墨尔本PTE素材库——Ugly Animals

墨尔本PTE素材库——Ugly Animals

中文批注

是不是被视频片头的动物给吓了一跳呢？其实这些动物也可能是非常可爱，非常有研究价值的哦！

澳洲的科研学者们，把aussie mammal animals “分”为了三类：the good, the bad, the ugly。比如说，那些袋鼠，考拉自然就是the good那一类的；猫咪，兔子，狐狸等等，就被归为了the bad一类；而蝙蝠，老鼠等等，就被无情的列为the ugly了。

但其实，视频中也有提到，这些 “ugly”的动物，占了整个澳洲mammals的45%左右。而且，他们也有很大的研究的价值，不能因为他们的 “样貌”就不在意他们存在的价值哦！

其实这是一篇比较有趣，叙述方式也比较可爱的短文，看着这些小动物，心情也会变好了呢！

就像文末所说：and up close you might discover even the so-called ugly ones can actually be pretty cute!

墨尔本PTE素材库，旨在用最贴切PTE考试内容，帮助各位PTE的考生在考前和平时复习的时间能够接触最有用的PTE素材，力求每一篇视频音频都符合PTE官方所给出的Question Criteria！这是一篇难度不高的小短文，大家可以用来练习Dictation（应该不存在任何的生词哦！），同时这也是不篇较为容易理解的Reading哦！~

【Key Vocabulary】

Nightmare：噩梦

Gargoyle：奇形怪状的雕刻像，面貌丑陋的人。

Fleshy：肉的，丰满的

High-pitched squeak：声音高亢/尖锐的吱吱叫

Contest：比赛，竞赛，争夺

Endanger：危害；

Endangered：濒危的

Echidnas：针鼹

Pest：虫害

Blobfish：水滴鱼

Mozzies：其实就是澳洲人对于mosquitoes的简称。

Cuddly：可爱。

Full Transcript

On the news we often hear about animals that are endangered or facing extinction. But have you noticed how most of those animals are cute ones? What about the not-so-cute animals? Well a study has found that ugly animals are struggling to get the same attention and therefore funding as their attractive counterparts.

ARL SMITH, REPORTER: It’s like something from a nightmare.

A gargoyle face, a crumbling nose, fleshy wings and a loud, high-pitched squeak!

This is the orange leaf-nosed bat!

And it’s probably not going to win a beauty contest anytime soon.

But Aussie researchers say this endangered mammal, and many others like it, deserve a lot more attention than they’re getting.

A new study has found a lot of Aussie animals are missing out on funding and research, because, well, they’re just not pretty enough. The study looked at 331 Australian mammal species and put them into three categories: the good, the bad and the ugly.
We all know the good ones – the cute animals that Aussies tend to love. Creatures like kangaroos, koalas and echidnas.

The bad ones are often pests, mammals that researchers keep a close eye on to make sure they don’t hurt the good ones! They include cats, rabbits and foxes.

And then there’s the ugly. They’re the animals that often come out at night and we normally don’t pay much attention to them. Creatures like bats, rats and flying foxes.

REPORTER: The blobfish didn’t pop up in the study because the researchers didn’t focus on fish, but if it did, I’m pretty sure it’d fall into the ugly category. Because, well yuck. But ugly animals, including poor blobby here, are actually pretty important.

Researchers say ‘ugly’ mammals actually make up 45 percent of all our native Australian mammals.

But despite a lot of them being in danger of becoming extinct they get far less attention. Even if they aren’t so pretty losing a native species is always going to be a big problem, because every animal plays an important role in our ecosystem. For example, small bats can eat up to one thousand mosquitoes an hour.

So fewer bats could mean more mozzies!

The researchers behind this study reckon the country’s ugly animals deserve just as much attention as the cute and cuddly ones. And if no one’s willing to fund the research on these guys they say maybe you could help balance things out by helping as a citizen scientist! They’re regular people who help keep tabs on the animals living around them.

So if you’re willing to brave this terror, lurking in the dark.

Well then I guess you’re actually just helping out an important native species!

And up close you might discover even the so-called ugly ones can actually be pretty cute!

(Source: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4422489.htm)