英语听力：2013-05-08 完美捕食 Perfect Predators —3

 Triceratops protects itself with a bony shield called a frill. They can fend¹ off an attacker with a pair of one-meter-long swords.

 

You’ve got to crush it. The only way to deal with this huge, curved, cantilevered, composite armor is a crushing blow with multiple teeth.

 

But defeating a Triceratops takes more than just teeth. It also requires power. Triceratops’ most dangerous weapons are mounted on a skull² that can swivel 360 degrees. 

 

Triceratops would want to keep that horns and the frill pointed³ right at T-Rex. 

 

For a T-Rex, the key to defeating a Triceratops is his huge jaws⁵, driven by two sets of powerful muscles. The first runs from the top of the skull down to the bottom of the jaw⁴. These muscles give this carnivore’s bite its spear. The second set are muscles which make up almost 50% of the muscles in the head, and wrap around the lower jaw, tying it to the roof of the mouth. They give T-Rex’s bite its 3 tons of force, twice the biting power of a great white shark. And not only that. Just like a python, T-Rex can dislocate its jaw. 

 

Cranial kinesis is basically the ability to swallow things larger than your own head. That’s because the skull expands as it opens up—snakes swallowing whole chicken eggs. A snake head that’s, you know, much smaller than the egg, and it will swallow that whole egg. There’s not a lawyer in this world that’s too fat that this T-Rex couldn’t swallow him whole. 

 

Tyrannosaurus Rex is a carnivorous monster that uses sheer force to overpower well-defended prey⁶.

1 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

2 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

3 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

4 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

5 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

6 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。