17. Whales鯨魚

New Words新單詞

whale (n.)

讀音：[weɪl]

釋義：鯨，鯨魚（名詞）

under (prep.)

讀音：[ˈʌndə(r)]

釋義：在……下面（介詞）

gray (grey in British English) (adj.)

讀音：[greɪ]

釋義：灰色（英式英語為grey）（形容詞）

killed (past tense of ‘kill’) (v.)

讀音：[kɪld]

釋義：殺死（kill的過去式）（動詞）

breathe [brið](v.)

讀音：[bri:ð]

釋義：呼吸（動詞）（動詞）

thousand (num.)

讀音：[ˈθaʊznd]

釋義：一千（數字）

Antarctica (n.)

讀音：[æn'tɑ:ktɪkə]

釋義：南極洲（名詞）

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Many years ago, there were hundreds of thousands of whales swimming in seas nearly everywhere in the world. Whales lived in the seas around North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. They could even live in very cold seas like the seas around Antarctica. The seas around Antarctica are some of the coldest seas in the world.

許多年前，幾乎有成百上千頭鯨魚在世界各地的海洋裡游泳。經與生活在南北美洲、歐洲、亞洲和澳洲周圍的海洋裡。他們甚至能生活在非常寒冷的海洋裡，像南極洲周圍的海洋。南極洲周圍的海洋是世界上最冷的一部分海域。

When we see pictures of whales swimming in the sea, the whales look like a kind of fish. Whales have nearly the same shape as many fish, but they are not fish. Whales are very large sea animals but they need to breathe like all the animals that do not live under the water. Also, baby whales need to drink their mothers’ milk.

當我們看見鯨魚在海洋裡游泳的圖片時，鯨魚看起來像一種魚類。鯨魚幾乎和許多魚有著一樣的外形，但是它們不是魚。鯨魚是非常大的海洋動物，但是它們像不生活在水下的動物一樣呼吸。而且，鯨魚寶寶需要飲用它們媽媽的乳汁。

Whales spend all their time swimming on and under the sea. Whales can go thousands of meters under the sea looking for food but, because they are not fish, whales have to come up to breathe. Whales cannot breathe under the water. Whales are not like fish in other ways, too. Baby whales need to stay with their mothers all the time so they can drink their mothers’ milk. The babies have to stay near their mothers for about a year.

鯨魚把全部時間用於在海面和海里游泳。鯨魚能在海里遊幾千米去尋找食物，但是因為它們不是魚，鯨魚得游上來呼吸。鯨魚不能在水下呼吸。鯨魚在其他方面也不像魚類。鯨魚寶寶需要一直和它們媽媽在一起，這樣它們才能飲用媽媽的乳汁。鯨魚寶寶得在它們媽媽身邊待一年左右。

Some whales can be really, really big! The largest of all whales is the ‘blue whale’. The blue whale is the largest animal in the world. An adult blue whale can be as long as thirty meters!

有些鯨魚可以非常、非常大！所有鯨魚中最大的是“藍鯨”。藍鯨是世界上最大的動物。一頭成年藍鯨可以長達三十米！

About three thousand years ago, people started to hunt whales on the open seas. Those people killed thousands and thousands of whales for their meat, to get special medicines and for many other things inside the whales’ bodies. About one hundred years ago, people were hunting and killing more than fifty thousand whales a year. Because of all that hunting, these days there are some kinds of whales that we can no longer see, especially some kinds of very large whales.

大約三千年前，人類開始在遠海捕捉鯨魚。人類捕殺了幾百萬頭鯨魚，就是為了獲取鯨魚的肉，並得到特殊藥材和鯨魚體內的許多其他東西。大約一百年前，人們每年捕殺五萬多頭鯨魚。因為大肆捕殺鯨魚，現如今有些種類的鯨魚我們沒法再看到了，尤其是有些很大型的鯨魚種群。

Whales are usually black, white, black and white, blue or gray. Gray whales live in large families called ‘schools’. Some schools of gray whales can be very large with more than a hundred adult and baby whales. These schools usually have more females than males. Adult gray whales are very good at protecting the female gray whales while the females are looking after their babies. Whales usually have only one or two young at a time.

常見的鯨魚有黑色、白色、黑白相間、藍色或者灰色。灰鯨生活所在的大家族叫作“種群”。有些灰鯨種群可以很大，有一百多頭成年鯨和小鯨。這些種群的雌性通常比雄性多。雌鯨照顧小鯨時，成年灰鯨非常善於保護雌鯨。鯨魚通常一次只產下一兩頭小鯨。

Adult gray whales are smaller than blue whales. They are about fourteen meters long and most of them live in seas around North America. Whales eat very, very small sea animals. Because the animals whales eat are so very small, whales have to spend nearly all their time eating. Whales eat at the same time they are swimming under the water.

成年灰鯨比藍鯨小。它們大約有十四米高，其中大多數生活在北美洲附近的海洋裡。鯨魚食用非常、非常小的海洋動物。因為鯨魚食用的動物很小，鯨魚幾乎得把所有的時間用來進食。鯨魚一邊在水下游泳一邊進食。

Whales are not able to protect themselves from attack by people, so these days many countries will not let people hunt whales, especially blue whales. This is because now there are only a few thousand blue whales in all of the world’s seas!

