An Unusual Experience at SeaIt was early one morning in February 1972 when Mayoral and his

An Unusual Experience at Sea

It was early one morning in February 1972 when Mayoral and his partner Santos Luis Perez set out to fish in Laguna San lgnacio. Hundreds of gray whales were swimming in the three-mile-long, one-mile-wide inlet. This was usual between December and April, for the whales breed in the protected inlets of Baja, the final destination of their annual 6,000-mile migration from the Arctic. Mayoral and Perez stayed as for as possible from the spouting (喷涌) creatures, because the whales were said to smash boats with their powerful flukes (鲸尾的叶). Mayoral, who had 16 years' experience at sea, knew no one who had been close to a healthy gray whale and lived.

As Mayoral rowed to catch the outgoing (退出去的) tide, he saw, straight ahead, a whale approaching. Heart pounding, the 31-year-old turned the little wooden boat and pulled hard for shore. Try as he might, however, he could not row over the huge beast. In moments, it overtook them. Expecting the worst, the fishermen dropped to their knees and made the sign of the cross. The whale raised its nine-foot head out of the water and looked at them. Then, remarkably, it began to rub gently against the boat.

Sinking and resurfacing(重新露出水面) on opposite sides of the boat, the whale continued its gentle rubbing for almost an hour. At first the men prayed, frozen in fear. But gradually Mayoral 's terror gave way to curiosity. He was tempted to reach out and touch this oddly unthreatening monster, but a lifetime of caution kept him still.

At last, having finished with whatever its purpose had been, the whale disappeared below the surface. Some time passed before either man spoke. Then they headed home. To his wife, Mayoral said only, "No fish today."

But word spread through the cluster of small wooden houses near the salt-water lake. A strange thing had happened: one of the whales had tried to touch the men, and the men had returned unharmed. Why？

In nights to come, by faint kerosene lamps, Mayoral and Perez told the story. They and other fishermen struggled to understand. What did the whale want？

We know from the passage that the whales traveled 6,000 miles from the Arctic to the inlets of Baja ______.

A．just to have a change in environment

B．to give birth to baby whales in winter

C．to escape from the cold water for a while

D．to find a warm place to settle down