正確原文：
I’dlike to welcome you all to the museum of natural history. Today’s tour willtake us through our newly-renovated dinosaur exhibit, where we have the largestcollection of dinosaur fossils anywhere in the world. Before we begin the tour,let me mention that there have been some major modifications to some of theexhibits over the past three years. Basically these changes were made becauseof the recent changes in the way scientists interpret dinosaur behavior. Forexample, when we get to the first room, you will be able to see thattyrannosaurus rex skeleton is no longer standing upright with its tail draggingon the floor. That’s because paleontologists, as they examine the area aroundits footprints more closely, realized they could find no evidence of a heavydragging tail, which would have left behind marks in the earth. In its newposition, the backbone is parallel to the floor, its head is pushed forward andits tail is stretched out acting as a counterweight. This new pose stresses therelationship between dinosaurs and modern birds and supports the theory thatdinosaurs are actually more closely related to birds than to any other existingcreature. Let me also point out that we have changed the way we group dinosaurin our displays. There is a new school of thought called kledistics wherescientists determine relationships among the animals according to commonphysical characteristics. The plateosaurus and the ovirapter, for instance, areseparated by 148 million years, but they are grouped together here because theyboth have a grassbean forefoot and its S-shaped neck. Physical evidence thatthey are indeed related. So now the exhibition halls are arranged more like afamily tree rather than the walk-through time that they used to be.
生詞摘錄：
1. renovate: v. 革新，刷新，修復(fù) dinosaur: n. 恐龍
2. exhibit: n. 展覽會(huì) fossil: n. 化石
3. modification:n. 更改，修改
4. tyrannosaurus rex: 霸王龍（一種大型食肉恐龍）
5. skeleton: 骨骼，骨架 upright: adv. 筆直地
6. paleontologist:n. 古生物學(xué)者
7. footprint: n. 足跡，腳印 backbone: n. 脊椎
8. parallel: adj. 平行的
9. stretch: v. 伸展，伸長(zhǎng)
10. counterweight:n. 平衡物，平衡力 pose: n. 姿勢(shì)，姿態(tài)
11. display: n. 陳列，展覽
12. characteristic:n. 特征，特點(diǎn)
13. forefoot: n. 前腳
14. family tree: 系譜，族譜
用戶評(píng)論