英语听力：Wild China 美丽中国：彩云之南-8

 Though incredibly strong, bamboos have hollow stems, a perfect shelter for any creatures which can find a way in. This entrance hole was made by a beetle¹, but it’s being used by a very different animal--a bamboo bat, the size of a bumblebee, it’s one of the tiniest mammals in the world. The entire colony, up to 25 bats, fits into a single section of bamboo stem, smaller than a teacup. It’s quite a squeeze. Half the colony are babies. Though barely a week old, they are already almost as big as their mums. Feeding such a fast-growing brood is hard work. The mums leave to hunt just after dusk each night.

 

Back in the roost, the young are left on their own. Special pads on their wings help them to grip on the bamboo walls most of the time. The young bats use the extra space to prepare for a life on the wing by preening² and stretching. Packed in like sardines³, they would make an easy target for a snake. But the snake has no chance of getting in: the entrance is thinner than the width of a pencil. When the mothers return, they can push through the narrow entrance only because of their unusually flattened⁴ skulls⁵. But it’s still a squeeze.

 

Bamboos are exploited in a very different way by another forest dweller⁶. Fresh bamboo shoots are an important forest crop.

1 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

2 preening   

v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Will you stop preening yourself in front of the mirror? 你别对着镜子打扮个没完行不行？
• She was fading, while he was still preening himself in his elegance and youth. 她已显老，而他却仍然打扮成翩翩佳公子。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

3 sardines   

n. 沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• The young of some kinds of herring are canned as sardines. 有些种类的鲱鱼幼鱼可制成罐头。
• Sardines can be eaten fresh but are often preserved in tins. 沙丁鱼可以吃新鲜的，但常常是装听的。

4 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

5 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

6 dweller   

n.居住者，住客

参考例句：

• Both city and town dweller should pay tax.城镇居民都需要纳税。
• The city dweller never experiences anxieties of this sort.城市居民从未经历过这种担忧。