英语听力：探索发现 2013-02-17 猛玛象进城记 Mammoths to Manhattan—9

 By the mid¹ 1800s, the horse and the cowboy had come to symbolize² the wild west. And of course, with the cowboys came cattle. As the bison quickly vanished from the landscape, cattle filled their place. 

 

Meanwhile increasing numbers of the tame horses escaped into the wild. These feral horses became known by the Spanish name, mustang. They put extra pressure on the dwindling³ bison numbers by competing for their grazing sites and drinking holes. 

 

Mustangs form social groups led by a dominant⁴ stallion, echoing their prehistoric⁵ relatives that lived here during the Ice Age. 

 

Bred to carry the weight of a rider, mustangs are larger than those early wild horses, but they still display the same kind of behavior. 

 

By the early 1800s, the wild horse was well and truly back in North America, but how did other wildlife on the continent survive alongside growing human populations?

 

Some wild creatures did the reverse of mustangs by becoming tame and choosing to live close to people. The purple martin became an unofficial mascot⁶ for native inhabitants in the eastern half of the continent. Here people erected⁷ special nesting sites to encourage the birds to stay.

1 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

2 symbolize   

vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表

参考例句：

• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
• Dolphins symbolize the breath of life.海豚象征着生命的气息。

3 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句

4 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

5 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

6 mascot   

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

7 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。