Life in the Freezer 冰雪童话 - 9

The male usually leads. If the female is sufficiently¹ impressed, the pair seal their relationship with a vocal² duet.

King Penguin³ rookeries are very busy places. Every morning at about 6:00, the adults leave their chicks, cross the glacier⁴ stream and march down to the sea. They like to take an early morning bath, getting rid of the smelly mud and grime of the crowded colony. For an hour or so, they wash in the surf.

These penguins⁵ seem to have a fairly easy time of it, surrounded by an ocean laden⁶ with food, and with year-round access to their breeding beaches, but they are one of the few of Antarctica's inhabitants that have achieved independence from the factor that governs almost everything else －the advance and retreat of the sea ice.

King Penguin and albatross live only on the frontier of the Antarctica. They never go closer to the pole than the edge of the sea ice. But next week, we will. As spring really takes hold, we will follow the retreating sea ice to the shores of the continent, and then go up onto the great icecap, to the very heart of the Antarctica where life in the freezer faces its greatest challenge.

New Words & Phrases

duet:A composition for two voices or instruments.
二重唱；二重奏

grime:Black dirt or soot⁷, especially such dirt clinging to or ingrained in a surface.
污垢，灰垢

1 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

2 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

3 penguin   

n.企鹅

参考例句：

• The penguin is a flightless bird.企鹅是一种不会飞的鸟。
• He walked with an awkward gait like a penguin.他走路的步子难看得就像企鹅。

4 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

5 penguins   

n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why can penguins live in cold environment? 为什么企鹅能生活在寒冷的环境中？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Whales, seals, penguins, and turtles have flippers. 鲸、海豹，企鹅和海龟均有鳍形肢。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

7 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。