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
We're learning all about Komodo dragons today.
And though they are listed as some vulnerable species, (there are only less than
6,000 left in the wild) these creatures are formidable.
You do not want to get around them.
You don't want to be part of their unsuspecting prey.
We have more to learn about these dangerous and deadly creatures - the Komodo
dragons.
Let's read the second part of our lesson today.
(Music).
Komodo Dragons.
The dragons will follow a bitten water buffalo about a month, waiting for it to
succumb to the venomous bite.
Their keen sense of smell enables the dragons to detect the scent of blood up to
10 kilometers.
The females lay from 15 to 30 eggs in ground nests that they have overtaken from
wild turkey-like birds.
The mothers then lie near their nests, protecting the eggs until hatched.
According to the park ranger, only three to five newborns survive due to
predators, including their own cannibal mothers!
Upon hatching, the babies climb trees, build nests and survive on birds and
insects until they are big enough to survive in the dragon world below.
Well, being a baby Komodo dragon sounds a little bit dangerous.
We see in this first sentence here:
The dragons will follow a bitten water buffalo about a month, waiting for it to
succumb to the venomous bite.
Oh, that sounds a little bit scary.
Uh, what can you tell us about this sentence, Linda?
Well, we see here that the water... the water buffalo obviously is quite a bit
larger than a Komodo dragon.
Komodo dragons are about 10 feet, can be up to 10 feet in length.
And they can actually eat about 80 kilos at one feeding, I suppose.
But they can't take down a water buffalo.
So as we talked about earlier, when they bite the dragon... they infect it.
When they bite the water buffalo, they infect it.
And the water buffalo becomes weaker and weaker.
It takes about a month, our guide told us, before the water buffalo will die.
And then the Komodo dragon will eat it.
So then it succumbs to this venomous bite.
And we have this would "succumb." And what does that mean, Gabe?
Well, it means to give in to the power of something.
And usually I think of this as maybe against your will.
You don't want to give in, but you eventually succumb.
I might say she succumbed to the salesman after he talked with her for a while,
and he persuaded her to buy the product.
She finally succumbed and bought it.
And here the water buffalo succumbs to the venonmous bite, this deadly bite of
the Komodo dragon.
Continuing in our article we see their keen sense of smell enables the dragon to
detect the scent of blood up to 10 kilometers.
So they can smell blood from 10 kilometers away.
Yeah. You want to make sure that you don't have a cut on your body somewhere.
Does this happen ever?
Well, a... apparently a couple of months before we got there, a Komodo dragon
actually did attack somebody visiting the island.
They actually attacked the park ranger who was protecting the person because
that person did have like some cut or blood.
And they went after the blood.
That sounds very scary.
Be careful around these Komodo dragons, friends, if you have a chance to visit
this national park.
Right now it's time for us to visit Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud.
Dragons are ancient mythical creatures that play a large role in the cultures of
both the East and the West.
But the two cultures' creatures are really quite different.
In the West, dragons are thought of as destructive, poisonous, fire-breathing
monsters that are to be feared and killed.
Now contrasts them with the dragons of China, which are portrayed as wise and
powerful, gentle and even playful.
They're creatures that bring good fortune.
The two dragons look different, too.
Chinese dragons resembles snakes with legs whereas Western dragons look more
like winged dinosaurs.
As different as they are, many people, Westerners especially, mistakenly lump
the two dragons together simply because they share the same name.
So to them, the Chinese dragon is just as violent and evil as its Western
counterpart.
So to save the reputation of the respectable Chinese dragon, a group of Chinese
scholars have pushed to introduce a new word into the English language,
a word that would clear up the confusion and distinguish the good Chinese dragon
from its wicked cousin in the West.
Now, should they be successful, the Chinese dragon's new English name would be
"long," spelled L-O-N-G.
(Chinese).
In our article we see the females lay from 15 to 30 eggs in ground nests that
they have overtaken from wild turkey-like birds.
So they lay quite a few eggs.
And then the mothers then lie near their nests protecting the eggs until
hatched.
So they sound like very protective mothers.
They sound like very protective mothers so far.
Linda, what else can we find out about these?
Well, actually our guide also told us that the mothers don't leave the nests.
So the only time... they can even lie there for a month without eating.
So that's why the prey that come by might be snatched by them.
Because of the camouflage that we read about earlier, you can't really see them.
Interesting.
Well, you have definitely to be careful around these creatures.
We continue with our lesson.
According to the park ranger, only three to five newborns survive due to
predators, including their own cannibal mothers!
Wow! Um, let's talk about that word "cannibal." If you're... well, not if you're
a cannibal.
But if a creature is a cannibal, that means it eats its own kind.
Um, can you tell us anything else about this, Linda?
Well, the... they are cannibal mothers, and also the other Komodo dragons also
eat the babies.
That's one of the reasons the mother lies there for such a long time to protect
them from other dragons, but then they turn and eat their own.
Wow! OK.
So these mothers could also be cannibal mothers.
How do we continue, Carolyn?
Well, we see upon hatching, the babies climb trees, build nests and survive on
birds and insects until they are big enough to survive in the dragon world
below.
So it's a bit challenge for these baby dragons to survive.
Right. They actually climb palm trees that have a soft inside.
And they live there for like two to three years until they are... uh, to me,
it's amazing, they are big enough to live below.
All right.
Well, we've learned a lot about these deadly and dangerous creatures, the Komodo
dragon.
Now it's time for us to continue learning something with Liz in the Grammar Gym.
And then we'll go see Michelle.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
Our NATURE article today talks about Komodo dragons.
And the writer mentions "Upon hatching, the babies climb trees... " That's our
Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the word "upon." In this case, it means at that moment.
So what the writer is saying is baby Komodo dragons come out of the eggs, they
climb trees.
This use of "upon" is usually in formal situations like in writing or when
you're giving a speech.
For example:
Upon hearing the good news of his promotion, Timothy called his parents to let
them know.
Or: Upon seeing the mess in the living room, Cynthia knew her kids were home.
Now it's your turn to practice using "upon." Can you think of something that
happens the moment a situation takes place?
And that's all the time we have for today.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
This is Liz.
I'll see you next time.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now let's return to our teachers.
Today we have learned a lot about this formidable predator, the Komodo dragon.
But I'm sure that there is a lot more information that you weren't able to
include in this article, right, Linda?
Well, yes.
And I'll tell you a couple of more very interesting features about the Komodo
dragon.
We read in the first paragraph that they live in Indonesia in Komodo Island
National Park.
A Komodo national park, and that is a group of islands.
And Komodo dragons swim.
So if they run out of food on one island, they can swim to another island to
look for other food.
And their only natural enemy in the wild is the snake.
And I really don't think they care much.
Well, if they are such great predators and very strong, powerful creatures, I
don't think a snake would be too big of a worry for them.
You might be right.
Well, we want to thank you for joining us today learning all about the Komodo
dragon.
And thank you for joining us, Linda.
It's been my pleasure to be here. Thank you.
All right.
We'll see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.
See you later.
Bye.