第21课（275字2分钟）

Passage Twenty-one

（K9 level）

1. When you see a picture of a strange bird, you might wonder what kind of bird it is.

2. These birds are called dodos, and you might have read about the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

3. A dodo was a bird that grew to be a little larger than a turkey.

4. It used to live on the islands of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean.

5. Sadly, dodos no longer exist anywhere on Earth.

6. We still don’t know much about dodos, even today.

7. For example, we don’t fully understand what they ate.

8. We also don’t know how they arrived on the islands, although some believe they were once a type of pigeon.

9. However, we do know what caused their extinction.

10. Dodos lived peacefully on the islands of Mauritius until 1598.

11. In that year, a Dutch ship landed on the islands.

12. The ship brought animals like dogs, rats, and pigs, along with humans.

13. These new arrivals began to eat the dodos and their eggs.

14. Within a century, dodos were completely wiped out.

15. When the dodos first saw the newcomers, they didn’t know how to react.

16. Before the humans and animals arrived, the dodos had never encountered predators.

17. Eventually, they realized that the newcomers were dangerous and tried to escape.

18. Unfortunately, they didn’t know how to flee effectively.

19. They couldn’t fly, and they couldn’t swim, either.

20. The only thing they could do was run slowly on the ground.

生词表（New Words）

1. see 看到 picture 图片 strange 奇怪的

bird 鸟  

2. called 叫做 dodos 渡渡鸟  

3. turkey 火鸡  

4. live 生活 islands 岛屿  

5. exist 存在 earth 地球  

6. know 知道 much 很多  

7. eat 吃  

8. arrived 到达 islands 岛屿  

9. believe 相信 pigeons 鸽子  

10. caused 导致 extinction 灭绝  

11. lived 生活 peaceful 平静  

12. year 年 ship 船  

13. brought 带来 dogs 狗 rats 老鼠

pigs 猪  

14. eat 吃 eggs 蛋  

15. century 世纪  

16. saw 看到 newcomers 新来者 know 知道  

17. enemies 敌人 before 之前  

18. understood 明白 newcomers 新来者 dangerous 危险  

19. escape 逃跑  

20. fly 飞 swim 游泳 slowly 慢地

run 跑

1. 当你看到一张奇怪鸟类的图片时，你可能会想知道它是什么鸟。

2. 这些鸟叫做渡渡鸟，你或许在《爱丽丝梦游仙境》中读过关于渡渡鸟的故事。

3. 渡渡鸟是一种比火鸡稍大的鸟类。

4. 它曾经生活在印度洋上的毛里求斯岛。

5. 可悲的是，渡渡鸟现在已经在地球上灭绝了。

6. 即使到了今天，我们对渡渡鸟仍然了解不多。

7. 例如，我们并不完全清楚它们吃什么。

8. 我们也不知道它们是如何到达这些岛屿的，尽管有些人认为它们曾经是某种鸽子。

9. 然而，我们确实知道导致它们灭绝的原因。

10. 在1598年之前，渡渡鸟一直安静地生活在毛里求斯岛上。

11. 就在那一年，一艘荷兰船抵达了这些岛屿。

12. 船上带来了像狗、老鼠和猪这样的动物，以及人类。

13. 这些新来的生物开始吃渡渡鸟和它们的蛋。

14. 在一个世纪之内，渡渡鸟就完全消失了。

15. 当渡渡鸟第一次看到这些新来的生物时，它们不知道该如何应对。

16. 在人类和这些动物到来之前，渡渡鸟从未遇到过捕食者。

17. 最终，它们意识到这些新来的生物是危险的，并试图逃跑。

18. 不幸的是，它们并不懂得如何有效地逃离。

19. 它们不会飞，也不会游泳。

20. 它们唯一能做的，就是在地面上缓慢地奔跑。