英语听力：2013-03-20 恐龙之战之极限生存 Extreme Survivors—1

 In a world of terrifying creatures, being small means facing danger at every turn. 

 

If you were a small animal, the late cretaceous would have been an awful time to be around. 

 

For a youngster¹, every day is a struggle to stay alive. Their only chance is to keep out of trouble and grow up fast. 

 

If you’re a Tyrannosaur, every mega herbivore in the environment wants to crush you. 

 

Dinosaurs³ develop advanced tools to survive, astonishing on the outside and on the inside. And now 65 million years on, cutting-edge imaging technology will peel back skin, muscles and bones to reveal the secrets of nature’s greatest success story. 

 

The largest dinosaurs grow as tall as a 6-storey building, and weigh 50 tons or more. No land animal today even comes close. The jaws⁴ of a T-Rex could leave a bite mark over a meter long, and its 30-centimeter teeth could penetrate⁵ deep into flesh. But every dinosaur² no matter how big or powerful begins life very small. 

 

Oklahoma, 110 million years ago, a herd⁶ of sauroposeidon dinosaurs are on the move.

 

We’re talking about an animal who’s probably 80 or 90 feet long, and about 40 feet of that was just neck, so when it stuck its neck straight up, it could probably reach about 6 feet up in the air. 

 

These leviathans are making a journey to nesting sites they’ve used for generations. And developing inside them are hundreds of eggs. They are the future of a species⁷ that will be around for 15 million years, more than 75 times longer than humans have been on earth. Yet each egg is no larger than a cantaloupe melon.

1 youngster   

n.儿童，少年，年轻人

参考例句：

• I rode the youngster on my back.我让小孩骑在背上。
• That youngster works with a will.这小伙子干活有股傻劲儿。

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 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

5 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

6 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

7 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。