英国学生科学读本 第36期:浑身是宝的绵羊(1)

 　　Lesson 36 The Useful Sheep

　　第36课 浑身是宝的绵羊

　　The sheep is not very much like the cow, is it? It is much smaller, and it has quite a different kind of coat.But still the sheep and the cow are of the same family—the large family of animals that "chew the cud. " Do you remember what that means?

　　绵羊跟牛长得不太像，对吧？羊的个头比牛小多了，毛皮也很不一样。但是牛和羊还是一个家族的，都是“反刍动物”。还记得这是什么意思吗？

　　As the sheep always lives in the open air, it needs a warm coat all over its body. This is called a fleece, and the long curly¹ hair of the fleece is called wool.

　　绵羊一直生活在露天的地方，所以需要温暖的毛皮来遮盖身体。这一层毛皮，在剪下来的时候是聚成一块儿的，这种块儿上面长长的卷毛，英语里叫做wool。

　　When the cold winter is over and the spring has come, the sheep's fleece is cut off with a pair of shears². Thewool of the fleece is used to make our clothing.

　　寒冷的冬天结束，春天来临的时候，人们就用剪子把羊毛块儿剪下来，用羊毛块儿上的羊毛来做衣服。

　　The sheep has four toes on each foot. The two at the back of the foot are very small, and do not touch the ground. The two at the front have each a hard, horny covering or nail, and so we call the sheep's foot a hoof³. The hoof is split⁴ or cloven between the two toes, just like the hoof of the cow.

　　绵羊的每只脚上都有四个脚趾。脚后面的两个脚趾非常小，不着地。两个前面的脚趾，每个都有一个坚硬的角质层覆盖着，相当于人的指甲，所以我们把羊的脚叫做“蹄子”。两个脚趾的蹄子是“分开”的，也可以说是“分趾”，跟牛蹄子一样。

　　The teeth of the sheep are also like those of the cow. The sheep could not live upon flesh; its teeth are suited only for eating plant-food.

　　绵羊的牙齿，跟牛的牙齿也很像。绵羊是不能靠吃肉活着的，它的牙齿只适合吃植物。

1 curly   

adj.卷曲的，卷缩的

参考例句：

• The little boy has curly hair.这小男孩长着一头卷发。
• She is tall and dark with curly hair.她高高的个子，黑皮肤，卷头发。

2 shears   

n.大剪刀

参考例句：

• These garden shears are lightweight and easy to use.这些园丁剪刀又轻又好用。
• With a few quick snips of the shears he pruned the bush.他用大剪刀几下子就把灌木给修剪好了。

3 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。

4 split   

n.劈开，裂片，裂口；adj.分散的；v.分离，分开，劈开

参考例句：

• Who told you that Mary and I had split up?谁告诉你玛丽和我已经离婚了？
• The teacher split the class up into six groups.老师把班级分成6个小组。