英语听力：探索发现 2013-01-06 冰河新新州 Ice Age Oasis—11
时间：2018-12-27 作者：英语课 分类：探索与发现2013年
英语课
It's likely giant ground sloths 1 used their claws in a similiar way to hook branches and pull them within reach. Like tree sloths, they were vegetarians 2 and probably not fussy 3 about what they ate, chewing their way through leaves, fruits, twigs 4 and all. The big difference between the two is their size. Giant ground sloths were 500 times bigger than their modern relatives. And standing 5 up right on their back legs, they towered as tall as a giraffe.
So far we have pieced together something of the people who first explored the southeast of the continent and the wildlife they must have encountered and hunted. But what about the climate and the landscape they all lived in?
Florida is tropical today, but how warm was it 13,000 years ago? This is Little Salt Spring in central Florida, the source of one of the most unlikely clues to the climate of the past. Brought up from a ledge 6 more than 20 metres below the surface was the fossilized shell of a tortoise, a giant tortoise, much like this one. Giant tortoises are now only found basking 7 in the heat of a few islands along the equator.
1 sloths
懒散( sloth的名词复数 )； 懒惰； 树獭； （经济）停滞。
- Mummies of pleistocene ground sloths, with original skin, hair, tendons and claws have been found. 还发现了保存原有皮肤，毛发，腱和爪的更新世时期地面树懒的木乃伊。
- He was inspired by fossils of armadillos and sloths. 犰狳和树懒化石让他获得了灵感。
2 vegetarians
n.吃素的人( vegetarian的名词复数 )；素食者；素食主义者；食草动物
- Vegetarians are no longer dismissed as cranks. 素食者不再被视为有怪癖的人。
- Vegetarians believe that eating meat is bad karma. 素食者认为吃肉食是造恶业。
3 fussy
adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的
- He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
- The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。
4 twigs
细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )
- Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
- Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。
5 standing
n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的
- After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
- They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。