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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
It’s the wettest of all African deserts, the great Kalahari.
The sands of the Kalahari cover more of southern Africa than any other desert. But the higher rainfall here gives it a very distinctive1 appearance. More like a savanna2, its sandy ridges3 carpeted with grasses and a scattering4 of trees. In the wet season, the Kalahari sands are loosened by the rain, making them easier to excavate5.
Damara mole6-rats who spend their lives underground are now at their most active, hunting for roots and bulbs. But digging takes one thousand times more energy than traveling on the surface. And even in this greenist African deserts, the bulbs can be widely spread.
Living on its own, a single mole rat would never find enough to eat. So these small rodents7 have evolved a cooperative life style with up to forty family members working together. Like ants or bees, only the queen mole rat breeds and all her workers are sterile8 females. But everybody will benefit from the extra mouths who eventually join in the hunt for food.
Damara mole rats are unusual in that their lips are actually behind their front teeth. It helps them to avoid swallowing sand while digging. But it also stops them drinking. So they must extract all the moisture they need from the bulbs.
During the wet season, the bulbs are gathered quickly before they germinate9 and lose their goodness. The mole rats store them in special larders10 as insurance against the dry months ahead.
words:
1.ridge:any long raised strip脊
2.scattering:stretch长长的分散的带
3.excavate:to dig挖掘
4.extract:disinter...out of from...挖出
5.germinate:to sprout from a seed发芽
1 distinctive | |
adj.特别的,有特色的,与众不同的 | |
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2 savanna | |
n.大草原 | |
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3 ridges | |
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊 | |
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4 scattering | |
n.[物]散射;散乱,分散;在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的;分散在不同范围的;广泛扩散的;(选票)数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式);散布;驱散 | |
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5 excavate | |
vt.挖掘,挖出 | |
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6 mole | |
n.胎块;痣;克分子 | |
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7 rodents | |
n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 ) | |
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8 sterile | |
adj.不毛的,不孕的,无菌的,枯燥的,贫瘠的 | |
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9 germinate | |
v.发芽;发生;发展 | |
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10 larders | |
n.(家中的)食物贮藏室,食物橱( larder的名词复数 ) | |
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