英語(yǔ)聽力：美洲大平原—15

Larger than any lion alive today, this would have been an awesome predator. These caves were probably its winter den.

With such abundant game down on the plains, this hunter's life must have been pretty good.

Sheer size and power and the benefit of life within a pride made it the unmatched ruler of the plains. By looking at the lions of Africa today, we can imagine how these ice age cats once lived in small prides based around a group of hunting females.

Like wolves, lions work together to win larger prey. After a leading hunter launches the attack, the others move in, helping to dispatch the victim with a suffocating bite. But even for these rulers of the plains, the good life had to end. They would be toppled by another predator with even sharper skills.

The ice age lions joined the list of victims, animals that had lived here for hundreds of millennia7, but were soon lost forever.

Today few signs remain that any of them were ever here. Odd traces scattered far and wide across the plains. But if we piece together bones and teeth, plant fragments and the clues from animals alive today, we can begin to bring a lost world back to life.

1 awesome

adj.令人驚嘆的，難得嚇人的，很好的

參考例句：

The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.愛爾蘭的教堂一直掌握著令人敬畏的權(quán)力。

That new white convertible is totally awesome.那輛新的白色折篷汽車簡(jiǎn)直棒極了.

2 predator

n.捕食其它動(dòng)物的動(dòng)物;捕食者

參考例句：

The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分簡(jiǎn)要總結(jié)了食肉動(dòng)物。

Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龍是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一種令人恐懼的捕食性動(dòng)物。

3 den

n.獸穴;秘密地方;安靜的小房間，私室

參考例句：

There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一個(gè)很大的狐貍窩。

The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

4 prey

n.被掠食者，犧牲者，掠食;v.捕食，掠奪，折磨

參考例句：

Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉強(qiáng)食。

The lion was hunting for its prey.獅子在尋找獵物。

5 helping

n.食物的一份&adj.幫助人的，輔助的

參考例句：

The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可憐的孩子們總是要求我把我的漢堡包再給他們一份。

By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 這樣一來, 他在某些時(shí)候,有助于競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的加強(qiáng)。

6 suffocating

a.使人窒息的

參考例句：

After a few weeks with her parents, she felt she was suffocating.和父母呆了幾個(gè)星期后，她感到自己毫無自由。

That's better. I was suffocating in that cell of a room.這樣好些了，我剛才在那個(gè)小房間里快悶死了。

7 millennia

n.一千年，千禧年

參考例句：

For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 兩千年來，異族通婚一直是猶太人的一大禁忌。

In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在幾千年的時(shí)間里，恐龍逐漸死絕了。

8 scattered

adj.分散的，稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的

參考例句：

Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散亂的文件收拾起來，塞進(jìn)文件夾里。