兩米長海筆首現太平洋

河南 劉同功

主題語境：海洋生物 篇幅：314詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1I admit I'd never heard of sea pens until today,when I saw a video from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus showing a lovely tentacled(有觸手的)creature with a long thin stalk reaching down to the ocean floor.I was immediately attracted.The Nautilus team called it“an exciting discovery”.

2The sea pen made its appearance during a visit by a remotely operated vehicle,or ROV,to an unexplored seamount near Johnston Atoll,a remote spot to the west of Hawaii in the Pacific.It was unexpected.This is the first time that this animal has been spotted in the Pacific.It's normally found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.The Nautilus came across two examples during the dive.

3A video shot at a depth of 9,823 feet(2,994 meters)shows the moment of the discovery,along with a spoken description from excited researchers.“That looks funny,”said one of them after the ROV got a close-up shot of the creature's food-capturing tentacles.For scale,the sea pen's stalk is 6.6 feet(2 meters)long.

4Sea pens are listed as cnidarians（刺胞動物）,a broad group of aquatic animals that includes corals and jellyfish.“Further review of the video and this sample will help experts determine if this is the first Pacific unidentified creature or potentially a new species in this ocean basin,”the Nautilus team said on a platform.

5The research expedition at Johnston Atoll ran from June 20 to July 13 and was focused on studying the biodiversity of the area.The non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust operates the ship and streams many of its ROV dives.

6The Nautilus has lifted the veils on many wonders of the deep,from a rare jellyfish to a delightful unidentified creature.The team said,“This huge range expansion of sea pens in the Pacific Ocean reminds us how important ocean exploration efforts are to understanding this diversity of our planet.”

Reading Check

Detail1.What makes the discovery of the Nautilus unusual?

A.The creature can make us excited.

B.The creature has a strange shape.

C.The creature was discovered in the Pacific for the first time.

D.The creature was found on the deep sea floor.

Detail2.What's the Nautilus'mission at Johnston Atoll?

A.To save cnidarians.

B.To study biodiversity.

C.To protect the environment.

D.To study climate change.

Inference3.How did the Nautilus team feel about the identity of the creature?

A.Scared. B.Uncertain.

C.Confident. D.Uninterested.

Inference4.Which of the following is stressed in the last paragraph?

A.The Nautilus'achievements.

B.The diversity of the Pacific.

C.The wonders of the deep sea.

D.The diversity of our planet.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentences in the text

1.I admit I'd never heard of sea pens until today,when I saw a video from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus showing a lovely tentacled creature with a long thin stalk reaching down to the ocean floor.我承認，直到今天，我才聽說過海筆，當時我看到一條來自“鸚鵡螺”號海洋探測船的視頻，里面有一種可愛的觸須生物，它細長的莖一直延伸到海底。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句，主句是I admit，后面是省略了that的賓語從句；when引導的是一個定語從句，修飾先行詞today。

2.The sea pen made its appearance during a visit by a remotely operated vehicle,or ROV,to an unexplored seamount near Johnston Atoll,a remote spot to the west of Hawaii in the Pacific.這只海筆是在遙控潛水器到達約翰斯頓環礁附近一個未經探索的海底山時出現的。約翰斯頓環礁是太平洋上夏威夷西部的一個偏遠的地方。

【點石成金】本句是一個簡單句，a remote spot to the west of Hawaii in the Pacific是一個同位語成分，對前面的Johnston Atoll做補充說明。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

hear of聽說

make one's appearance出現

come across遇見；偶遇

be listed as被列為……

be focused on專注于

lift the veil揭開……的面紗