The pollution of the earth’s soil and water has become an issue of great concern. Until recently, most of that     1     has focused on the land     2     of the planet, where pollution directly affects people in their daily lives. Now, however, we have begun to realize that marine (海洋的) pollution is     3     important. According to S.A. Patin, marine pollution is the condition that results when people introduce into the seas substances harmful to life, health, resources, activities, or     4    .

Marine pollution is far from new. For over a million years, people have thought of the sea as a     5     place to throw their garbage. And it is true that the sea has a great capacity for absorbing organic wastes. Some of these wastes are eaten directly by the larger fishes. Others quickly     6     into a kind of organic soup that provides food to     7     species of single-celled plant and animal life.

As civilizations grew, more different pollutants were dumped into the seas. Still, this pollution did not really threaten the marine environment. The seas seemed     8     of coping with anything that people could throw at them. This situation changed, however, when suddenly factories began dumping enormous quantities of materials into the seas. Especially in some coastal areas near large cities, ocean pollution began to     9     marine life. For the first time, the oceans began to fail in their ability to     10     humanity’s waste.