【轻松英文阅读】专门吓唬野猴的狗狗

 Wild monkeys are a problem for farmers in many areas in Japan. They often come out of the woods to eat the tasty vegetables and fruit on farms. Every year, they cause heavy damage to crops. But the farmers are fighting back. In 2005, a small village in Nagano Prefecture introduced a program to protect crops with dogs. They are known¹ as monkey dogs, and they are trained to scare² monkeys away. The plan was very successful, and the village was able to save thousands of dollars. Since 2005, more than 20 prefectures have introduced similar programs. The programs have been so popular that there is a shortage³ of monkey dogs now.

 

In a side note, it is well known in Japan that dogs and monkeys are not on friendly terms. In fact, the phrase⁴ ‘dog-and monkey-relationship’ is used to describe two people who can't get along. It is used like the English expression “to fight like cats and dogs.”

1 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

2 scare   

vt.恐吓；vi.受惊吓

参考例句：

• I like reading scare stories.我喜欢读恐怖故事。
• The sound of the explosion gave me quite a scare.爆炸声把我吓了一跳。

3 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

4 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。