英语听力：2013-07-03 《恐龙的战争》3 顽强防御—8

 Interwoven layers can absorb the power of a piercing attack. 

 

Ankylosaurus pretty much was not afraid of anything because it would be very difficult to kill this beast. 

 

This creature’s armor protects something else as well, its eyes. The eyelids¹ of an Ankylosaurus are made of bone. 

 

Ankylosaurus are enormous. They didn’t have legs. They didn’t need to trace after their prey², their vegetation. It wasn’t going anywhere but just there. They had these bone plates that formed its skin. And this is similar to what we see in crocodiles, armor on the back. Well, Ankylosaurus they went even further. They encase their entire backs besides their bellies³, even develop these bones in their eyelids so that have armored eyelids. 

 

But a body covered in steel-like armor is only the beginning. Ankylosaurus also has a powerful offensive weapon—its tail, a club that can pummel an opponent with 90 tons of force. The top half is composed of muscle. The vertebrae on the lower half are fused together to form a solid, rod-like whip. This tail can snap more than 45 degrees in either direction. At the very end is a bony mass like a built-in sledgehammer. 

 

A giant mace⁴ that’s really well built for smashing into the heads or the legs of Tyrannosaurus and its relatives. 

 

This tail is capable of enough power to shatter the leg bones of almost any predator⁵, no matter how big. 

 

An impact from that club could crush bone, shatter teeth. If not kill the T-Rex outright⁶, wound it in such a way that it’s likely to starve to death. 

 

Like a wrecking ball weighing almost 45 kilograms, swinging at a speed of 78 kilometers… 

1 eyelids   

n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色

参考例句：

• She was so tired, her eyelids were beginning to droop. 她太疲倦了，眼睑开始往下垂。
• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

4 mace   

n.狼牙棒，豆蔻干皮

参考例句：

• The sword and mace were favourite weapons for hand-to-hand fighting.剑和狼牙棒是肉搏战的最佳武器。
• She put some mace into the meat.她往肉里加了一些肉豆蔻干皮。

5 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

6 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。