【英语趣味课堂】野生动物入侵-Wild Animals' Enroachment

Adria: So you said you're kind of a wilderness¹ boy. What are your thoughts on encroachment²? Is it a problem where you live?

Shiloh: Yeah, I live up in the mountains, Adria. My home is above 3,000 meters, so I live at a very high altitude. It's--I live in the Rocky Mountains, so it's very rugged³. There aren't very many people. There's still tons of animals. And wild animal encroachment is a big problem, especially in my area of the Rocky Mountains, because we have many black bears. Black bears aren't as dangerous as brown bears, like there are at north. They're not aggressive, but they're a huge nuisance, and they cause a lot of damage.

 

For instance, I've spent a lot of time in a cabin up in the mountains. This particular cabin has been broken into by bears. Last year, in about six months, we had four different bears come in through the cabin, and they'll knock down the front door, they'll destroy the inside of the house. The refrigerator's knocked over, food everywhere. They'll break through windows. They stink⁴; they go to the bathroom. It's a terrible mess that I had to clean up, and I had to do this.

 

And it's interesting because in these situations, we didn't do anything to attract the bear. We live in a very rural area. There's nobody around for kilometers. This was up, you know, remote cabin. There's no reason for the bear to be there, other than curiosity. There was no food in the cabin at the time. I think that bears' encroaching on civilian⁵, on more urban populations, is becoming increasingly a problem, partly because they're losing their territory. People are encroaching--people are actually encroaching upon the bears. The bears aren't encroaching upon the people. It's the other way around. And we have to expect that they are going to be curious and be hungry, because they have no food. So we can't really blame them when it happens. But we have to figure out a way to fix it, because it is a problem and people still do get hurt, especially with mountain lions, which is a big deal.

 

Adria: So, have you had any personal experience, or anybody you know that's been like physically⁶ harmed by one of these animals?

 

Shiloh: Well, mountain lions, not, no, because although we have a lot of mountain lions, they are cats and you never see them. They kill a lot of animals. Mountain lions, especially, will kill a lot of sheep and baby calves⁷, which we have many where I live, so in that sense, it's a problem. They cause a lot of monetary⁸ damage, because a cow costs $500, and they're killing⁹ cows. But as far as people go, cats don't really hurt people.

 

Bears, on the other hand, do. Up in the northern states of United States, brown bears are very dangerous. They're aggressive. They'll actually come after humans. Where I live, we have brown bears, and they're a little less aggressive. But I still am familiar with one of my friends (he's not really a friend but an acquaintance) who was camping, and it was partly his mistake because he had food inside his tent with him, instead of like in an ice chest outside close. The bear came through the tent and, while trying to grab the food, accidentally grabbed my friend's arm, and he had a huge gash¹⁰ on his arm. He had to have two surgeries to fix it, lots of stitches. It was a mess.

 

重点学习内容：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

rugged

 

It's very rugged.

 

High rugged mountains are very difficult to travel over. Notice the following:

 

The rugged mountains made travel slow and dangerous.

The Himalayas is home to the world's most rugged mountains.

huge nuisance

 

Black bears are a huge nuisance.

 

Someone or something that is a nuisance makes us a little angry. Notice the following:

 

Traffic jams are a huge nuisance.

Mosquitoes are a huge nuisance in the summer.

encroach

 

Bears encroaching on civilians¹¹ is a problem.

 

Here, to encroach means to slowly take away someone's land or ability to live there as they have in the past. Notice the following:

 

Encroachment is a growing problem in the jungles of Indonesia.

India's wild tiger population has seriously decreased due to encroachment.

the other way around

 

It's the other way around.

 

We use the phrase 'the other way around' to show that the opposite is true. Notice the following:

 

I didn't hit him first; it's the other way around.

Actually, she's not shy. It's the other way around.

gash

 

My friend had a gash. 

 

A gash is a serious wound. Notice the following:

 

He has a small gash on his forehead, but he'll be OK.

The doctor quickly closed the gash.

1 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 encroachment   

n.侵入，蚕食

参考例句：

• I resent the encroachment on my time.我讨厌别人侵占我的时间。
• The eagle broke away and defiantly continued its encroachment.此时雕挣脱开对方，继续强行入侵。

3 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。

4 stink   

vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• The stink of the rotten fish turned my stomach.腐烂的鱼臭味使我恶心。
• The room has awful stink.那个房间散发着难闻的臭气。

5 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

6 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

7 calves   

n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解

参考例句：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 gash   

v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝

参考例句：

• The deep gash in his arm would take weeks to heal over.他胳膊上的割伤很深，需要几个星期的时间才能痊愈。
• After the collision,the body of the ship had a big gash.船被撞后，船身裂开了一个大口子。

11 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。