英语听力：探索发现 2013-01-20 冰河新新州 Ice Age Oasis—17

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Now the winter drought is over and the spring water has been topped up by recent rains. 

 

Another group has also set up camp nearby, hunters, descendants of the first human settlers that entered the continent in the far north. Compared to the harsh conditions their ancestors faced, this place is paradise. Targets for the hunters' spears are plentiful³. 

 

Around the spring, lush vegetation attracts the giant ground sloth⁴, too. Both mastodons and sloths⁵ are browsers⁶. But the mastodons roam far and wide to find the kind of plants they need. The giant ground sloth isn't built to travel far, but it makes up for that by having a reach of a giraffe. 

 

Its huge claws may also be used for self-defence, although even the most powerful predator⁷ would think twice before tackling so large a prey⁸. 

 

In any case, this female jaguar⁹ is little threat right now. Once she's quenched¹⁰ her thirst, she will find a shady place to doze¹¹ in the heat of the day.

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