熄燈，幫助海龜寶寶回家

Baby sea turtles （海龜） are born on land， then they have to get to the ocean—fast！ They are born at night when it is dark outside， so how do they find the water？ The ocean has some natural light， and turtles follow that light. But lights from houses near the beach can make the turtles go towards the wrong direction. They may crawl1 around for a long time before they find the ocean.

Scientists wanted to know if all the crawling made the turtles tired. They watched baby turtles walk on small treadmills （跑步機）， and then they put the turtles in water. The extra2 crawling did not make them too tired to swim！ But more time on the beach means the baby turtles might be eaten by animals waiting for a quick meal. People can help sea turtles by turning off the lights near beaches at night.

在海灘上孵化的小海龜們，必須要盡快爬向大海！而夜晚漆黑一片，它們該如何找到回家的路？小海龜會向著大海的自然光源走。但附近的人造光源會令它們迷失方向，更長時間地在海灘游蕩。

科學(xué)家們想知道，迷路會對小海龜造成多大影響。在海灘上長時間爬行，它們會不會疲勞？于是，他們把海龜放在跑步機上，并測試它們在爬行后回歸大海的游泳能力。結(jié)果證明，小海龜并沒有那么疲勞！但它們在海灘上滯留的時間越長，越容易被其他動物吃掉。所以，人們還是應(yīng)該通過關(guān)閉人造光源，來幫助海龜們盡早歸家。