Giant1Millipedes2 巨型千定蟲

陳佳選譯

If you are afraid of insects3， the news might be difficult to read. A fossil4found on a beach in England shows that the biggest bug5 that ever lived was thesize of a small car. The fossil is of a giant millipede. This bug could have hadhundreds of legs. Although the name“millipede”means“one thousand legs”， fewspecies6 actually have 1，000 feet. The scientists said the millipede was around 2.7meters long and weighed over 50kg.

如果你害怕昆蟲，這個新聞你可能讀起來很吃力。在英格蘭海灘上發現的一塊化石表明，有史以來最大的蟲子有一輛小汽車那么大。這是一種巨型千足蟲的化石。這只蟲子可能有幾百條腿。雖然“千足蟲”這個名字的意思是“一千條腿”，但實際上很少有物種有 1000 只腳。科學家們說這只千足蟲長約 2.7 米，重量超過 50 公斤。

A scientist said， “It was an exciting find.”He explained that the fossil datesback over 326 million years. The scientists said， “While we cant know for surewhat they ate， there was plenty of nutritious7 food available at the time.”

一名科學家說：“這是一個令人興奮的發現。”他解釋說，這塊化石可以追溯到 3.26 億年前。科學家們說：“雖然我們不能確定它們吃什么，但當時有很多營養豐富的食物。”

（英語原文選自：breakingnewsenglish.com）

1. giant [ ] 巨大的 2. millipede [ ] . 千足蟲

3. insect [ ] 昆蟲 4. fossil [ ] . 化石

5. bug [ ] 昆蟲，蟲子 6. species [ ] 物種