英语听力：Wild China 美丽中国：彩云之南-10

 Bamboo's tough reputation is such that another bamboo specialist was known by the Chinese as the "iron-eating animal". The giant panda is famous for its exclusive diet. Giant pandas are thought to have originated in Southwest China millions of years ago, but they are no longer found in Yunnan. Recently their specialized¹ diet has had dire² consequences. Bamboo has a bizarre lifecycle, flowering infrequently, sometimes only once every hundred years or so. But when flowering does occur, it's on a massive scale, and it's followed by the death of all of the plants. Sometimes an entire bamboo forest may die.

 

In undisturbed habitat, pandas simply move to another area where a different bamboo species grows. But as human activity has fragmented their forest home, pandas find it increasingly hard to find large enough areas in which to survive. Wild pandas are now found only in the forests of Central China, far to the east. But in the hidden pockets of lowland jungle in Yunnan's tropical south live one of China's best-kept wildlife secrets--the wild Asian elephant.

 

Elephants once roamed across China as far north as Beijing, but it's only in the hidden valleys of Yunnan that they have survived. Elephants are the architects of the forest. Bamboos and grasses are their favorite food, but saplings, tree leaves and twisted lianas are all taken with little care. As they move through the forest, the elephants open up clearings, bringing light to the forest floor. This has a major impact on their home.

1 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

2 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。