学生学习如何照顾动物

AS IT IS 2016-02-16 Students Learn Hands-on With Animals 学生学习如何照顾动物

Talking birds, goats butting¹ heads, and a giant tortoise that hangs out with chickens are all part of a living classroom.

High-school students at the Career Center in Arlington, Virginia are learning firsthand, and hands-on, how to care for animals. They are at the animal science laboratory, learning about, and taking care of, about 50 species of animals.

Holding a happy rabbit in her arms, Elleny Alemu says it is “so cute.” She says soon she will be getting one of her own.

Miguel Zambrano doesn’t feel the same way about Snickers. That is a temperamental brown miniature horse. Zambrano is feeding her hay, hoping she will let him brush her.

“She gets mad if you just sometimes don’t even pay attention to her. I do not want a horse. It’s going to be way too much work.”

Zambrano is one of 70 students taking the yearlong animal science program. Students learn in class and hands-on with the animals. It gives them both class credit and a chance to learn what it is like to work with animals.

Sydney Miller² takes a rabbit for a walk, to give it exercise. She takes the animal on a leash³, like a dog. They walk past cages of rats, salamanders and even a hedgehog.

“I wanted to learn more about different kinds of animals and get like a hands-on experience.”

Something not so fun she has to do is clean the rabbit’s cage. Rabbits are very dirty, actually, she explains.

“I have to clean his litter box and bedding every day.”

One day, Miller hopes to be a veterinary technician.

Many high schools have animal science programs.  But animal-science teacher Cindy Schall says this program is different because they have a large number of different kinds of animals. They include exotic sugar gliders⁵ -- small nocturnal marsupials with big eyes that live in Australia and Indonesia.

The students take turns every two weeks taking care of a different animal.  Everything from cats to the less than human-friendly scorpions⁸.

Schall explains that the students learn “hand taming.” They have to hold them for at least 10 minutes. Yes, that includes snakes and even tarantulas — a kind of sometimes deadly spider. Schall says she helps the student, by first holding the animal herself.

Part of the care includes weighing the animals and checking them for any health problems. Sarah Maller looks into the eyes of a rodent⁹, a degu.

"I have to see if there are any little eyelashes or anything in the way, or scratches.”

Kimberly Rodriquez learned something new when she fed a turtle a small dead mouse in a tank with fish.  She says she was surprised to find out the turtle eats meat, and he gets along with the fish.

Lab assistant Rebecca Brumbaugh helps the students. She says that, like people, animals have minds of their own.

“They have their good days and their bad days.”

Megan Johnson wants to be a vet⁴. She pet a chinchilla as she held it.

"The different animals have different personalities¹⁰ and they connect with different humans.”

Ruben Stann weighs a golden-colored albino horned frog. He says he feels an emotional bond with animals.

"You have to kind of make a little connection. For me, it's very relaxing."

And connecting to the natural world is not always easy for the students living in the mostly urban Virginia towns just outside Washington, D.C.

Words in This Story

tortoise –n. a turtle that lives on the land

firsthand –adj. coming directly from seeing or experiencing something

rabbit –n. a small animal that usually lived in holes in the ground, with soft fur and long ears

temperamental –adj. likely to become upset or angry

miniature – adj. very small

leash –n. long thin piece of rope or chain used to hold an animal

salamander -n. a tailed amphibian¹¹, which have a soft, moist, scaleless skin

hedgehog -n.  a mammal with spiny¹² hairs on the back and sides

veterinary technician –n. a person who helps a veterinarian, an animal doctor

exotic –adj. very different, strange or unusual

nocturnal – adj. something active at night

marsupial⁶ –n. a kind of animal, like a kangaroo, that carries its babies in a pocket of skin on the mother’s stomach

scorpion⁷ –n. a small animal related to spiders, with two front claws and a curved tail with poison in the end

hand taming – n. training animals to obey people

chinchilla - n. a small South American animal that has soft gray fur

albino –adj. lacking pigment¹³, white

urban –adj. relating to cities and people who live in them

1 butting   

用头撞人（犯规动作）

参考例句：

• When they were talking Mary kept butting in. 当他们在谈话时，玛丽老是插嘴。
• A couple of goats are butting each other. 两只山羊在用角互相顶撞。

2 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

3 leash   

n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住

参考例句：

• I reached for the leash,but the dog got in between.我伸手去拿系狗绳，但被狗挡住了路。
• The dog strains at the leash,eager to be off.狗拼命地扯拉皮带，想挣脱开去。

4 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

5 gliders   

n.滑翔机( glider的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The albatross is the king of gliders. 信天翁是滑翔鸟类之王。 来自《用法词典》
• For three summers, may bested and improved their gliders. 他们花了三个夏天不断地测试、改进。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

6 marsupial   

adj.有袋的，袋状的

参考例句：

• Koala is an arboreal Australian marsupial.考拉是一种澳大利亚树栖有袋动物。
• The marsupial has been in decline for decades due to urban sprawl from car accidentsdog attacks.这种有袋动物其数量在过去几十年间逐渐减少,主要原因是城市的扩张、车祸和狗的袭击。

7 scorpion   

n.蝎子，心黑的人，蝎子鞭

参考例句：

• The scorpion has a sting that can be deadly.蝎子有可以致命的螫针。
• The scorpion has a sting that can be deadly.蝎子有可以致命的螫针。

8 scorpions   

n.蝎子( scorpion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You promise me that Black Scorpions will never come back to Lanzhou. 你保证黑蝎子永远不再踏上兰州的土地。 来自电影对白
• You Scorpions are rather secretive about your likes and dislikes. 天蝎：蝎子是如此的神秘，你的喜好很难被别人洞悉。 来自互联网

9 rodent   

n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的

参考例句：

• When there is a full moon,this nocturnal rodent is careful to stay in its burrow.月圆之夜，这种夜间活动的啮齿类动物会小心地呆在地洞里不出来。
• This small rodent can scoop out a long,narrow tunnel in a very short time.这种小啮齿动物能在很短的时间里挖出一条又长又窄的地道来。

10 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

11 amphibian   

n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆

参考例句：

• The frog is an amphibian,which means it can live on land and in water.青蛙属于两栖动物，也就是说它既能生活在陆地上也能生活在水里。
• Amphibian is an important specie in ecosystem and has profound meaning in the ecotoxicology evaluation.两栖类是生态系统中的重要物种，并且对环境毒理评价有着深远意义。

12 spiny   

adj.多刺的，刺状的；n.多刺的东西

参考例句：

• This is the Asiatic ornamental shrub with spiny branches and pink blossoms.这就是亚洲的一种观赏灌木，具有多刺的枝和粉红色的花。
• Stay away from a spiny cactus.远离多刺仙人掌。

13 pigment   

n.天然色素，干粉颜料

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls.古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。
• Who thought he might know what the skin pigment phenomenon meant.他自认为可能知道皮肤色素出现这种现象到底是怎么回事。