Life in the Freezer 冰雪童话 - 7

An adult wanderer may travel 5, 000 miles, sometimes to Brazil and back, in order to collect squid for its young.

This enormous chick weighs 10 kilos, as much as a full-grown swan. It's the biggest of any seabird chick. Although it's a couple of months before it has to face its first flight, it's now at its maximum weight. In fact, it's heavier even, haha, than... heavier than the adult. The spring snows,er, are now beginning to melt, but the chick has already faced the worst of the winter weather.

Hatched¹ last March, it has sat here on its nest mound², unprotected and unshielded for 8 months, while the temperatures may have fallen to minus 10 degrees, and terrible storms raged around. It's so big that it can't possibly grow to this very huge size in the short summer season. So the parents have to come to feed it every 3 or 4 days for 10 months. And in order to do that they have to be able to reach the open sea.

Only one other animal breeds throughout the year on the outer islands, King Penguins³. They also need continuous access to the ocean to collect food for their chicks.

New Words & Phrases

unshielded:没有防护的

1 hatched   

孵化( hatch的过去式和过去分词 )； 孵出，破壳而出； 秘密策划，（尤指）密谋； 使（小鸟、小鱼、小虫等）孵出

参考例句：

• Silkworms are fed mulberry leaves after they have hatched. 蚕孵出后食桑叶。
• Ten out of the set of twelve were hatched. 一窝十二个蛋孵出了十个。

2 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

3 penguins   

n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why can penguins live in cold environment? 为什么企鹅能生活在寒冷的环境中？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Whales, seals, penguins, and turtles have flippers. 鲸、海豹，企鹅和海龟均有鳍形肢。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》