熊猫宝宝泰山处女秀

Julie Chen: Washington is getting an early holiday gift this year. These are brand-new picutres of the National Zoo's giant panda cub¹ Tai Shan, who made his public debut² this morning before the media. The general public will get their first chance to see him next week. Lisa Stevens is the panda curator at the zoo.

Julie Chen: Good morning Lisa.

Lisa Stevens: Good morning, Julie.

Julie Chen: Alright. Tai Shan is four and a half months old. Now how is he doing?

Lisa Stevens:He is actually five months old now and he is doing great. He's showing us each day that he is more and more of a little bear cub.

Julie Chen: So, how, can you discribe his day-to-day activities? What does he eat? What does he do?

Lisa Stevens:Right now he is solely³ consuming his mother's milk. Each day is very different for us. Some days he sleeps a lot ur. . a lot more than other days. Some days he gets up really early around four or five in the morning and starts playing, like crazy climbing on his mother, climbing on the rocks , then another morning he sleeps in. So it's really variable.

Julie Chen: So when do we introduce bamboo into his diet?

Lisa Stevens: We've already been giving him bamboo and it's very cute to watch him. He rehearses all the adult moves. He slouches back and, um, holds the bamboo in his paws; he pulls the leaves to his mouth; he chews on them and he chews on the stalk. But he is not swallowing yet ; he is not eating yet. And we expect that milestone⁴ to occur sometime about a month from now.

Julie Chen: OK, so zoo officials are happy with the progress that he is making, right?

Lisa Stevens: He is doing just perfectly⁵. From the data that we have, he is right on target, he actually may be a little bit heavier for his age.

Julie Chen: OK, now when does the public get to see him upclose? And, you know, in person in panda. How do the tickets work?

Lisa Stevens: He is going to make his public debut on December 8th and we have a ticketing system which right now is booked up and basically at this point we are only offering him for two hours a day to the general public and as he adjusts and Meixiang adjusts to the schedule, we will try and expand those hours as soon as we can.

Julie Chen: OK, so right now don't bother getting tickets because they've been sold out.

Lisa Stevens: The tickets are not available right now. Certainly, check our website we have daily updates on Tai Shan and how he is doing. And there would be updates posted as soon as we can on when more tickets are available.

Julie Chen: Now, how long is Tai Shan going to be after National Zoo before he has to go back to China?

Lisa Stevens: Tai Shan, according to the loan agreement returns to China when he is two years old. He is part of a major breeding program to maintain a healthy populaion of this endangered species in the captivity⁶. And so at two years of age, decisions will be made on where he should go to benefit the breeding population.

Julie Chen: Well, he looks beautiful. He is growing nicely,seems like yesterday we will call him a "butter stick". Lisa Stevens, thanks so much.

Lisa Stevens: You are welcome.

1 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

4 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。