英语听力：自然百科 Dinosaur Mummy's Meal Revealed “恐龙木乃伊”面世

 With the exception of the trains that roll in the town a couple of times a day, the small ranch¹ town of Malta, Montana is pretty quiet these days. The landscape is a far cry from what it was 77 million years ago when dinosaurs³ roamed the area. The now rolling grassy⁴ hills replaced rich rivers, rivers that scientists believe led to the death of many duck-billed dinosaurs.

 

In the summer of 2000, paleontologists struck gold here, uncovering the most perfectly⁵ fossilized plant-eating dinosaur² ever discovered and with almost all of its skin intact and fossilized. It would also give paleontologists their best evidence yet about the eating habits of plant-eating dinosaurs. They named the mummified dinosaur Leonardo, named after a piece of graffiti on a nearby rock. Joel Bartsch, the president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, explains that because Leonardo died and was buried almost immediately, 90% of the body was preserved, including much of the dinosaur's skin and stomach contents.

 

What's really cool about Leonardo is that he was buried so quickly when he died that most of his skin, 90% of his skin intact, is found intact, still in place. And the thing that scientists are very interested in is that much of the stomach contents were preserved.

 

The contents of Leonardo's stomach are helping⁶ scientists establish what the habitat in which the dinosaur lived was like. Leonardo was approximately four years old, and would have been about twenty feet long, weighing around one ton. According to the Associated Press, scientists believe Leonardo died while trapped on a sandbar surrounded by high waters and that his body dried out before it was covered in sand. Over time, his body fossilized and is proven to be a virtual encyclopedia⁷ on plant-eating dinosaur digestion⁸.

 

What makes it unique, what makes it incredibly exciting isn't the outer mummy but the inner mummy. Here's a hole, ripped through the gut⁹ wall, the side of the stomach and you can look through that, that hole. You can actually see the guts¹⁰ in work, at work. You can see the digestive process churning around. It's the very first dinosaur, plant-eating dinosaur ever found where you've got a window into a process of digesting and removing proteins and energy from the food.

 

Very little was known about what the duck-billed dinosaur ate since plant matter needs very special conditions to be preserved.

 

Looking at the teeth, we concluded it was grinding up the toughest vegetation available like a horse or zebra would. That's a theory, theory in anatomy¹¹. We didn't have the crime scene proof. We've got it now.

 

Leonardo has provided scientists a more complete picture than ever before of the dinosaur's ecosystem¹² and environment just like a time capsule. The exhibit opens to the public at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in September.

1 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

2 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。

3 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》

4 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 encyclopedia   

n.百科全书

参考例句：

• The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
• Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书，他什么都懂。

8 digestion   

n.消化，吸收

参考例句：

• This kind of tea acts as an aid to digestion.这种茶可助消化。
• This food is easy of digestion.这食物容易消化。

9 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

10 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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。

12 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。