英语听力：自然百科 Ancient Sea Life in Utah 探秘古犹他州

 Perhaps at first glance, you wouldn’t expect to find evidence of marine¹ animals in the area of deserts and canyons² in southern Utah. But a team of paleontologists believe it’s the perfect spot. Led by National Geographic³ grantee Barry AlBright, they are searching the remote sections of Grand Staircase--Escalante National Monument, for the fossilized remains⁴ of plesiosaurus, a large marine reptile⁵ that swam here 93 million years ago.

 

"I think one of the biggest questions people ask is why we’re looking for a large marine predatory reptile in southern Utah. You know we are not over a coast of California, or the, or the eastern coast, we are not even near an ocean. Ninety three million years ago the world was entirely⁶ a different place."

 

During the age of the dinosaurs⁷, this barren desert was covered by a vast inland sea. It stretched all the way from the Gulf⁸ of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, basically cutting what’s now America in two. This area in Utah was once the coastline of the shallow sea, something experts can tell by the exposed rock. They are particularly interested in a grey layer known as tropic shale⁹, which holds fossils of ancient sea life. This area is so inaccessible¹⁰ that the helicopter had to drop the team here with enough supplies to last several days.

 

"All right, here we go. Here is it.  Here is a fossil, not a plesiosaurus's , but we got a fossil here out, here is a nice oyster¹¹. Check that out. (Eonothem ) Yeah,Eonothem. Yeah."

 

Team member Alan Titus  has the ability to date layers of rock by examining fossilized invertebrates¹² in the shale called ammonites.

 

"These ammonites are great because we call them "guide fossils" and they do just that. They guide us to the right layers that we need to be looking at, and in fact, this one tells us that I’m in a layer that’s just a little below where we should be focusing our efforts to find plesiosaurus."

 

The team must hike for miles up and down ridges¹³ and valleys, looking for exposed shale.

 

"Here we go again. Today is the day. The tropic shale doesn’t reveal its fossils readily, it’s not a highly fossil at first. And you can go literally¹⁴ for days, I’ve spent days and weeks out here with a crew of six or seven or eight people. And we’ve walked the tropic shale eight, nine, ten hours a day and not found anything more than a couple of sharks’ teeth. So it’s not as if these plesiosaurs just laying around everywhere."

 

After searching for days over rugged¹⁵ terrain¹⁶, something catches the eye of one of the team members.

 

"What do you think? Oh, I think we got some bone. I think so too. Cow bone maybe. Tell you what, this looks... There is more. Oh, here is a fragment, there is a fragment, all over here. Ok, we’ve got, we’ve got a site here. Oh, wow, here is, here is a nice fragment, this stuff is just eroding¹⁷ up."

 

And last, they have found the remains of an ancient plesiosaurus. And the search is on for bones and clues.

 

"Oh, hey, Maral, I got shark’s tooth, finally I got shark's tooth right on the surface, nice one, look at that, it's squalicorax, looks like carina, I think we've find a little zone here then we can spend some time and we've got bone fragments, we've got sharks’ teeth, this is really encouraging."

 

The team gathers enough fossilized bone fragments to determine that they’re from a small species or possibly a  Juvenile. Plesiosaurus were not dinosaurs, although they lived during the same time period. They were carnivorous reptiles¹⁸ that thrived underwater.

 

"They had the upper part of the pedals actually. So just imagine: the shaft¹⁹ of the limb bone coming down, broadening out in this way and also going from round to flat, again along, along the end of this bone would have been what are equivalent to our wrist bones and then beyond that extending out what have been what are equivalent to our finger bones, just like in a sea turtle today or a dolphin today. The finger bones have been elongated²⁰ and there’s many more than just the three finger bones in each of our fingers."

 

"There has to be another out here. Yes, I was beginning to believe it is belonging to here… Yes, that’s huge, that is huge. That is huge."

 

The discoveries by Albright and his team will help us better understand what life was like in our world some 93 million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth and plesiosaurus swam in a vast inland sea.

 

Sponsored by National Geographic Mission Programs, taking science and exploration into the new millennium²¹.

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

3 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 reptile   

n.爬行动物；两栖动物

参考例句：

• The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
• So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以，你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

7 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》

8 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

9 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

10 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

11 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

12 invertebrates   

n.无脊椎动物( invertebrate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Insects and worms are all invertebrates. 昆虫和蠕虫都是无脊椎动物。 来自辞典例句
• In the earthworm and many other invertebrates, these excretory structures are called nephridia. 在蚯蚓和许多其它无脊椎动物中，这些排泄结构称为肾管。 来自辞典例句

13 ridges   

n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊

参考例句：

• The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
• Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。

14 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

15 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

16 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

17 eroding   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的现在分词 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The coast is slowly eroding. 海岸正慢慢地被侵蚀。
• Another new development is eroding the age-old stereotype of the male warrior. 另一个新现象是，久已形成的男人皆武士的形象正逐渐消失。

18 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

19 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

20 elongated   

v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Modigliani's women have strangely elongated faces. 莫迪里阿尼画中的妇女都长着奇长无比的脸。
• A piece of rubber can be elongated by streching. 一块橡皮可以拉长。 来自《用法词典》

21 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。