节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-22
难易度:High
关键字:aptly, vulnerable, formidable, succumb, predator, venomous, cannibal
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And today also in the studio is Linda Ludwig.
She wrote today's lesson about Komodo dragons.
And she's also the editor of the Studio Classroom magazine, which I hope you
have in your hands.
Welcome, Linda.
Thank you, Gabe.
Its very nice to be here with all of you today.
Well, today we're going to be learning about Komodo dragons.
They are a large and dangerous animal.
I wonder what kind of large or dangerous animals have you seen in the wild.
Carolyn?
Well, it was not a very large animal that I saw, but it was definitely
dangerous.
It was a copperhead snake.
And I saw it while I was hiking in the United States.
There are a lot in the area I'm from.
And I was just walking along, and there it was.
It was very scary.
That is definitely a dangerous animal.
Linda, have you ever seen a large or scary or dangerous animal?
Well, I've seen all of them are wrapped up into one.
When I was in western United States, I saw a... an American buffalo.
And that animal, unlike Carolyn's animal, is like 10 feet tall, and very, very
dangerous.
Well, some animals might appear to be harmless in the wild, but they're actually
quite dangerous.
Kind of like a hippopotamus.
If you go to a zoo, you might just see it walking around or swimming around.
But it's considered to be one of the most dangerous animals out there.
We're going to be learning all about the Komodo dragon today.
So let's get started.
(Music).
Komodo Dragons.
Meet the world's largest living lizard.
Dangerous and deadly aptly describe the largest existing lizard species alive on
Earth - the Komodo dragon.
Listed as vulnerable (to extinction) on the International Union for Conservation
of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, they number less than 6,000.
They mostly inhabit the islands of Indonesia's Komodo National Park as well as
some areas of Flores.
These formidable predators devour deer, wild pigs, smaller dragons, water
buffalo - and humans if given a chance.
Their clay-colored, scaly skin provides them with perfect camouflage as they lie
on the brown earth among dead leaves waiting for unsuspecting prey.
To seize their prey, the lizard's powerful legs spring into action, and their
deadly bites leave little hope for the victim unless treated immediately.
Well, this does sound like a very powerful creature.
And we see at the very beginning: Meet the world's largest living lizard.
So this is the largest lizard alive in the world today.
And our first sentence says: Dangerous and deadly aptly describe the largest
existing lizard species alive on Earth - the Komodo dragon.
And dangerous and deadly aptly describe the Komodo dragon.
What does this word here mean, Gabe, this word "aptly"?
Well, it's from our Word Bank.
And if you describe something aptly, that means it's a pretty good, precise or
exact description.
So it aptly describes the largest living lizard.
Um, you could also use another word like this, "apt." That's an adjective.
An apt description is kind of a precise or exact description.
How else might you use that word "aptly"?
Well, I could... I could say: Beautiful aptly described Marilyn on her wedding
day.
All right.
How else could you use that word, "aplty," Carolyn?
Well, I think that it is very apt that we are reading this article about Komodo
dragon since Linda went there.
But that is not quite "aplty." This is "apt," A-P-T.
That's right.
There are different ways to use this word, different forms of this word.
And dangerous and deadly aptly describe the largest existing lizard species
alive on Earth - the Komodo dragon.
How does the lesson continue?
We see: Listed as vulnerable (to extinction) on the International Union for
Conservation of Nature's, (the IUCN,) Red List of Threatened Species.
And here in the sentence, it's quite a long name.
But before that we saw the word "vulnerable" and to extinction.
This is a special usage of the word "vulnerable." So Linda, could you please
explain this word for us?
Certainly.
This is an organization that tracks animals, kind of like the World Wildlife
Federation.
And they have a list of endangered species and vulnerable species.
So they have a scale of how animals are rated according to their number and how
many there are that are alive on Earth.
And right now the Komodo dragon is in the vulnerable species, which is right
next to the... to the extinct species or threatened to be extinct species.
They actually used to be on the extinct list.
And now they've moved up a little bit.
Whoa! That's good for the Komodo dragon.
Um, so they are vulnerable.
They might die off in the future.
We hope that doesn't happen, but they are on the vulnerable list.
And "they number less than 6,000," as our lesson says.
That's not very many.
Of course, you would not want to see all 6,000 in one place, but this is a
vulnerable species.
And the article says they mostly inhabit the islands of Indonesia's Komodo
National Park as well as some areas of Flores.
Well, I think now we can take some time to look at some pictures that Linda took
while she was on Komodo Island.
(Music).
Well, from those pictures, I can see how these animals might be dangerous and
deadly.
Well, we continue in the lesson:
These formidable predators devour deer, wild pigs, smaller dragons, (that is
Komodo dragons,) water buffalo and humans - if given a chance.
Wow! OK.
Before we talk about that sentence, we want to talk about that word
"formidable." Carolyn, what does that word mean?
Well, if something is formidable, then it causes fear or alarm.
It's something that's very scary.
And we usually think of an opponent as maybe being formidable.
OK. I also maybe think of a thunderstorm.
Maybe you see some clouds in the distance, and it can cause fear.
It's a formidable storm, some formidable clouds.
Um, Linda, you got to see these Komodo dragons.
You describe these as formidable?
Well, they are formidable.
When you see them in the wild, you do not want to go near them.
You have to say at least five meters away from them because if they attack you,
you don't have a chance.
Oh, man. OK. You don't have a chance.
Well, they are predators.
Um, that means they are dangerous.
And at the very end of this sentence we see a phrase: and humans - if given a
chance.
They will attack humans if given a chance.
Well, you could say if he is given a chance, he might succeed in this project.
All right.
And as we can see the Komodo dragons might attack humans if given a chance.
We continue.
Their clay-colored scaly skin provides them with perfect camouflage as they lie
on the brown earth among dead leaves waiting for unsuspecting prey.
So clay-colored scaly skin, that's a good way to describe a kind of reptile or
lizard as well.
But Linda, what is unsuspecting prey?
Well, first of all, let's look at the word "prey." Prey is the opposite of
predator.
A predator is the hunter; and the prey is the hunted.
And "unsuspecting" means, you know, an animal just walking along or eating, and
they don't realize that they're going to be attacked.
All right. They don't realize it.
They don't maybe expect it.
They're unsuspecting.
So these poor creatures might get attacked by a Komodo dragon.
Well, Carolyn, how does the lesson continue?
Well, we see how they attack.
To seize their prey, the lizard's powerful legs spring into action, and their
deadly bites leave little hope for the victim unless treated immediately.
Wow! So it sounds like these creatures can kind of spring into action or jump.
Linda, does that mean they can run as well?
Well, actually Komodo dragons can run as fast as a dog.
And that's one of the reasons that they're very dangerous.
And their bite is deadly because they have about 50 kinds of bacteria, uh, 50 or
60 is what I've heard, bacteria in their mouth.
So when they bite, it becomes infected.
Wow! Dangerous and deadly, indeed.
We're learning a lot about the Komodo dragon.
Let's continue learning with Michelle in the Language Lab.
And then we'll take a break.