英语听力：自然百科 鲨鱼湾的海豚—2

 The world heritage site,its enormous seagrass beds carpet the shallows, creating one of the richest marine¹ environments on earth. Several hundred families of bottlenose dolphins live here, and one of the largest is called the Beachies. 

 

Puck began her family 15 years ago. Heavily pregnant, she's about to give birth to her eighth calf². With Puck today are two of her daughters,two granddaughters and her only son India. A five years old. He's still a bit of a mummy's boy and never far from her side. Janet Mann has been following the lives of the Bay's dolphins for 23 years.

 

"We have the entire Puck family. Puck is the one with all the speckles. In fact, she's due any day now. She's enormous."

 

Puck was the first dolphin that Janet got to know when she started her study. 

 

"Hey ,Puck. She's really quite extraordinary. She was just a yound animal back then. We know every calf she's had, every trial and tribulation³ she's endured. Oh, you're wide."

 

So much of what we understand about dolphin mothers and their calves⁴ comes from Janet's study. Now 33 years old, Puck is an old hand that being a mum. At the end of her year-long pregnancy,this would be her eighth and probably her last calf.

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

3 tribulation   

n.苦难，灾难

参考例句：

• Even in our awful tribulation we were quite optimistic.即使在极端痛苦时，我们仍十分乐观。
• I hate the tribulation,I commiserate the sorrow brought by tribulation.我厌恶别人深重的苦难，怜悯苦难带来的悲哀。

4 calves   

n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解

参考例句：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》