The locust is perhaps nature's most awesome example of the collective destructive power of a species which, individually, is practically harmless. An adult locust weighs a maximum of two grams—it takes over 225 to outweigh a can of beans. But since each locust can eat its own weight daily, and since a moving swarm may carpet the ground with anywhere from 30 to 60 locusts a square yard, a square mile will typically contain from 100 million to 200 million of the creatures. Seldom, furthermore, will a swarm occupy a mere square mile; swarms more than 400 square miles in area have been recorded, and one that size weighs more than 80,000 tons. It numbers around 40 billion insects eating the weight of the Queen Mary every day it is on the move—and it never stops. Even the two tons of locusts each one million population represents takes a tremendous toll: each day that population eats as much as 20 elephants or 500 people. And their voracity is not only in numbers; pound for pound the locust eats 60 to 100 times as much as a human being.
1.This article is mainly concerned with
A.the harmlessness of individual locusts B.the Queen Mary locust plague
C.the destructive capacity of locusts D.the importance of locusts to man
2.Locusts.......
A.existed only in Bible B.always travels in swarms
C.ate the Queen Mary in one day D.eat as much as twenty elephants
3.Locusts ......
A.can fly over long distance
b.always travels in swam
C.is no larger than a bean
D.can eat its own weight daily
4.The destructive of locusts in swarms results from all of the following except....
A.the large area covered by the swarm
B.the large number of locusts in a swarm
C.their collective voracity
D.the extreme weight of a locust swarm
5.The author uses.......
A.contrast and comparison
B.factual description
C.smile and metaphor
D.biased opinion
