Rare deer-like species photographed in wild

题材 体裁 文章词数 难度 建议用时野生动物 说明文 337 ★★ 6 分钟

难词探意

1. chevrotain /΄ʃevrəteɪn/ n. 麝香鹿

2. hoof /huːf/ n. （马等动物的）蹄

3. mammal /΄mæml/ n. 哺乳动物

4. sheen /ʃiːn/ n. 光彩；光泽

5. poach /pəʊtʃ/ v. 偷猎；偷捕

A tiny deer-like species not seen by scientists for nearly 30 years has been photographed in a forest in southern Vietnam, a conservation group said on Tuesday.

Images of the silver-backedchevrotain, commonly called the Vietnamese mouse deer, were captured in the wild by trap cameras, Global Wildlife Conservation said. It said the rabbit-sized animal is not a deer or a mouse, despite its nickname, but is the world's smallesthoofed mammal.They are shy and solitary, which makes it nearly impossible to find them.They have two tiny，long and sharp teeth, appear to walk on the tips of their hooves, and have a silversheen, the group said.

“For so long this species has seemingly only existed as part of our imagination. Discovering that it is, indeed, still out there, is the first step in ensuring we don't lose it again, and we're moving quickly now to figure out how best to protect it,” said An Nguyen, a conservation scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and a partner of GWC in the project.

The chevrotain was first described in 1910 by four people who were the first to find it. A fifth sighting was reported in 1990 in central Vietnam, making it one of the rarest animals in the world,GWC said in a statement. And his team set up camera traps after receiving reports from local villagers and forest rangers of the animals. The cameras took some 1,800 photos of the species over a period of 5 months.

“The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain provides big hope for the conservation of biodiversity, especially threatened species in Vietnam,” Hoang Minh Duc, head of Vietnam's Southern Institute of Ecology's Department of Zoology, was quoted as saying by GWC. “This also encourages us,together with relevant and international partners, to devote time and effort to further investigation and conservation of Vietnam's biodiversity heritage,” Duc added.

Wildlife in Vietnam faces many threats including poaching and habitat loss due to urbanization.

Reading Check

1. What makes it difficult to find a Vietnamese mouse deer?

A. Its size. B. Its habitat.

C. Its appearance. D. Its living habits.

2. What did both An Nguyen and Hoang Minh Duc intend to stress according to the text?

A. The responsibility of GWC. B. The significance of the finding.

C. The measures to protect the species. D. The living condition of the mouse deer.

3. How long has it been since people first found the mouse deer?

A. For nearly 30 years. B. For nearly 80 years.

C. For about 110 years. D. For about 100 years.

4. How many factors leading to the endangerment of wildlife in Vietnam are mentioned?

A. 1. B. 2. C. 3. D. 4.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

They are shy and solitary, which makes it nearly impossible to find them.

【翻译】_____________________________________________________________________________

【点石成金】句中which引导的是一个非限制性定语从句，代替整个主句的内容。 “makes it nearly impossible to find them”为“make+it+adj.+to do”句型，其中的it为形式宾语，实际的宾语为后面的动词不定式。