第1课 (305字 2分钟)

Passage One

（K4 level）

1.Not many years ago, some farmers were worried because hawks were taking many of their chickens.

2.The farmers didn’t know what to do.

3.Finally, they went to the country officials and asked for help.

4.The officials suggested killing the hawks and even promised to pay for them, so the farmers began to think of ways to kill the hawks.

5.The farmers killed many hawks.

6.They no longer had to worry about their chickens.

7.But they now had a new worry.

8.Field mice were eating up a lot of the farmers’ grain.

9.How did this happen?

10.Hawks eat not only chickens but also field mice.

11.They eat more field mice than chickens.

12.But the farmers didn’t know this.

13.When they killed a lot of hawks, they changed the balance.

14.When people move into a new place, they often destroy many wild plants.

15.Often these plants are food for the animals.

16.If the animals can’t find enough plants to eat, they will starve or have to leave the place.

17.In one part of the USA, for example, the deer there like to eat a certain kind of wild rose.

18.The mountain lions there eat the deer.

19.The number of deer, mountain lions, and wild roses doesn’t change much if people leave things as they are.

20.But people killed many mountain lions in order to protect the deer population.

21.Soon there were so many deer that they ate up all the wild roses.

22.Then the deer began to eat the green leaves of young trees.

23.These trees were important to the farmers.

24.So the farmers thought of ways to protect their trees.

25.Now the deer had nothing to eat, and many of them died.

26.This was another lesson from nature.

27.To keep the balance of nature is important for us to remember.

生词表（New Words）

1.farmers 农民 hawks 老鹰 chickens 鸡  

2.farmers 农民  

3.officials 官员 help 帮助  

4.suggested 建议 killing 杀死 promised 承诺

compensate 付钱  

5.killed 杀了  

6.worry 担心

7.issue 问题  

8.field mice 田鼠 grain 谷物 devouring 吃掉  

9.occur 发生  

10.hawks 老鹰 field mice 田鼠  

11.consume 吃的  

12.unaware 不知道  

13.disrupted 改变 balance 平衡  

14.destroy 破坏 wild 野生  

15.plants 植物 animals 动物  

16.starve 饿死 migrate 离开  

17.deer 鹿 wild roses 野玫瑰  

18.mountain lions 山狮  

19.populations 数量 intervene 干涉  

20.protect 保护 mountain lions 山狮  

21.consumed 吃光  

22.tender leaves 嫩叶  

23.trees 树 crucial 非常重要  

24.devised 想办法 protect 保护  

25.perished 饿死  

26.lesson 教训  

27.balance 平衡 vital 重要的

1.不久前，一些农民很担心，因为老鹰抓走了他们许多的鸡。

2.农民们不知道该怎么办。

3.最后，他们去找了乡村官员寻求帮助。

4.官员建议杀死老鹰，并且甚至承诺会为此付钱，所以农民们开始想办法杀死老鹰。

5.农民们杀了许多老鹰。

6.他们不再需要担心他们的鸡了。

7.但现在他们有了新的担忧。

8.田鼠正在吃掉大量农民的谷物。

9.这是怎么发生的呢？

10.老鹰不仅吃鸡，还吃田鼠。

11.它们吃的田鼠比鸡还多。

12.但农民们对此并不了解。

13.当他们杀了许多老鹰时，他们改变了生态平衡。

14.当人们搬到一个新的地方时，他们常常会破坏许多野生植物。

15.而这些植物通常是动物的食物。

16.如果动物找不到足够的植物来吃，它们就会饿死或者不得不离开这个地方。

17.在美国的一个地区，例如，那里的鹿喜欢吃一种特定的野玫瑰。

18.那里的山狮会吃鹿。

19.如果人们不去干预，这里的鹿、山狮和野玫瑰的数量通常不会有很大变化。

20.但人们为了保护鹿群，杀死了许多山狮。

21.很快，鹿的数量变得如此之多，以至于它们吃光了所有的野玫瑰。

22.然后，鹿开始吃年轻树木的绿叶。

23.这些树木对农民来说很重要。

24.所以农民们开始想办法保护他们的树木。

25.现在鹿已经没有东西可以吃了，许多鹿因此饿死了。

26.这是大自然给出的另一个教训。

27.记住保持自然的平衡对我们来说非常重要。