Sauropod托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Sauropod托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Sauropod托福听力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a zoology class.FEMALE PROFESSOR:Your reading for today touched on dinosaur fossils from the Mesozoic era Today,we'll be discussing the sauropods.I think our discussion of sauropods will illustrate what we can learn by comparing the fossil record to By"fossils,"we mean traces of prehistoric animals–such as bones,which become mineralized...or impressions of bones or organs that're left in stone...Now,sauropods were among the largest animals to exist,ever. They were larger than blue whales,which are the they weighed up to 100 tons–20 times as much as elephants. Also,they were an there's evidence of sauropods in the fossil record for an So:Why were sauropods so successful?

Biologically speaking,sauropods shouldn't have been successful.Large animals–like this makes maintaining a population harder.The largest animals today don't live on land,

but and they give birth only once every few years. We also know that body heat–that...uh,well...large but for an ocean-going whale,that's not a problem;  for a 100-ton land animal,it can be.

For years we've assumed it was the abundant plant life of the Mesozoic that allowed these giants to However,we now know that,since oxygen levels were much lower in the Mesozoic than we'd So now?well,we're looking at other–we...we're-we're trying to understand the biology of sauropods,comparing their fossils to the What we've found is that sauropods were experts at conserving energy.

They had enormous stomach capacity–the ability to digest food over a long period...converting it to energy at a slower For animals with small stomachs,it takes lots of energy to constantly with larger stomachs and slower digestion,you don't need as much MALE STUDENT:Does...mm,do scientists actually know about ... and comparisons between animals that lived millions of years apart–w-well,it just seems...more like guessing.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:There's always guesswork when studying extinct animals;but we"test"the hypothesis,by then some questions are answered,which may lead to new question...For example:Let's look at one of these comparisons?

We know sauropods couldn't chew food–their skulls show they had no chewing muscles.Lots of modern animals–like birds and they need to swallow it whole. But modern animals have an interesting aid for They swallow stones...stones that're used to help grind up the food...before it's actually These stones are called"gastroliths."Gastroliths make food easier to digest,Over time,gastroliths inside the animal are ground Now,sauropod fossils are commonly found with smoothed stones...for years,they looked just like gastroliths,and were found in the area of the A recent study measured the gastroliths in modern animals–in ostriches...and the study showed that But we've been able to determine So now,we're not quite sure what these sauropod stones were used for.It could be they were Other So,the original hypothesis–that the stones found with sauropods were gastroliths–even though it

二、Sauropod托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在动物学课上听一部分讲座。女教授：你今天的阅读触及了中生代的恐龙化石。今天，我们将讨论蜥脚类动物。我认为，我们对蜥脚类动物的讨论将说明我们可以通过将化石记录与“化石”进行比较来了解到什么。我们指的是史前动物的痕迹——比如被矿化的骨骼……或者留在石头中的骨骼或器官的印记……现在，蜥脚动物是有史以来最大的动物之一&nbsp；它们比蓝鲸大，蓝鲸重100吨，是大象的20倍&nbsp；此外，它们是一种蜥脚类动物，在化石记录中有证据表明，蜥脚目动物如此成功，原因是什么？

从生物学角度来说，蜥脚类动物不应该成功。大型动物——这使得维持种群更加困难。今天最大的动物不生活在陆地上，

但是他们每几年只生一次孩子&nbsp；我们也知道身体的热量——那……呃，嗯……很大，但对于远洋鲸鱼来说，这不是问题&nbsp&nbsp；对于一个100吨重的陆地动物来说，它可能是。

多年来，我们一直认为是中生代丰富的植物生命使这些巨型生物得以生存。然而，我们现在知道，由于中生代的含氧量比我们现在低得多？嗯，我们正在研究其他——我们……我们——我们试图了解蜥脚类动物的生物学，将它们的化石与我们发现的化石进行比较，我们发现蜥脚动物是保存能量的专家。

他们有巨大的胃容量——在长时间内消化食物的能力……以较慢的速度将食物转化为能量。对于胃小的动物来说，需要大量的能量才能不断地消化。胃大，消化速度慢，你不需要那么多男学生：是不是……嗯，科学家们真的知道&nbsp；和相隔数百万年的动物之间的比较——嗯，这似乎更像是猜测。

女教授：在研究灭绝的动物时总是有猜测；但我们“检验”了假设，然后回答了一些问题，这可能会引出一个新问题……例如：让我们看看这些比较中的一个？

我们知道蜥脚类动物不会咀嚼食物——它们的头骨表明它们没有咀嚼肌肉。许多现代动物——比如鸟类，它们需要整个吞咽&nbsp；但现代动物有一个有趣的辅助手段，因为它们吞下石头…用来帮助研磨食物的石头…在它们真正成为食物之前，这些石头被称为“胃石”。胃石使食物更容易消化，随着时间的推移，动物体内的胃石被磨碎。现在，蜥脚类化石通常与光滑的石头一起发现…多年来，它们看起来就像胃石，最近的一项研究测量了现代动物的胃石——鸵鸟的胃石……研究表明，但我们现在已经能够确定，所以我们不太确定这些蜥脚类石头是用来做什么的。它们可能是其他的，所以，最初的假设——在蜥脚类动物身上发现的石头是胃石——尽管

三、Sauropod托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What does the professor mainly discuss?

A.Comparisons between land animals and ocean-going animals of the Mesozoic era

B.Comparisons between sauropods and modern animals

C.Possible reasons why sauropods became extinct

D.New theories about the climate of the Mesozoic

Q2:2.What point does the professor make when she compares blues whales to large land animals?

A.Like large land animals,blue whales have many offspring.

B.Like large land animals,blue whales have proportionally small stomachs.

C.The land environment provides a wider variety of food sources than the ocean.

D.The ocean environment reduces some of the problems faced by large animals.

Q3:3.According to the professor,what recent finding about the Mesozoic era challenges an earlier belief?

A.Sauropod populations in the Mesozoic era were smaller than previously believe.

B.Oxygen levels in the Mesozoic era were higher than previously believe.

C.Ocean levels in the Mesozoic era fluctuated more than previously believe.

D.Plant life in the Mesozoic era was less abundant than previously believe.

Q4:4.Compared to small animals,what disadvantages do large animals typically have?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.Large animals require more food.

B.Large animals have fewer offspring.

C.Large animals use relatively more energy in digesting their food.

D.Large animals have greater difficulty staying warm.

Q5:5.Why does the professor discuss gastroliths that have been found with sauropod fossils?

A.To show that much research about extinct animals has relied on flawed methods

B.To show that even an incorrect guess can lead to useful research

C.To give an example of how fossils discoveries have cast doubt on beliefs about modern animals

D.To give an example of a discovery made possible by recent advance in technology

Q6:6.What did researchers conclude from their study of sauropods and gastroliths?

A.That gastroliths probably helped sauropods to store large quantities of plant material in their stomachs

B.That sauropods probably used gastroliths to conserve energy

C.That sauropods may not have used gastroliths to aid their digestion

D.That sauropods probably did not ingest any stones

四、Sauropod托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：B

A2:正确答案：D

A3:正确答案：D

A4:正确答案：AB

A5:正确答案：B

A6:正确答案：C

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