydrocarbons, which could harm their ability to reproduce, Perry said in an earlier interview with Science magazine.
She told the magazine there are two encouraging signs for the wild larvae – they are alive when collected and may lose oil droplets when they molt.
Tulane University researchers are investigating whether the splotches also contain toxic chemical dispersants that were spread to break up the oil but have reached no conclusions, biologist Caz Taylor said.
If large numbers of blue crab larvae are tainted, their population is virtually certain to take a hit over the next year and perhaps longer, scientists say. The spawning season occurs between April and October, but the peak months are in July
and August.
How large the die-off would be is unclear, Perry said. An estimated 207 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion triggered the spill, and thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals have been
dumped.
Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they're a "keystone species" that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said.
Richard Condrey, a Louisiana State University oceanographer, said the crabs are "a living repository of information on the health of the environment."
Named for the light-blue tint of their claws, the crabs have thick shells and 10 legs, allowing them to swim and scuttle across bottomlands. As adults, they live in the Gulf's bays and estuaries amid marshes that offer protection and abundant
food, including snails, tiny shellfish, plants and even smaller crabs. In turn, they provide sustenance for a variety of wildlife, from redfish to raccoons and whooping cranes.
Adults could be harmed by direct contact with oil and from eating polluted food. But scientists are particularly worried about the vulnerable larvae.
That's because females don't lay their eggs in sheltered places, but in areas where estuaries meet the open sea. Condrey discovered several years ago that some even deposit offspring on shoals miles offshore in the Gulf.
The larvae grow as they drift with the currents back toward the estuaries for a month or longer. Many are eaten by predators and only a handful of the 3 million or so eggs from a single female live to adulthood.
But their survival could drop even lower if the larvae run into oil and dispersants.
"Crabs are very abundant. I don't think we're looking at extinction or anything close to it," said Taylor, one of the researchers who discovered the orange spots.
Still, crabs and other estuary-dependent species such as shrimp and red snapper could feel the effects of remnants of the spill for years, Perry said.
"There could be some mortality, but how much is impossible to say at this point," said Vince Guillory, biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Perry, Taylor and Condrey will be among scientists monitoring crabs for negative effects such as population drop-offs and damage to reproductive capabilities and growth rates.
Crabs are big business in the region. In Louisiana alone, some 33 million pounds are harvested annually, generating nearly $300 million in economic activity, Guillory said.
Blue crabs are harvested year-round, but summer and early fall are peak months for harvesting, Guillory said.
Prices for live blue crab generally have gone up, partly because of the Louisiana catch scaling back due to fishing closures, said Steve Hedlund, editor of SeafoodSource.com, a website that covers the global seafood industry.
Fishers who can make a six-figure income off crabs in a good year now are now idled – and worried about the future.
"If they'd let us go out and fish today, we'd probably catch crabs," said Glen Despaux, 37, who sets his traps in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. "But what's going to happen next year, if this water is polluted and it's killing the eggs and the larvae? I
think it's going to be a long-term problem."
Excerpt from "Blue Crabs Provide Evidence of Oil Tainting Gulf Food Web" by John Flesher. Copyright © 2010 by The Associated Press. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Press.
Read the sentence from the text.
The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water.
What does the use of the word dissipated suggest? (Choose two.)
A. Some of the spilled oil has left the Gulf waters.
B. Some of the spilled oil has been made non-toxic.
C. Some of the spilled oil has intensified in strength.
D. Some of the spilled oil has separated into smaller parts.
E. Some of the spilled oil has been consumed by ocean organisms.
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