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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
It is not easy to excite New Yorkers. This is one reason why actors and other famous people move to the city. They can live quieter lives and escape the paparazzi photographers who would follow them in Hollywood.
But New York has a new media star. And this star is not living so quietly.
The star is a colorful Mandarin1 duck. The bird first appeared this month in a small body of water in Manhattan’s Central Park.
Large crowds have gathered to see the duck. Reporters have been following its every move. The media attention on the duck has earned the name “quackarazzi” – a word combination2 of paparazzi and the sound a duck makes!
The duck has chosen to live in a costly3 part of New York -- just off Fifth Avenue, near the historic4 Plaza5 Hotel. There, hundreds of people turn up every day, hoping to see the bird show off its extremely colorful feathers.
Many people like the duck because its colors are like “sunsets,” says New Yorker Joe Amato. He comes to the park nearly every day with his camera equipment.
Bird lovers6 have been keeping record of the bird’s daily life through social media postings and videos. People have noted7 how effortlessly the duck moves through the water. Newspaper writers have reported on its clashes8 with the common New York ducks.
This week, New York’s newest celebrity9 seemed to enjoy its fame, showing off its wings while members of the “quackarazzi” pushed each other to get a closer look.
Leesa Beckmann traveled over two hours from her home in New Jersey10 to see the duck. She says her 90-year-old mother has been talking all about the duck since its first appearance.
“I’ve got to see this…duck,” Beckmann told her mother. She plans to take pictures and give them to her mother.
Bird expert Paul Sweet heads a large collection of bird species11 at the New York-based American Museum of Natural History. He says there is nothing special about a Mandarin duck in Central Park. Central Park Zoo has its own Mandarin duck, he says. These ducks are often imported to the United States from Asia for use on private property.
Sometimes they escape, he said. Sweet said he believes this duck is an escapee. If it were wild, he added, traditional bird watchers -- often called birders -- would be “very excited.” And they are not.
“A lot of non-birders tend to see (colorful) birds as more beautiful,” Sweet said. “But to me, it’s no more beautiful than, say, a sparrow.”
In this case, though, common New Yorkers get to decide what is beautiful. And they have clearly chosen this Mandarin duck.
I’m Susan Shand.
Words in This Story
paparazzi – n. photographers who follows famous people in order to take their pictures and then sells the pictures to newspapers or magazines
feather – n. the light growths that make up the outer covering of the body of a bird
species – n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants
sparrow – n. a common type of small bird that usually has brown or gray feathers
1 Mandarin | |
n.中国官话,国语,满清官吏;adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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2 combination | |
n.组合,合并,联合; | |
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3 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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4 historic | |
adj.历史上著名的,具有历史意义的 | |
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5 plaza | |
n.广场,市场 | |
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6 lovers | |
爱好者( lover的名词复数 ); 情人; 情夫; 情侣 | |
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7 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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8 clashes | |
冲突( clash的名词复数 ); 不协调; (两群人之间的)打斗 | |
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9 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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10 jersey | |
n.运动衫 | |
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11 species | |
n.物种,种群 | |
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