女孩发现巨齿鲨牙齿

谷战峰

據报道，一个9岁的女孩在美国马里兰州的卡尔弗特海滩戏水时，发现了一块1，500万年前的巨齿鲨牙齿化石。

Girl finds 15?million?year?old

megalodon tooth in US

A nine?year?old girl has discovered an ancient and rare megalodon （巨齿鲨） shark tooth at the beach.

In a viral post on a social media platform， fourth grader Molly Sampson was pictured holding in her small hand a 15?million?year old megalodon tooth after she discovered the rare treasure during a family visit to Calvert Beach in Maryland in the US.

“Look at the size of the tooth Molly just found，” her mother said in the online post. “This tooth was in the water. Thanks to her waders （高筒防水靴），she got the best part of her present！”

Lucky Molly found the massive tar coloured tooth belonging to the now extinct Otodus megalodon shark species while splashing around in chilly and knee?deep water.

Megalodon， meaning “big tooth” in Ancient Greek， lived in waters around the world but died out at least 3.5 million years ago.

The animals stretched up to more than 20 meters in length， one of the largest fish to have existed.

“She told me that she was wading in knee?deep water when she saw it and dove in to get it，” Ms Sampson said.

“She said she got her arms all wet， but it was so worth it.”

Molly had already found more than 400 teeth， albeit much smaller than this discovery. But she always hoped to find a “meg”.

The family took Mollys amazing discovery to the Calvert Marine Museum， whose palaeontology experts confirmed the sharks identity and congratulated the “future palaeontologist” on social media.

“People should not get the impression that teeth like this one are common along Calvert Cliffs，” said the museums manager， Stephen Godfrey. “And she didnt have to dig into the cliffs to find the tooth. It was out in the water.”

Mr Godfrey said amateur fossil hunters typically found about 100 megalodon teeth on Calvert Cliffs each year. But most of them were much smaller than Mollys huge find.

The largest megalodon tooth ever found was almost 19 centimeters long and was discovered in the Ocucaje Desert in Peru.

1. What do we know about the old megalodon tooth Molly found？

A. It was found when Mollys family visited Peru.

B. It was found when Molly visited her family.

C. It was found with Mollys mothers help.

D. It was found to have a very long history.

2. What does the underlined word “albeit” mean in paragraph 9？

A. Moreover.

B. Though.

C. And.

D. So.

3. What does Stephen Godfrey think of Mollys huge find along Calvert Cliffs？

A. It is common.

B. It is typical.

C. It is unusual.

D. It is imaginative.

4. Why does Mr Godfrey say Mollys discovery is special？

A. The megalodon tooth Molly found is much bigger.

B. Molly found the largest megalodon tooth ever found.

C. Molly is too young to be a palaeontologist.

D. Molly is the best amateur fossil hunter of all.

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

In a viral post on a social media platform， fourth grader Molly Sampson was pictured holding in her small hand a 15?million?year old megalodon tooth after she discovered the rare treasure during a family visit to Calvert Beach in Maryland in the US. 在一篇在一个社交媒体平台风靡一时的帖子中，四年级学生莫莉·桑普森被拍到用她的小手拿着一颗1，500万年前的巨齿鲨牙齿。她是在全家在美国马里兰州的卡尔弗特海滩游玩时发现了这一稀世珍宝。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句，句中的holding in her small hand是现在分词短语作主语补足语；after引导的是一个时间状语从句。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

at the beach 在海滩上

thanks to 多亏

belong to 属于

more than 多于

dig into 挖掘