地球上的昔日生命(新概念英语第四册26课)# Animals - 动物园
a*a
1 楼
CharlesSong网友提供的新概念英语上的La Brea Tar Pit文章。重温一下吧（虽然我以
前只看了Puma一篇文）。
【 以下文字转载自 History 讨论区 】
发信人: CharlesSong (每只猫咪都需要定期体检), 信区: History
标 题: 地球上的昔日生命(新概念英语第四册26课)
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Sep 26 10:54:16 2012, 美东)
你提到的La Brea tar pit,想起来在高中学新概念英语的时候看到过，怀念一下年轻时
的岁月：
L. G. Alexander: New Concept English, Book IV
19/49
It is animals and plants which lived in or near water whose remains are
most likely to be preserved, for one of the necessary conditions of
preservation is quick burial, and it is only in the seas and rivers, and
sometimes lakes, where mud and silt have been continuously deposited, that
bodies and the like can be rapidly covered over and preserved.But even in
the most favorable circumstances only a small fraction of the creatures that
die are preserved in this way before decay sets in or, even more likely,
before scavengers eat them. After all, all living creatures live by feeding
on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive, and it is
only by chance that such a fate is avoided. The remains of plants and
animals that lived on land are much more rarely preserved, for there is
seldom anything to cover them over. When you think of the innumerable birds
that one sees flying about, not to mention the equally numerous
small animals like field mice and voles which you do not see, it is very
rarely that one comes across a dead body, except, of course, on the roads.
They decompose and are quickly destroyed by the weather or eaten by some
other creature.It is almost always due to some very special circumstances
that traces of land animals survive, as by falling into inaccessible caves,
or into an ice crevasse, like the Siberian mammoths, when the whole animal
is sometimes preserved, as in a refrigerator. This is what happened to the
famous Beresovka mammoth which was found preserved and in good condition. In
his mouth were the remains of fir trees—the last meal that he had before
he fell into the crevasse and broke his back. The mammoth has now been
restored in the Paleontological Museum in Leningrad. Other animals were
trapped in tar pits, like the elephants, sabretoothed cats, and numerous
other creatures that are found at Rancho la Brea, which is now just a suburb
of Los Angeles. Apparently what happened was that water collected on these
tar pits, and the bigger animals like the elephants ventured out on to the
apparently firm surface to drink, and were promptly bogged in the tar. And
then, when they were dead, the carnivores, like the sabre-toothed cats and
the giant wolves, came out to feed and suffered exactly the same fate.There
are also endless numbers of birds in the tar as well.
前只看了Puma一篇文）。
【 以下文字转载自 History 讨论区 】
发信人: CharlesSong (每只猫咪都需要定期体检), 信区: History
标 题: 地球上的昔日生命(新概念英语第四册26课)
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Sep 26 10:54:16 2012, 美东)
你提到的La Brea tar pit,想起来在高中学新概念英语的时候看到过，怀念一下年轻时
的岁月：
L. G. Alexander: New Concept English, Book IV
19/49
It is animals and plants which lived in or near water whose remains are
most likely to be preserved, for one of the necessary conditions of
preservation is quick burial, and it is only in the seas and rivers, and
sometimes lakes, where mud and silt have been continuously deposited, that
bodies and the like can be rapidly covered over and preserved.But even in
the most favorable circumstances only a small fraction of the creatures that
die are preserved in this way before decay sets in or, even more likely,
before scavengers eat them. After all, all living creatures live by feeding
on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive, and it is
only by chance that such a fate is avoided. The remains of plants and
animals that lived on land are much more rarely preserved, for there is
seldom anything to cover them over. When you think of the innumerable birds
that one sees flying about, not to mention the equally numerous
small animals like field mice and voles which you do not see, it is very
rarely that one comes across a dead body, except, of course, on the roads.
They decompose and are quickly destroyed by the weather or eaten by some
other creature.It is almost always due to some very special circumstances
that traces of land animals survive, as by falling into inaccessible caves,
or into an ice crevasse, like the Siberian mammoths, when the whole animal
is sometimes preserved, as in a refrigerator. This is what happened to the
famous Beresovka mammoth which was found preserved and in good condition. In
his mouth were the remains of fir trees—the last meal that he had before
he fell into the crevasse and broke his back. The mammoth has now been
restored in the Paleontological Museum in Leningrad. Other animals were
trapped in tar pits, like the elephants, sabretoothed cats, and numerous
other creatures that are found at Rancho la Brea, which is now just a suburb
of Los Angeles. Apparently what happened was that water collected on these
tar pits, and the bigger animals like the elephants ventured out on to the
apparently firm surface to drink, and were promptly bogged in the tar. And
then, when they were dead, the carnivores, like the sabre-toothed cats and
the giant wolves, came out to feed and suffered exactly the same fate.There
are also endless numbers of birds in the tar as well.
