英语听力：探索发现 2012-06-24 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—16

 With his miniature model of an adult T-rex for reference, along with the growing patterns of close relatives of tyrannosaurs, it's possible to work out the likely proportions of the baby. The starting point for the sculpture is a simple illustration.

 

-So, let's start up. T-rex usually an adult, its skull¹ is a great weight to measure because it's so big. But in babies, the skull’s gonna be thinner. The rule is always that the orbit is gonna be larger. Also when you look at human babies, we notice they're about three heads tall, whereas in an adult human which is anywhere from seven to nine depending on how tall they are. 

 

-Do you find yourself as you’re looking at other people's reconstructions³ and thinking, “oh god, they’ve got that wrong”?

 

-Yes. There are a bunch of people who are out there, who were coming from maybe film or special effects or something like that. They are doing this kind of work from a lesson-formed background. So I'm very privileged to work with a scientist. And that's definitely an asset that I don't dare forget.

 

-He is looking nice, this little T-rex.

 

But with limited fossil remains⁴, the reconstruction² has room for creative license⁵. 

 

-Can you draw me another baby T-rex based on the same evidence but taking it off from a bit of a different direction?

 

-Sure. Let's do the same thing. We have a head. There’s a lot of evidence that some of them might have feathers, and that maybe some of them, when they were young, would have had some sort of downy covering that would have left in adulthood⁶ so that it would have been shed before they were fully⁷ grown.

 

-This little baby is looking extraordinarily⁸ bird-like. It has really long legs. Is this a reasonable interpretation⁹?

 

-There is nothing that says that it can't be this way.

 

-Right. They are fantastic. The same creature but they are very different. Even without the feathers here, the length of the legs is quite extraordinary in this one. And I love the feathers. I mean that just immediately makes it look like a completely different creature. It shows you that there’s quite a bit of room for artistic¹⁰ maneuver¹¹, I think, in these reconstructions.

 

-Yes. Definitely. Definitely.

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

3 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。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

6 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

9 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

10 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

11 maneuver   

n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略

参考例句：

• All the fighters landed safely on the airport after the military maneuver.在军事演习后，所有战斗机都安全降落在机场上。
• I did get her attention with this maneuver.我用这个策略确实引起了她的注意。