Oil spills (泄漏) are harmful to ocean life. Lately, after an oil spill in the Australian waters, scientists said that the oil was making the life of the little blue penguins in the south of Australia.
A penguin has shiny feathers (羽毛) that are covered in natural oils. The feathers help them keep out water and keep them warm in the icy waters. Oil from a spill destroys these natural oils and the penguin can't protect itself from the cold. And, as it cleans its feathers using its beak (喙), it is possible to take in the harmful oil and die.
After an oil spill, people have to pull out the penguins from the oil and clean them. Then, one of the most important jobs is to make them healthy and strong again before letting them go back into the wild. But the workers at the Phillip Island National Park found another way.
The workers actually dressed up the penguins in tiny sweaters. These sweaters are very helpful in keeping the penguins warm and preventing them from taking in the harmful oil. Because they can't get enough suitable sweaters, the designs of these special penguin sweaters were put on the Internet. Lots of people from different parts of the world sent sweaters which were made by themselves for these tiny birds.
Of course, if you visit Phillip Island, you are not going to see penguins walking around in sweaters. This clothing is used only when a penguin has just been saved from an oil spill. Once the penguins are cleaned and dressed in the sweaters, they are put in salt-water pools to help them become healthy. As they swim around and become stronger, the salt water gradually takes down the sweaters. By the time, the penguins are ready to return to the ocean, their natural oils are back and they go home dressed only in their feathers.
①Send them back until they're strong enough.
②Dress them in the sweaters.
③Clean them.
④Pull them out from the oil.
⑤Put them in salt-water pools
