VOA慢速英语2020 美国动物园公布大熊猫幼崽为雄性（在线收听）

The Smithsonian National Zoo has confirmed that its six-week old giant panda is a male.

美国史密森尼国家动物园证实，六周大的大熊猫幼崽为雄性。

he finding was announced on a zoo video earlier this week. Panda-keepers showed a painting in blue made by the baby's father, Tian Tian. Blue is a color culturally linked to baby boys in the United States and many other places. For baby girls, the color is pink.

本周早些时候动物园的一段视频公布了这一发现。熊猫饲养员向大家展示了一幅由熊猫宝宝的父亲“田田”绘制的蓝色油画。在美国以及其他许多地方的文化中蓝色代表男婴，粉红色则代表女婴。

The giant panda was born August 21. Male and female giant pandas look very similar when young, so the zoo did a genetic test to learn the sex of the newborn.

这只大熊猫宝宝出生于8月21日。雄性大熊猫和雌性大熊猫在幼年时看起来非常相似，因此动物园做了一项基因测试来解析新生大熊猫的性别。

The panda cub does not yet have a name. The zoo usually waits until giant pandas are 100 days old to give them a name.

熊猫宝宝还没有名字。动物园通常会等到大熊猫100天大时才给它们取名字。

The baby was born pink and almost hairless. At the time, the zoo said the newborn was about the size of a stick of butter -- about 12 centimeters long and weighing 110 grams. Now, he is more black and white in coloring. And he has grown quickly. He measures about 35 centimeters long and weighs about 1.6 kilograms.

熊猫宝宝出生时是粉红色的，几乎没有毛发。当时动物园称，这只新生的熊猫幼崽只有一根黄油大小——大约12厘米长，重110克。现在它是黑白相间的颜色，而且长得很快——目前已长约35厘米，重约1.6公斤。

His mother Mei Xiang is much bigger --- weighing about 105 kilograms.

他的母亲美香要大得多，重约105公斤。

The birth was welcomed as rare, happy news during the COVID-19 health crisis, which forced the zoo to close for several months.

在新冠肺炎健康危机期间，这只小家伙的出生受到了热烈欢迎。新冠危机迫使动物园关闭了几个月。

After Mei Xiang's pregnancy was announced in August, internet traffic on the zoo's popular Panda live video feed increased by 1,200 percent, zoo officials said. When the baby was born about a week later, traffic went so high that the video connection broke for many watchers. Zoo officials had to add bandwidth as a result.

动物园官方表示，在8月份美香怀孕的消息公布后，动物园很受欢迎的熊猫直播视频的网络流量增加了1200%。宝宝出生大约一周后，由于流量非常大导致很多观看者的视频连接中断。动物园官方甚至不得不为此增加带宽。

"Something like this is kind of a miracle for us," National Zoo Director Steve Monfort said at the time. "It lifts the spirits of my team and the whole world."

“这种事情对我们来说就是一个奇迹，”国家动物园主管史蒂夫·蒙福特当时说道，“它鼓舞了我的团队和整个世界的士气。”

For now, the Panda-cam is still the only way the public can see the pandas. The zoo reopened in a limited way on July 24. But the panda house remains closed to visitors.

目前，熊猫频道仍然是公众观看熊猫的唯一途径。动物园于7月24日限量开放，但熊猫馆仍然闭馆。

Mei Xiang, at age 22, is the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States. The oldest panda in the world to give birth was 23 at the time and in China.

22岁的美香是美国最年长的成功产仔的大熊猫。当今世界最年长的产仔的熊猫是中国的23岁的熊猫。

Mei Xiang is mother to three other young, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei. They went to live in China at age four, under an agreement between China and the United States.

美香是另外三个孩子的母亲——泰山，宝宝和贝贝。根据中美双方的协议，它们在四岁时回到中国生活。