英语听力：自然百科 黄石公园的夏天 Yellowstone—9

 This pack seem prepared to allow their young a brief foray to experience the world beyond their den¹.

But his high-octane lifestyle critically depends on the summer sun. And in Yellowstone, that's never a guarantee. 

 

In the mountains surrounding the plateau, summer has not yet arrived, /at this altitude, it is still bitterly cold. These mountains barricade² Yellowstone in a ring of ice. And if the sun is swallowed by cloud, the cold can drive down from the mountains, bringing with it a punishing echo of winter. It can snow in any month in Yellowstone.

 

The warm nursery meadows of a few days before, are now buried by a June blizzard³.

 

A curtain of snow dulls senses. This mother grizzly⁴ bear must now be especially careful. A male grizzly will often kill cubs⁵ if he finds them. And though she would rather sit out  the storm, she must move. Panicky cubs could easily be lost in the blizzard.

Even in Yellow Stone it is extremely rare to see wolf pups like this.

 

Before long they are summoned back into the forest by the pack. It will be winter before they are regularly seen again.

 

As May turns to June, Yellow Stone sees its nursery season. 

 

By early June, summer is finally here. In the flower meadows, plants turn sunlight into the sugar of nectar, and that's what Yellow Stone's smallest migrating bird has been waiting for. The Calliope Hummingbird⁶ has made the journey all the way from Mexico. He’ll make this flower patch his own. And he’ll fight to defend it. He’ll even take on a far larger Rufous Hummingbird.

1 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

2 barricade   

n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住

参考例句：

• The soldiers make a barricade across the road.士兵在路上设路障。
• It is difficult to break through a steel barricade.冲破钢铁障碍很难。

3 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

4 grizzly   

adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊

参考例句：

• This grizzly liked people.这只灰熊却喜欢人。
• Grizzly bears are not generally social creatures.一般说来，灰熊不是社交型动物。

5 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 hummingbird   

n.蜂鸟

参考例句：

• The hummingbird perches on a twig of the hawthorn.小蜂鸟栖在山楂树枝上。
• The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backward.蜂鸟是唯一能倒退向后飞的鸟。