中学生科普英语趣味阅读低年级阅读材料(2)

II. Life Science 生命科学

Animal Kingdom

早在人类出现之前，史前动物已经在地球上繁衍发展。地球上的动物以从低等到高等、从简单到复杂的趋势不断进化并繁衍至今。科学家根据动物的各种特征将动物分为两大类和七个等级。至今科学家已经鉴别出46900多种脊椎动物，130多万种无脊椎动物。下面让我们一起去探索奇妙的动物世界吧!

Rearing of lion cubs

狮子是唯一雌雄两态和群居的猫科动物，生活于开阔的草原疏林地区或半荒漠地带。·Warm-up

Have you ever seen the movie The Lion King? Do you know how lions live in the wild in reality?

·Big question to think about while you read

How does the rearing of lion cubs go according to the text?

The pride is highly structured when it comes to rearing the cubs. Males are extremely protective of their mates while they are breeding. At the end of the approximately 105-day gestation period, the lioness leaves the pride to go to a sheltered, isolated area to give birth to its litter of two to five cubs. Cubs are born blind. They weigh 1.5 to 2 kilograms, and they have a soft, woolly grayish-yellow-brown coat. The lioness rarely leaves her cubs. When she does, either to hunt or drink, she risks losing them to predators, such as cheetahs, leopards, jackals, or hyenas.

At first, the cubs will stay close to their mother as they explore their surroundings. Male cub mortality is high because males are more active and more likely to leave their protected shelter.

Cubs accompany their mother on hunting expeditions when they are three to four months old.

Cubs will not be able to kill their own prey until they are about two years old. Through early play experiences, the cubs learn how to hunt, crash, leap, and kill their prey.

Adolescent males tend to remain near the pride's territory at first and then go off on their own. They will try and join another pride. Male lions display excellent teamwork when threatened by another male wanting to dominate the pride. The typical duration for which a strong group of males is able to defend their pride is two to three years, during which time they father all of the offspring. ( 256 words) ·Reflection questions on what you read

1. Why does the lioness rarely leave its cubs?

2. What contributes to the high mortality of male cubs?

3. How long will it take before cubs are able to kill their own prey? How are they able to do so?

4. In the movie The Lion King, Simba finally became the mighty king. Can you explain why would adolescent males like to defend their pride according to the text?

Leopards

豹在四种大型猫科动物（其余三种为狮、虎、美洲豹）中体积最小，颜色最鲜艳。奔跑速度快，可以说是敏捷的猎手。

·Warm-up

Have you ever seen a leopard in the zoo? Do you know how it looks like?

·Big question to think about while you read

The leopard is scattered over a wider area today than any of the other big cats. It lives across most of the African continent (with the exception of the Sahara Desert), in parts of Asia, from the Middle East to India, Pakistan, China, Siberia, and on the islands of Java and Sri Lanka. The leopard may be the most difficult big cat to find in the wild because leopards spend much of their time in trees. Leopards usually live on their own.

Leopards are from about 1.3 to 1.9 meters long, and they weigh from about 30 to 80 kilograms. Their scientific name is Panther pardus.

Even on the ground, leopards' spotted coats of golden brown with black ring spots help them to become invisible. Jaguars and leopards have the same dark rosettes on their fur, but leopards do not have spots within the rosettes. Jaguar fur has spots in the rosettes.

The leopard is probably the smartest hunter of all cats. At night, it moves silently and stalks its prey by crawling with its stomach low to the ground, or it may wait in a tree and jump on prey that comes near the tree. The agile animal even hunts for monkeys in trees. Hunting and living alone, the leopard survives in many places because it eats almost anything.

The leopard will kill gazelles, wild pigs, and birds. It can drag prey more than twice its size for many kilometers and then pull it up a tree to keep other animals from getting its food. The ability to drag its prey allows the leopard to hunt less frequently than other cats who share the same habitat, such as the cheetahs.

Leopards have no specific breeding season, but tend to mate in January and February. After mating, the pair separates, with the female left to care for its cubs. Leopards tend to have two cubs after a gestation period between 90 to 105 days. Cubs are born blind and weigh from 750 grams to 1 kilogram. They begin to feed on their own at about 3 months when they start to accompany their mother on hunting trips. The mother leopard's whitish tail is held upright during the rearing of the cubs. This erect tail apparently provides the cubs with a visible marker that helps them follow her through the tall grasses and shrubs. The cubs remain with their mother for 18 to 24 months, and then they leave to establish territories of their own. (415 words)