英语听力：探索发现 2012-06-20 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—14

 -If I bring a bone over, we can superimpose these two. It's got one big muscle attachment¹ right here and the dinosaurs² have a muscle scar just like this. It appears in the first bipedal dinosaurs, this scar on the outside of the fibula and it is not present in earlier animals. So this is another link between dinosaurs and birds.-So I must look for that the next time I see …

 

-Yeah, you can see that. T-rexes have a huge one of those, a massive scar like this big.

 

By estimating the muscle sizes of extinct animals and inputting³ them into computer models, John is able to get an incredible new insight into how dinosaurs actually moved. 

 

-It's basically running a simulation. The computer’s figuring out what is the best way to use these muscles, given what we’ve put in to raise the body up. We are not animating⁴ it. And we are not saying, “Do it this way.” We are just giving it some basic rules of biology. This is what kinds of things you should be trying to do overall and let it find the best solution.

 

-Yeah. So John you've actually done right, trying to reconstruct how T-rex would have looked, how its muscles would have worked, how he would have run. What kind of results have you got from that?

 

-Yes. So we found using our computer models that human sprinters which can do 25 miles an hour or a little faster would probably be pretty well matched for a muscular tyrannosaurus or an average human who can run about 15 miles per hour would probably be a pretty good match for a kind of skinnier version of a T-rex.

 

-John, I’ve heard some theories where T-rex has been put forward as running very fast, probably faster than that. So has your work basically disapproved⁵ that?

 

-I think it's put a lot of doubt in that idea that a T-rex could run like as fast as a race horse, or even faster, like forty miles an hour, something like that. I don't think you’ll need an automobile⁶ to outrun a T-rex.

 

-We do have a chance of outrunning them, running away.

 

-Never gonna happen, thankfully. 

 

The work of scientists like John has allowed us to not only refine our ideas about these extinct animals, but has actually transformed our image of them. If you think about tyrannosaurus, T-rexes for example, we used to think of him as standing⁷ upright like gorilla⁸, but now we know he couldn't have worked like that. You treat him like an engineering problem, in format⁹, using comparative anatomy¹⁰ of living animals. And how we know that his body was much more horizontal with his tail held up in the air, and our reconstructions¹¹ are much more robust¹². We are getting as close as we possibly can to what this long-dead animal would have looked like.

1 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 inputting   

v.把…输入电脑( input的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Micro-motor drive, open the door by inputting the password. 微电机驱动，输入密码，箱门开启。 来自互联网
• In charge of matching and inputting invoice in SAP system. 负责在SAP系统内匹配及输入发票信息。 来自互联网

4 animating   

v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命

参考例句：

• Nature has her animating spirit as well as man who is nature's child. 大自然就象它的孩子――人类一样，有活生生的灵魂。 来自辞典例句
• They were doubtlessly the animating principle of many hours that superficially seemed vacant. 在表面看来无所事事的许多时刻中，它们无疑是活跃的因素。 来自辞典例句

5 disapproved   

v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My parents disapproved of my marriage. 我父母不赞成我的婚事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She disapproved of her son's indiscriminate television viewing. 她不赞成儿子不加选择地收看电视。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

9 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

10 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

11 reconstructions   

重建( reconstruction的名词复数 )； 再现； 重建物； 复原物

参考例句：

• Multicolored reconstructions have been formed using (black and white) volume holographic plates. 利用黑白体积全息片已经做成了彩色重建象。
• The method gives ways to evaluate collision speed in traffic accident reconstructions. 该模型为交通事故再现推算碰撞速度提供了有效实用的方法。

12 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。