鯨魚沒法保護它們自己免受人類的攻擊，所以現在許多國家不讓人們捕殺鯨魚，尤其是藍鯨。這是因為現在全世界的海洋裡只有幾千頭藍鯨了！

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Lee is asking his teacher about Antarctica.

李在向他的老師詢問關於南極洲的知識

Lee

Excuse me, teacher. Can I ask you a question?

Teacher

Of course you can, Lee. If you can’t find something out yourself, you can always ask me. What do you want to know?

Lee

What is Antarctica?

Teacher

Antarctica is a very large, very cold place.

Lee

Where is it? Can you show me in this book?

Teacher

Yes. Look at the second page. There’s a picture of the world.

Lee

Oh, yes.

Teacher

Look at this big white place in the south here. That’s Antarctica.

Lee

Oh, it’s an interesting shape, isn’t it? It looks like an elephant eating something.

Teacher

Oh, do you think so?

Lee

Yes, I do. I think it looks just like the head of an elephant!

Teacher

Look, Lee. Look carefully. You can see that Antarctica is south of Australia, south of Africa, and south of South America.

Lee

Oh, it’s really big, isn’t it? And it has seas all around it.

Teacher

Yes, and it is very, very cold.

Lee

What kind of animals live in Antarctica?

Teacher

There are not many animals. Antarctica is too cold for most animals.

Lee

What about whales?

Teacher

Yes, whales live in the seas around Antarctica. They can even swim in water that is under some parts of Antarctica.

Lee

Really?

Teacher

Yes, but remember, whales are not like sharks. They are not able to stay under the water for very long.

Lee

Oh, yes, they have to come up to breathe, don’t they?

Teacher

Yes, they do. Would you like to see a whale?

Lee

Yes, I would. And I’d like to try some whale meat. Do you know where I can buy some?

Teacher

That would be difficult, Lee.

Lee

Why?

Teacher

Well, these days, most countries will not let people hunt whales for their meat. So you can’t find whale meat in shops.

Lee

Why can’t people hunt whales?

Teacher

Because there are not so many whales left now. Whales cannot protect themselves if people hunt them, so we have to try and protect them. If we don’t, there will be no whales left swimming in the world’s seas.

Lee

Oh, that would not be good, would it?

Teacher

No, it wouldn’t. It would be very bad. We should try to protect all of the world’s animals, especially animals like whales. We don’t want to kill all the world’s animals, do we?

Lee

What about tigers, snakes and sharks? They’re dangerous animals. They can hurt and even kill people. Isn’t it all right for people to hunt and kill animals like those?

Teacher

I don’t think so, Lee. I think we should try to protect all animals, and only kill a few of those we really need for our food.

李

打擾一下，老師。我能問您一個問題嗎？

老師

當然可以，李。如果你自己無法弄清楚，你都可以問我。你想知道什麼？

李

南極洲是什麼？

老師

南極洲是一個非常大、非常冷的地方。

李

它在哪兒？你能在這本書裡指給我看嗎？

老師

行。看看第二頁。有一幅世界地圖。

李

噢，對。

老師

看著南邊這塊白色大區域。那就是南極洲。

李

噢，是一個有趣的形狀，不是嗎？它看起來像一頭大象在吃什麼東西。

老師

噢，你這麼覺得嗎？

李

是的，我這麼覺得。我覺得它看起來就像一頭大象的腦袋。

老師

看，李。仔細看。你能看見南極洲是在澳洲、非洲和美洲的南部。

李

噢，它真大，不是嗎？而且它附近都是海洋。

老師

是的，南極洲非常、非常冷。

李

什麼樣的動物生活在南極洲？

老師

沒有很多動物。南極洲對大多數動物來說都太冷了。

李

那麼鯨魚呢？

老師

是的，鯨魚生活在南極洲附近的海洋裡。它們甚至可以在南極洲底下的部分水域游泳。

李

真的嗎？

老師

是的，但要記住，鯨魚不像鯊魚。它們不能在水下待很長時間。

李

噢，對，它們得上來呼吸，不是嗎？

老師

是的。你想不想看一頭鯨魚？

李

想。而且我想品嚐鯨魚肉。你知道我能在哪兒買一些嗎？

老師

那會很難，李。

李

為什麼？

老師

現在許多國家不讓人們捕鯨取肉。所以你在商店裡是找不到鯨魚肉的。

李

為什麼人們不能獵捉鯨魚了？

老師

因為現在剩下的鯨魚不多了。如果人類獵捕它們，鯨魚不能保護自己，所以我們得儘量保護它們。如果我們不這樣做，世界上的海洋裡將不再有鯨魚游泳了。

李

噢，那可不太好，對吧？

老師

是的，不太好。那會非常糟糕。我們應該儘量保護世界上所有的動物，尤其是鯨魚這樣的動物。我們不想捕殺世界上所有的動物，不是嗎？

李

那麼老虎、蛇和鯊魚呢？它們是危險的動物。它們能傷害甚至捕殺人類。那人類捕殺那樣的動物是否就可以呢？

老師

我不這麼認為，李。我覺得我們應該儘量保護所有的動物，只捕殺我們急需用來當作食物的少數動物。

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Questions

1. Where are some of the coldest seas in the world?

2. Why do we say whales are not fish?

3. Which is the biggest animal in the world?

4. When did people first start to hunt whales?

5. What color are whales?

6. Why are there not many animals in Antarctica?

7. Do you think we should let people hunt and kill whales?

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