For questions 19-24, you must choose which of the paragraphs A~G on page 33 fit into the numbered gaps in the following newspaper article. There is one extra Paragraph which does not fit in any of the gaps, Indicate your answers on the separate answer sheet. versatile of the world’s seabirds. They can be seen diving anywhere from the Arctie to the tropics. Anglers hate these birds because of their voracious appetite for fish, but scientists, notably biologists Sarah Wanless and David Gremillet, are fascinated by their adaptability. How can a bird whese body does not seem specially adapted to the cold spend the whole year in polar regions such as Greenland, where the air is typically minus 25° \a2 Anow study by Wanloss and Gremillot has recently shed some light on the cormorant’s ability to survive during the Arctic winter But it took a lot of failed experiments bofore they mot with any sucess. They looked first for signs that the bodies and wings of Arctic cormorants had adapted subtly to life in the cold. 20 Next, Wanless and Gremillet tested the hypothesis that Arctic cormorants would obtain extra onergy by eating more than their temperate counterparts. They used electronic nest balances to record the birds’ bodyweight before flying out to fish and then. on their return. Surprisingly, their calculations, showed cormorants ate no more in Greenland than in France. And their food consumption turned out to be no more than that of other, better insulated seabirds, C ormorants are the most widespread and Cormorants Wherever there are fish there are likely to be cormorants. But how does a bird that can live in the tropics also survive in the Arctic? only 40 minutes in Greenland, At last the research had hit upon something interesting. Noxt they needed Lo get figures for the Arctic winter. Wanless and Gremillet found the world’s most northerly cormorant colony 150 km above the Arctic Circle, where strong tidal currents preserve some open. water all year They visited the colony in March, when there was enough light to study the birds, but temperatures were still far below zero. 22 ‘The conclusion is that cormorants survive in the high Aretie not by any physicel adaptation but by finding places where fish are extremely plentiful ~ and feeding so efficiently that they spend very little time exposed to the icy water. Furthermore, Gremillet discovered that their main prey is a little spiny fish called sculpin, which has no commercial valuo. Both these facts are relevant to the debate in many parts of the world between naturalists and fishermen, about the damage that growing cormorant numbers are doing to fish stocks, 23 ‘The research does leave some biological questions unanswered, however. Arctic cormorants may limit their diving to afew minutes, but how do they avoid freezing solid when they emerge from the icy sea into winter air temporatures far below zero? 24 21 ‘These showed that, during the summer, they spend about two hours diving per day in Normandy and How they avoid freezing, with their plumage affected in this way, is indeed a mystery. More cormorant. watching in extremely inhospitable conditions will be required to come up with a convincing answer. T 2, PAPER 1