人类狩猎活动致使动物种类及数量税减

62 人类狩猎活动致使动物种类及数量税减

DATE=7-5-01
TITLE=SCIENCE REPORT - Ancient Human Hunters
BYLINE=George Grow

(Start at 1'00") This is Bill White with the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT.  
Scientists have long (1) debated what caused many kinds of large animals in North America and Australia to (2) disappear.  Two new studies (3) blame ancient humans for the disappearance¹.  They say human hunters on both (4) continents may have killed the animals for food.  Science magazine reported the findings. 
Thirteen-thousand years ago, North America was home to many large (5) mammals.  They included (6) woolly (7) mammoths, several kinds of horses, camels and (8) oxen.  However, these and many other animals died out soon after.  More than seventy percent of the continent's large mammals were affected². 
John Alroy of the (9) University of California at Santa Barbara led one of the studies.  He developed a computer program to study the effect of human hunters on forty-one kinds of large mammals.
Mister Alroy based his study on (10) evidence that humans first arrived in North America about thirteen-thousand years ago.  He examined how a group of about one-hundred humans could grow in number over a period of one-thousand-two-hundred years.  Mister Alroy (11) estimated such things as (12) reproduction rates and the amount of food humans need to (13) survive.  He found that it was possible for the small group of humans to expand to about three-hundred-thousand members during the period.  
Mister Alroy said ancient humans could have killed off many kinds of large animals native to North America.  He said the animals that disappeared had low rates of reproduction.  This would have prevented them from recovering from the attacks by humans.
Science magazine also reported the findings of a study by Australian, French and American scientists. They studied (14) fossil³ remains⁴ from twenty-eight areas across Australia and (15) Papua New Guinea.  The scientists said the fossils⁵ show that large animals in the area disappeared about forty-six-thousand years ago.  That is a few thousand years after humans arrived.  
More than thirty years ago, Paul Martin of the University of (16) Arizona described how the disappearance of large animals was linked with human (17) expansion.  He says the two studies support his position.  Mister Martin adds that local (18) climate may have influenced the disappearance of some animals. 
This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is Bill White.

(1) debate [ di5beit ] v.争论, 辩论 n.争论, 辩论
(2) disappear [ 7disE5piE ] vi.消失, 不见
(3) blame [ bleim ] n.过失, 责备 vt.责备, 谴责
(4) continent [ 5kCntinEnt ] n.大陆, 陆地
(5) mammals 哺乳动物
(6) woolly [ 5wuli ] adj.羊毛的
(7) mammoth [ 5mAmEW ] n.[古生]猛犸, 毛象, 庞然大物 adj.长毛象似的,
(8) ox [ Cks ] n.牛, 公牛 oxen 是ox的复数
(9) University of California n.加州大学
(10) evidence [ 5evidEns ] n.明显, 显著, 明白, 迹象, 根据
(11) estimate [ 5estimeit ] v.估计, 估价, 评估 n.估计, 估价, 评估
(12) reproduction [ 7ri:prE5dQkFEn ] n.繁殖, 再现, 复制品
(13) survive [ sE5vaiv ] v.幸免于, 幸存, 生还
(14) fossil [ 5fCsl ] n.化石, 僵化的事物
(15) Papua New Guinea n. 巴布亚新几内亚
(16) Arizona [ 7Ari5zEunE ] n.亚利桑那州(美国西南部的州)
(17) expansion [ iks5pAnFEn ] n.扩充, 开展, 膨胀
(18) climate [ 5klaimit ] n.气候

 

1 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 fossil   

n.化石，食古不化的人，老顽固

参考例句：

• At this distance of time it is difficult to date the fossil.时间隔得这么久了，很难确定这化石的年代。
• The man is a fossil.那人是个老顽固。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 fossils   

n.化石( fossil的名词复数 )；老顽固；食古不化的人；老古董（老人）

参考例句：

• fossils over two million years old 两百多万年的化石
• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley. 在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。 来自《简明英汉词典》