英国新闻听力 中国工地发现恐龙大规模灭绝前的化石

A recently discovered fossil has given scientists an insight into creatures that flourished just before the mass extinction¹ of the dinosaurs³. The bird like animal was discovered on a Chinese building site. Dr. Steven is from the University of Edinburgh.

This is one of the last surviving dinosaurs of all, the last few million years of dinosaurs. And it’s part of this group that was flourishing during this time. They were the last group of dinosaurs that went through a big wave of diversification⁴.

I heard more from our science correspondent Victoria Gill.

It has a lovely story in terms of how it was found actually. It’s called ”muddy dragon on the roads to heaven”. And that’s apparently⁵ because it was mired⁶ in the mud when it was stuck 72 million years ago. And it died there, very sadly for the dinosaur², but that means that when that mud turned to rock, it was preserved. But when it was found which was actually on a construction site by a construction team who were building a high school, they were dynamiting⁷ at the time that they noticed the fossil but apparently, spotted⁸ it just before they blew it into oblivion. So luckily for science it was discovered rather than blasted away.

Yeah, and following that discovery, what has it told us?

So it’s an oviraptorosaur and which is a bird like dinosaur right from the end of the age of dinosaurs. And what’s interesting about this is that these very strange looking, beaked⁹, crest¹⁰ headed, strange feathered dinosaurs were very close relatives of modern birds. So this is basically a snapshot of what dinosaurs looked like before that evolutionary¹¹ trajectory¹² started. It’s right the end of the age of dinosaurs. It’s these weird¹³ winged creatures that used to be very mysterious but with these fossil beds in southern China that have been excavated¹⁴ now and with finds in North America as well, we are finding out more and more about what they looked like, how they would have lived and what the world would have looked like at that time right at the end of the cretaceous period.

And briefly¹⁵ do we know why they evolved there?

We know that there was a big diversification done in dinosaurs and these were mysterious beasts that seemed to have started off on that journey. But we don’t really know why at that particular point they evolved except that they were eating very different things from their relatives. They had a very omnivorous¹⁶ diet and were eating small creatures and insects as well, so much more of a bird diet. So building up a picture that will tell us much more about what that world would have looked like and how that evolutionary journey started.

Victoria Gill.

The singer Kate Bush has revealed she was terrified returning to the stage for her sellout comeback in 2014 more than three decades after she’d last perform live. In her first broadcast interview for five years, the reclusive star also said she hadn’t written any new songs for ages.

一具最新出土的化石让科学家们更加深入地了解了恐龙大规模灭绝前兴盛的物种。这种类鸟动物发掘于中国某一建筑工地。爱丁堡大学的史蒂芬博士对此有话说。

这是所有恐龙中生存到最后的一批中的一个，是最后几百万年里的恐龙之一。它是当时这个兴盛群体中的一员。他们是最后一批经历进化浪潮的恐龙。

本台科学记者维多利亚·吉尔详细报道。

说到人们怎么发现它，背后有一个有趣的故事。它叫“通天路泥龙”，显然是因为它7200万年前陷入泥中无法脱身，最后死在那里，对恐龙来说是个很悲伤的故事，但这意味着泥化为岩石后，恐龙被保存了下来。它是在一个建筑工地上被盖中学的建筑队发现的，当时他们正在进行爆破，然后看到了化石，显然他们发现了它，才不至于使其灰飞烟灭。所以对科学来说是幸运的，因为它被发现而未被炸掉。

是的，接着这个发现说，它告诉了我们什么？

它是一种偷蛋龙，是恐龙末期长得像鸟类的恐龙。有意思的是这些长相怪异、有喙、头上有冠、长羽毛的奇怪恐龙与现代鸟类有很近的亲缘关系。所以这基本就是演化轨迹开始前恐龙样貌的写照。这些有翅膀的奇怪生物在过去非常神秘，但现在有了中国南部挖掘出的化石层和北美洲的发现，我们越来越多地了解了他们曾经长什么样子，如何生存以及当时也就是白垩纪的末期世界是什么样。

那我们大致知道恐龙为什么在那个节点进化吗？

我们知道当时恐龙种群中有一次大进化过程，这些神秘兽类似乎已经在当时开启了这个旅程。但我们不太清楚它们为何在那个特殊节点进化，只知道它们和同类吃非常不同的食物。它们无所不吃，还吃小动物和昆虫等，所以更像是鸟类的饮食习惯。因此，勾勒一幅图景能更多地告诉我们当时世界的面貌以及恐龙进化之旅如何开启。

维多利亚·吉尔报道。

歌手凯特·布希披露自己在2014年进行卖座的回归演出时害怕重返舞台，这距她上次现场演出相隔了30多年。在她第一次五年广播采访中，这位隐匿的明星还称自己多年未写过歌了。

1 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。

2 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。

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 diversification   

n.变化，多样化；多种经营

参考例句：

• The seminar was to discuss diversification of agriculture. 该研讨会讨论的是农业多种经营。 来自辞典例句
• Firm diversification is increasingly achieved by the means of takeover and merger. 通过接管和兼并，厂商经营范围日益多样化。 来自辞典例句

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 dynamiting   

v.（尤指用于采矿的）甘油炸药( dynamite的现在分词 )；会引起轰动的人[事物]；增重

参考例句：

• Somebody wildly suggested dynamiting it. 有人竟然轻率地主张炸开它。 来自辞典例句
• Hidden boulders have been removed by dynamiting. 暗礁都用炸药炸掉了。 来自辞典例句

8 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

9 beaked   

adj.有喙的，鸟嘴状的

参考例句：

• A Fox invited a long-beaked Stork to have dinner with him. 狐狸请长嘴鹳同他一起吃饭。 来自互联网
• Most of the other fossils come from rhynchosaurs (parrot-beaked reptiles). 其他大部分化石来自剪嘴龙（嘴像鹦鹉的爬行动物）。 来自互联网

10 crest   

n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖

参考例句：

• The rooster bristled his crest.公鸡竖起了鸡冠。
• He reached the crest of the hill before dawn.他于黎明前到达山顶。

11 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

12 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

13 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

14 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

16 omnivorous   

adj.杂食的

参考例句：

• Brown bears are omnivorous,eating anything that they can get their paws on.棕熊是杂食性动物，抓到什么吃什么。
• Man is an omnivorous animal.人是肉类与蔬菜均食用的动物。