英语听力：探索发现 2012-07-13 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—24

 Back in Los Angeles, last-minute preparations are under way to get the dinosaurs² ready for the public. It's only now that you get a sense of just how many people have been involved in creating this exhibition, from the artists to the designers, to the teams that made the interactive³ media and mounts for the dinosaurs, all of it bring into life of decades of research that our current scientific understanding relies on. 

 

The exhibition consists of over 300 specimens⁴. It's taken more than six years to complete and cost tens of millions of dollars.

 

We've created an exhibit that this part of the world has never seen. And it's very rewarding for me to think about the millions of kids and the millions of people that during the next twenty years will visit this exhibit and will remember this exhibit for the rest of their lives. 

 

These animals look like something out of a comic book or a Hollywood studio, but they were real. From a pile of dusty bones millions of years old, we can put a skeleton back together, flesh it out, tell what colour there creatures were and even say something about how they grew up.

 

I think this is a unique time to be a dinosaur¹ paleontologist. We are finding so much, discovering new dinosaurs and learning new things about them.

 

There are certainly still gaps in our knowledge, but I find it amazing just how much we do know about there extinct animals that no one has ever actually seen alive and that lived so many millions of years ago. The creatures themselves are utterly⁵ all inspiring. But I think so is the incredible amount of work and vast numbers of people involved in reconstructing them so that we can come face to face with a dinosaur.

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 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》

3 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

4 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。