英语听力：自然百科 罕见的树袋鼠 -1

 High in the northern mountains on the island of New Guinea, in the cloud forest lives an elusive¹ animal found no where else in the world. 

 

(Hello!) With an endearing face and a thick fur, the Matschies tree kangaroos of Papua New Guinea（巴布新几内亚） are only found on the island Huon Penisular and they're endangered. Threats include a growing human population and subsistence hunting. Tree kangaroos for a long time have been part of the local diet.

 

They're difficult to study because of the remoteness of their habitat and they spend most of their lives high in the rainforest canopy², 70 to 100 feet above the ground.

 

Just getting to their home isn't easy. First, the area is inaccessible³ by vehicle, so researchers need a small plane, landing on a bumping⁴ air strip in the village of Yawan. Then, it’s a two-day hike in the dense⁵ forest, up and down steep mountain ridges⁶. Even once you get there, they're extremely difficult to find. Local hunters and trackers provide the critical skills to locate these elusive（难以找到的） animals.

 

Doctor Lisa Dabek is the director of the tree kangaroo conservation program, based at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. (- Oh, and then she'll hold. - Yes. - Cos that's what she did when she came down, right? She sort of goes through... )She studied this endangered marsupial（有袋目哺乳动物） for more than 20 years.

 

"Tree kangaroos spend most of their time high up in the trees, and so we are not able to see what they are doing up there."

 

That's why she's asked for the help of the National Geographic⁷ crittercam .

 

"This crittercam for the tree kangaroo is completely new. We've been working with National Geographic for the last few years, trying to figure out a way to have a small enough crittercam to put on a tree kangaroo."

 

It takes a team of experts for this project: scientists, veterinarians and the local hunters.

 

"These are the local land owners, who used to hunt tree kangaroos, but now they're helping⁸ us with our research. So they are the best people to find the tree kangaroos in the forest. Tree kangaroos, really hide in a tree. So you might be able to see that the moss⁹（苔藓） on the trees is the very same color as the tree kangaroos themselves. And tree kangaroos tend to hide in the moss. They look like plush（绒毛的） toys up in the branches, but they're very well-adapted for the cloud forests, with the thick fur and then they have the long claws for climbing the trees and then they have their long tail for balancing themselves. But they can also leap down from the trees onto the ground and not hurt themselves."

 

1 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

2 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

3 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。

4 bumping   

爆沸； 突沸； 放气； 崩沸

参考例句：

• The circulation of the magazine has been bumping along for some time at around 30, 000. 一段时间以来，杂志的销量一直在三万份上下摇摆。
• "Yes, "and shipped his oars without bumping the boat. "来啦，"说着从桨架上取下双桨，没有让船颠簸一下。

5 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

6 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。

7 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

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。