The Earth's most ancient land animal

河南 呂 朗

主題語境：動物 篇幅：312詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1Jonathan,a tortoise,is regarded as the oldest living land animal in the world,first arriving at its current home on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic in 1882 as a gift to the governor of the island,which is a British territory.He was thought to be at the age of at least 50 at the time because his species,a Seychelles giant tortoise,reaches full maturity by this age and 120cm-long Jonathan has not grown any bigger since his arrival on the island.

2His age means Jonathan was just a youngster when Queen Victoria,Britain's secondlongest reigning monarch(執政君主),took the throne,and he outlived both World Wars.

3Despite his long life,Jonathan only gained international attention in 2008 when the newspaperThe Independentreported on his then-remarkable age of 176.At that stage,he had already surpassed the 150 years'life expectancy of Seychelles giant tortoises.

4Jonathan,who is now blind with cataracts (白內障) and lacks a sense of smell,is recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest known living land animal.

5He has lived most of his life at the governor's plantation house,according to the island's website,which added that the tortoise could also be considered a national symbol for the island.Jonathan's image is even on the back side of a Saint Helena five pence coin.

6Scientists have even studied Jonathan to determine what health benefits they might gather from his diet and his cells.Because his cells do not change in the same way that humans'cells do,scientists hope he could reveal the secret to fighting cancer in humans.

7Jonathan shares his home with three other tortoises: Emma,a 54-year-old female,David,a 54-year-old male and Frederika,a 31-year-old tortoise originally called Frederik that is now thought to be female.The first two arrived in 1969,and Frederika arrived in 1991.

Reading Check

Detail 1.What can we know about Jonathan?

A.He is a tortoise which is mature at the age of 50.

B.He has lived at the governor's plantation for 190 years.

C.He came to the island as a candidate for the image on the Saint Helena five pence coin.

D.He is regarded as the most influential animal on the island.

Inference 2.What does paragraph 2 intend to tell us?

A.Jonathan has a high status on the island.

B.Jonathan is popular with famous people.

C.Jonathan is a tortoise that has lived long.

D.Jonathan has witnessed important moments.

Vocabulary 3.What does the underlined word“surpassed”in paragraph 3 mean?

A.Come up to.

B.Gone beyond.

C.Hoped for.

D.Got close to.

Detail 4.What do scientists expect of the research on Jonathan?

A.The growing process of him.

B.The benefit of proper diets.

C.The construction of his cells.

D.The secret to fighting cancer.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Text-centered chunks

reach full maturity 達到完全成熟

gain international attention 獲得國際關注

lack a sense of smell 失去嗅覺

the secret to fighting cancer 抗擊癌癥的秘訣

Ⅱ.Discover the useful structure in the text

Jonathan,a tortoise,is regarded as the oldest living land animal in the world,first arriving at its current home on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic in 1882 as a gift to the governor of the island,which is a British territory.烏龜喬納森被認為是世界上現存最長壽的陸地動物。1882 年，它第一次來到南大西洋的圣赫勒拿島上的現居住所，當時它是作為禮物送給該島總督的。該島是英國的領土。

【點石成金】本句中，first arriving at its current home on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic in 1882 as a gift to the governor of the island 為伴隨狀語；which is a British territory為定語從句，修飾先行詞the island。