英语听力：自然百科 科考发现新物种

 Some of these mountains in northern Mozambique have never been studied by scientists until now. The British government funded Darwin Initiative has sponsored a series of expeditions to five northern Mozambique(莫桑比克) mountains.

 

Scientists have made numerous discoveries including a very colorful Hemipteran bug(蝽、椿象), and two species of snakes. Last month, the Darwin Initiative team explored the approximately 100 square kilometer Mount Inago. Africa Project Coordinator¹ Julian Bayliss says there is no record of any scientist visiting Mount Inago before.

 

“When biologists visit an area and they generally, you know, focus on particular groups, they collect, they record. But they catalogue their finds and this is, these are usually published through scientific journals, or historical evidence or reference collections are stored in, in natural history museums or herbariums(植物标本馆), you know, across the world. And there is no record; there is no evidence of anybody coming to Mount Inago before to assess the biology of this mountain range.”

 

This entire area has suffered heavy deforestation(森林退化) due to human encroachment（入侵） caused by 15 years of civil war in Mozambique that ended in 1992.

 

Despite the loss of biodiversity-rich forest, the expedition has served a valuable purpose of documenting for the first time what species are found here.

 

Two butterfly experts are part of the expedition, and 250 specimens² comprising about 75 species of butterflies had been collected. Butterfly expert Colin Congen says despite the forest degradation³, they are making new finds.

 

“Bearing in mind that this, that the forests here are fragmented, and very much degraded. I think it’s amazing how much stuff there is here. We’re pulling in new stuff every day.”

 

One discovery is this butterfly, a new sub-species for Mozambique.

 

“Oh, yeah, there we go.”

 

All the river crabs⁵ collected from the five Mozambique mountains have turned out to be new species. The researchers are collecting specimens to send to South Africa for DNA⁶ analysis.

 

“We have a nice adult-size crab⁴ here. Um, it’s a male.”

 

Lincoln Fishpool is believed to be the first ornithologist(观鸟学家) on Mount Inago. He says this East Coast Akalat(东海滨阿卡拉鸲) is one bird species rapidly heading for extinction⁷. Fishpool says this expedition is a curtain call(谢幕) for threatened forest birds.

 

"Here on Inago there is relatively⁸ little forest, certainly very little forest left, and what is seems to be going quickly. So this expedition is something of a requiem(安魂曲) for the forest birds."

 

While the outlook for species dependent on forests is poor, discoveries of new crabs, butterflies and other species make this a worthwhile expedition. The scientists hope their discoveries will spur the Mozambique government toward more conservation measures for these isolated⁹ mountains.

1 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

2 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》

3 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

4 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

5 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

7 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

9 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。