英语听力：探索发现 2012-07-11 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—23

 For those few dinosaurs² from whom fossilized feathers had been found, largely in China, we can now put the finishing touches to our construction.

 

So has this changed the way that artists are painting their reconstructions⁴? I mean you often see some dinosaurs, you’ve got a very good idea exactly what they looked like? 

 

Yes, it is changing the way people view them. If we have a look at these paintings of Sinosauropteryx which is one of the lovely little dinosaurs. This was probably done five or six years ago, it looks a bit odd. I mean they’ve got the textures⁵ of the feathers. That's more or less what we would believe from the fossil. But they made it a strange sea-green kind of colour. A few years later, the same artists are able to have used a picture like this which shows the same dinosaur¹ but with a very definite ginger⁶, white, ginger, white, sort of barber’s-pole stripe on the tail.

 

So this is based on your analysis of colour of this particular dinosaur.

 

Yes. Yes. Of this particular dinosaur. We took samples from the dark stripes. And we can say these dark stripes were not red or black or whatever. They were ginger.

 

Right. That's just amazing. So this is more than just being able to put a little bit of colour on your illustration. It's actually telling you something quite important about dinosaurs.

 

Yes, it may say something about behaviour which we wouldn't have thought, we could never get to. If they are coloured, and if they are striped and patterned, there must be some visual purpose, signaling of some kind, camouflage⁷ or sexual display or warning thing, you know, ‘I have a flash of colour, don't mess with me’, you know. So there are all sorts of reasons they may have had those colours.

 

These new discoveries really do bring dinosaurs right out of the realm of the mythical⁸ and the fantastical. They are not imagined creatures at all. They are real. And with some of them when we have all this information, we can look at a reconstruction³ and know that that is a life-like representation of that animal, from the size and shape of its body to the way it holds itself, the way it moves down to it colour, all of that is rooted in science.

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

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 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。

4 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。

5 textures   

n.手感( texture的名词复数 )；质感；口感；（音乐或文学的）谐和统一感

参考例句：

• I'm crazy about fabrics textures and colors and designs. 我喜欢各式各样的纺织物--对它的质地，色彩到花纹图案--简直是入了迷。 来自辞典例句
• Let me clear up the point about the textures. 让我明确了一点有关的纹理。 来自互联网

6 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

7 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

8 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。