美国小学英语教材5:第79课 长羽毛的飞行大师(1)

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Floyd Darrow 作者：弗洛伊德·丹诺

Think of it! 试想一下！

A frail¹ little bird with no compass to guide it flies twice every year across two thousand four hundred miles of ocean. 没有指南针指引的情况下，一只虚弱的小鸟每年飞过2400英里的海洋两次。

Another bird travels twenty-two thousand miles every year. 另一只鸟每年飞行2万2千英里。

Men have their airplanes, but Mr. Darrow tells you why the birds are still the Masters of the Air. 人类有自己的飞机，但达罗先生告诉你为什么鸟类仍然是空中的主人。

By October the migration² of the birds to their winter homes in the southlands is well under way and has been going on for some time. 到10月份，这种鸟类已经开始迁徙到它们在南方的冬季栖息地，并且已经持续了一段时间。

In fact, some of these feathered masters of the air begin their southward jaunts³ as early as the middle of July. 事实上，一些这样长着羽毛的“空中霸主”早在七月中旬就开始了它们的南下之旅。

When the nesting season is over and the young are able to care for themselves, 当筑巢季节结束，幼鸟能够照顾自己时，

the old birds turn their thoughts toward their favorite winter resorts of the tropics. 老鸟就会把注意力转向它们最喜欢的热带冬季度假胜地。

But why should birds thus migrate twice a year? 但为什么鸟类一年要迁徙两次呢？

Why should they build their nests and rear their young in the north, and then, often long in advance of autumn’s chilly⁴ blasts, fly hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to other homes? 为什么要在北方筑巢、养育后代，然后经常在秋季寒冷的寒风到来之前很久，飞往数百甚至数千英里以外的其他家园呢？

What guides them so truly on these long flights? 是什么在这些长途飞行中如此准确地指引？

These are questions which men have always asked, and yet we are but little nearer to their answers than when the quest began. 这些都是人们一直在问的问题，然而，与探索之初相比，我们离他们的答案仅一步之遥。

Mystery still surrounds the birds and their journeyings. 鸟类和其旅程仍然是个谜。

 

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