英语音频杂志：海怪

 　　Question: What animal is over 30 feet long, has a big head, enormous¹ eyes, a mane like a lion, a long neck, a body like a snake and lots of arms like an octopus²?

　　Answer: Nobody knows.

　　But sailors have been telling stories about giant creatures of the sea for hundreds of years. The monsters that sailors and fishermen describe are all slightly different but it's often an animal like a giant snake, at least 30 feet long, with an enormous head and neck. It sometimes actually attacks the ship. Some of these sea monsters turned out to be big pieces of seaweed or wood, but other stories are not so easy to explain. So what can these monsters be?

　　They could be sharks

　　There is an unusual type of shark that is shaped like an eel³. It has a frill around its neck, which could look like a lion's mane. But the biggest one ever caught was only 25 feet long. Another type of shark, the 'basking⁴ shark', can grow to about 40 feet in length. In the 1970s a Japanese fishing boat caught an enormous dead 'monster' with a long neck. Scientists tested some small pieces of the animal and discovered that it was a basking shark. When these sharks die, parts of them rot⁵ very quickly, which gives them a very strange shape. But this doesn't explain stories about living, moving sea monsters.

　　They could be just very big snakes

　　The biggest snake in the world is the anaconda. One was found in the 1940s that measured 35 feet, but there are no photographs to prove it. South American Indians tell stories of even bigger ones. The problem with this theory is that the anaconda is native to South America and can't survive in cold water.

　　They could be giant squid⁶

　　This is an interesting theory. Scientists all accept that giant squid really exists but we don't see them very often because they live in deep, cold water. They can be up to 50 feet in length and have the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom – over one foot in diameter⁷. (There are reports of much bigger ones too.) They have a strong mouth like a bird's beak⁸ that can cut through steel cables⁹, and five pairs of arms, or tentacles¹⁰. One pair is longer and thinner than the others and is used to catch food. People have seen giant squid attacking whales for food. In the 1960s some Russian sailors reported watching a fight between a whale and a giant squid. Both animals died; the whale was found dead with the squid's arms wrapped¹¹ around its neck, and the squid's head was found in the whale's stomach. There are also reports of giant squid attacking ships, maybe thinking that they were whales. So the giant sea snakes wrapped around ships could actually be one or two arms of a giant squid.

　　They could be giant octopuses¹²

　　Giant octopuses also exist – there are varieties of octopus with bodies as much as 23 feet around. But there are also stories about an unknown variety that grows much, much bigger. An enormous animal was found dead and rotting¹³ on a beach in Florida in the 1890s. Parts of it seemed to be huge arms over 30 feet long. Scientists tested a small part of the body but couldn't agree whether it was a whale or an octopus. Like the giant squid, the giant octopus has a strong mouth like the giant squid but it has only eight arms. It lives at the bottom of the sea and uses its arms to move around over the rocks. This explains why we don't see giant octopuses very often.

　　Giant octopuses could be ancient sea animals that have survived from the time of the dinosaurs¹⁴. We know that strange animals lived in the sea during pre-historic times, and many of them were very big indeed. They didn't look like fish and they had to come up to the surface of the water to breathe air. Perhaps, when the dinosaurs died out, these sea creatures survived and have lived in the oceans ever since. Is that possible?

　　Well, maybe it is. In 1938 a strange fish was caught in the Indian Ocean. Scientists eventually identified it as a coelacanth (pronounced 'seel-a-kanth'), which everyone thought had died out over 70 million years ago. And another type of coelacanth was found in the 1990s in South East Asia.

　　So, do any of these explanations convince¹⁵ you? Or do you think that deep down at the bottom of the sea, where we have never explored, there are strange creatures that are still completely¹⁶ unknown to science?

1 enormous   

adj.巨大的；庞大的

参考例句：

• An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。

2 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

3 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

4 basking   

v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽

参考例句：

• We sat basking in the warm sunshine. 我们坐着享受温暖的阳光。
• A colony of seals lay basking in the sun. 一群海豹躺着晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 rot   

n.腐烂，腐蚀，败坏；vi.腐烂，烂，堕落，憔悴；vt.使腐烂，使腐朽，使堕落

参考例句：

• Dead plants rot and become part of the soil again.枯死的植物腐烂，又成为土壤的一部分。
• Much rain will make the fruit rot.这么多雨会使水果腐烂。

6 squid   

n.鱿鱼

参考例句：

• I like eating squid.我喜欢吃鱿鱼。
• The seals feed mainly on fish and squid.海豹主要以鱼和乌贼为食。

7 diameter   

n.直径

参考例句：

• The circle has a diameter of 6 inches.这个圆直径六英寸。
• A diameter passes through the center of a circle.直径从圆心穿过。

8 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

9 cables   

n.电报( cable的名词复数 )；电缆；（系船用的）缆绳；（船只、桥梁等上的）巨缆

参考例句：

• Use the crocodile clips to attach the cables to the battery. 用鳄鱼嘴夹把电缆接到蓄电池上。
• Please don't touch these metal cables inside a plastic sleeve. 请不要碰那些套着塑料管的金属电缆。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 tentacles   

n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛

参考例句：

• Tentacles of fear closed around her body. 恐惧的阴影笼罩着她。
• Many molluscs have tentacles. 很多软体动物有触角。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 wrapped   

adj.有包装的，预先包装的v.包( wrap的过去式和过去分词 )；覆盖；用…包裹（或包扎、覆盖等）；卷起

参考例句：

• The chocolates are individually wrapped in gold foil. 巧克力用金箔纸一颗颗独立包装。
• Would you like the chocolates gift-wrapped? 你要把巧克力糖打成礼品包吗？

12 octopuses   

章鱼( octopus的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snails and octopuses are molluscs. 蜗牛和章鱼是软体动物。
• Limpets, snails and octopuses are mollusks. 帽贝、蜗牛和章鱼都是软体动物。

13 rotting   

n.深蚀刻，沤麻v.（使）腐烂， （使）腐朽( rot的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• an overpowering stench of rotting fish 腐烂的鱼臭气熏天
• In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

14 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 convince   

vt.使确认，使信服；使认识错误

参考例句：

• It requires a lot of talking to convince him.要说服他很费口舌。
• I have given over trying to convince him.我已经不再试图说服他了。

16 completely   

adv.完全地，十分地，全然

参考例句：

• She never completely gave up hope.她从不完全放弃希望。
• I feel completely in the dark on this question.这件事使我感到茫然。