英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力文摘 真的有大腳怪嗎？

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The Real Bigfoot

真的有大腳怪嗎?

Everybody has heard of Bigfoot, the gigantic ape-like creature that supposedly haunts the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Plenty of enthusiasts believe Bigfoot is real, though there isn’t any evidence that would be convincing to a primatologist– a scientist who studies primates, such as apes and humans.

However, there once was a creature that actually resembled what Bigfoot is supposed to look like. That creature was the Asian Gigantopithecus, or “Giant Ape.” And giant it was. Based on the very fragmentary fossil evidence we have, Gigantopithecus stood ten feet tall and weighed over half a ton. A creature like that would tower over any Bigfoot.

Giganto, as it is called for short, seems to have been a bamboo eater, something like modern day panda bears. It first appears in the fossil records we have about six-point-three million years ago and probably only disappeared for good around two hundred thousand years ago.

Why it went extinct no one knows for sure, but a reasonable guess is: us. Humans moved into Giganto’s territory some eight hundred thousand years ago, and within half a million years or so it was gone. Did our early ancestors hunt it to extinction? Did they deplete the bamboo resources themselves? We don’t know. But the evidence makes it look like the real Bigfoot had more to fear from us than we do from him.

大家聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)大腳怪吧，它是在一種常出沒(méi)于太平洋西北部森林似猿的巨型怪獸。許多熱心人士都認(rèn)為大腳怪是真實(shí)存在的，盡管目前并沒(méi)有任何證據(jù)使靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物學(xué)家相信。靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物學(xué)家是研究靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物的，例如猿和人類。

然而，實(shí)際上曾經(jīng)有一種生物跟大腳怪長(zhǎng)得很像。這種生物就是亞洲巨猿，也叫巨人猿。它的確很大。基于我們擁有非常零碎的化石記錄，巨猿身高十英尺，體重超過(guò)半噸。像這樣的生物遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高過(guò)大腳怪。

巨猿簡(jiǎn)稱希甘托，這個(gè)名字聽(tīng)上去好像是吃竹子的，就像現(xiàn)代的熊貓。它第一次出現(xiàn)在化石紀(jì)錄中是630萬(wàn)年前，并且消失的時(shí)間大概在20萬(wàn)年前。

巨猿為什么會(huì)滅絕，沒(méi)有人確切地知道。但是有一種合理的猜測(cè)：我們?nèi)祟?。人類大約在80萬(wàn)年前遷入巨猿的居住地，大約在100萬(wàn)年內(nèi)它們就消失了。是我們?cè)缙诘淖嫦柔鳙C導(dǎo)致巨猿滅絕的嗎?是巨猿耗盡竹資源的嗎?我們無(wú)從知曉。但種種跡象表明大腳怪更懼怕我們?nèi)祟?，而不是人類懼怕大腳怪。

注：大腳怪，又叫“沙斯夸支”，是在美國(guó)和加拿大發(fā)現(xiàn)但未證實(shí)的一種似猿的巨型怪獸。在北美的印第安人中，早就流傳著這種神秘怪獸的傳說(shuō)。但確鑿的足跡最早是在1811年發(fā)現(xiàn)的。當(dāng)時(shí)探險(xiǎn)家大衛(wèi)·湯普遜從加拿大

的杰斯普鎮(zhèn)橫洛磯山脈前往美國(guó)的哥倫比亞河河口，途中看到一串人形的巨大腳印，每個(gè)長(zhǎng)30厘米，寬18厘米。由于湯普遜沒(méi)有見(jiàn)到這種動(dòng)物，只看到大得吃人的腳印。他報(bào)道了這一消息后，人們就用“大腳怪”來(lái)稱呼

這種怪獸。從此以后，關(guān)于發(fā)現(xiàn)大腳怪或其腳印的消息絡(luò)繹不絕，至少有750人自稱他們見(jiàn)到了大腳怪，還有更多的人見(jiàn)到了巨大的腳印。雖然不少科學(xué)家認(rèn)為大腳怪是虛妄之談，但有些報(bào)道不能不引起人們的注意