英语听力精选进阶版 7189（在线收听）

Background:背景：英国著名侦探小说人物夏洛克?福尔摩斯将在新的作者笔下起死回生。福尔摩斯新小说预计将在今年9月出版。

The character of Sherlock Holmes was originally created by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle who featured him in four novels and more than 50 short stories.

After his death, his son Adrian wrote several stories featuring the famous Victorian detective, but critics say he was never that popular.

But it's the first time that the Arthur Conan Doyle estate has officially asked an author to write a new novel.

He has been named as Anthony Horowitz and is best known his Alex Rider children's series.

So was he daunted by the challenge?

Anthony Horowitz:

"Well obviously, it was daunting to a certain extent and you are dealing with probably the most iconic detective in the whole history of literature.

And the one thing I didn't want to do was to disappoint those really devout fans, the sort of Sherlock Holmes Society and people who love these books.

But to be honest with you, I actually found it fairly easy to write because I have loved those books since I was 16 years old, I've read them two or three times during the course of my lifetime – in fact, my whole life as a writer of crime fiction myself was to a certain extent inspired by Doyle and I find the book not so scary as I thought it might be."

Anthony Horowitz says he's a devoted fan and aims to produce a first rate mystery for a modern audience.

Glossary 词汇表

band （用来做标记的）细带子 

flipper 鳍状肢 

concerns 担忧，担心 

to harm 危害，伤害 

colony 群体 

to breed 生育，繁殖 

chick 小企鹅 

unethical 不道德的 

tagging 标记 

worthless 无价值的

Questions and Answers

1. Why do scientists put bands on penguins’ flippers? 

Because they want to identify the birds even from far away.

2. What sort of problems were observed in birds with bands? 

They died younger, bred later, took longer to forage for food and had fewer chicks.

3. True or false? According to the report, it is of no value to use penguins to gather data. 

False. It says that it might be worthless if the penguin was suffering the effects of tagging.

4. True or false? The scientists want biologists to stop using rubber bands as a method to identify penguins. 

True. They think that it is unethical to cause harm to the birds.