雅思聽力對話：渡渡鳥的滅亡01
聽力原文及翻譯
One of the most famous cases of extinction is that of a bird known as the dodo. In fact, there's even a saying in English, "as dead as the dodo," used to refer to something which no longer exists. But for many centuries, the dodo was alive and well, although it could only be found in one place: the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It was a very large bird, about 1 metre tall, and over the centuries, it had lost the ability to fly. But it survived happily under the trees that covered the island.
最著名的滅絕案例之一是一種名為渡渡鳥的鳥類。事實上，英語中甚至有一句諺語“死得和渡渡鳥一樣”，用來指不再存在的東西。但許多世紀(jì)以來，渡渡鳥一直活得很好，盡管它只能在一個地方找到：印度洋上的毛里求斯島。它是一種非常大的鳥，大約 1 米高，幾個世紀(jì)以來，它已經(jīng)失去了飛翔的能力。但它在覆蓋島嶼的樹木下快樂地生存著。
Then, in the year 1507, the first Portuguese ships stopped at the island. The sailors were carrying spices back to Europe and found the island a convenient stopping place where they could stock up with food and water for the rest of the voyage. But they didn't settle on Mauritius. However, in 1638, the Dutch arrived and set up a colony there. These first human inhabitants of the island found the dodo birds a convenient source of meat, although not every one liked the taste.
然后，在 1507 年，第一批葡萄牙船只停泊在該島。水手們帶著香料返回歐洲，發(fā)現(xiàn)這個島嶼是一個方便的?？奎c，他們可以在那里為接下來的航程儲備食物和水。但他們并沒有在毛里求斯定居。然而，在 1638 年，荷蘭人到達并在那里建立了殖民地。這些島上的第一批人類居民發(fā)現(xiàn)渡渡鳥是一種方便的肉食來源，盡管并不是每個人都喜歡它的味道。
It's hard to get an accurate description of what the dodo actually looked like. We do have some written records from sailors and a few pictures, but we don't know how reliable these are. The best-known picture is a Dutch painting in which the bird appears to be extremely fat, but this may not be accurate. An Indian painting done at the same time shows a much thinner bird.
很難準(zhǔn)確描述渡渡鳥的長相。我們確實有一些水手的書面記錄和幾張照片，但我們不知道這些有多可靠。最著名的一幅畫是一幅荷蘭畫，畫中的渡渡鳥看起來非常胖，但這也許并不準(zhǔn)確。同時期的一幅印度畫則畫了一只瘦得多的渡渡鳥。
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