纪录片《恐龙灭绝真相》 第30期 牺牲品

Naturally if you're a plant eating dinosaur¹,

如果你是植食恐龙，

all the plants that you're eating are dying so this of course is the end of you,

当所有你能吃的植物都死了的时候，你自然也会随之消失，

and if you're a meat eating dinosaur preying² on plant eating dinosaurs³ once they're gone, you're gone too.

如果你是以植食恐龙为食的食肉恐龙，它们一旦消失，你也必死无疑。

The end of the dinosaurs now seems much more complicated than it once did.

如今看来，恐龙消失的原因远没有我们曾经以为的那么简单。

It appears they were already dwindling⁴ under pressure from a worsening environment.

很明显，不断恶化的环境减少了它们的数量。

Massive volcanism and falling sea levels might have forced them to extinction⁵, even if the asteroid⁶ had missed.

频繁的火山活动和海平面下降也迫使它们走向灭亡，即使小行星没有碰撞地球。

But there was a massive asteroid impact, either at Chicxulub or was it somewhere else entirely⁷?

难道发生在希克苏鲁伯或其它地方的小行星大碰撞就一点影响也没有吗？

And it does seem likely that this, at the very least finished off the remaining dinosaurs.

我们只能说这些大碰撞足以使剩下的恐龙灭亡。

So it seems they were the victims of a lethal⁸ combination of circumstances.

所以恐龙似乎是众多致命因素的牺牲品。

Clearly dinosaurs were incredibly unlucky, at the end of the Cretaceous to have all three things happen at the same time.

很明显，恐龙在白垩纪晚期遭受了令人难以置信的灾难，3种不幸同时发生在它们身上。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 preying   

v.掠食( prey的现在分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生

参考例句：

• This problem has been preying on my mind all day. 这个问题让我伤了整整一天脑筋。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• For a while he let his eyes idly follow the preying bird. 他自己的眼睛随着寻食的鸟毫无目的地看了一会儿。 来自辞典例句

3 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句

5 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

6 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。