剑桥雅思17阅读真题电子版Test3 Passage1

剑桥雅思17共收集了雅思真题4套，羊驼雅思整理了第三套阅读真题Test 3 Reading，以下是阅读第一篇文章Passage 1的文章原文及参考译文，供烤鸭们复习参考。

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READING PASSAGE  1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13. which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

The thylacine

The extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial* that bore a superficial resemblance to a dog. Its most distinguishing feature was the 13–19 dark brown stripes over its    back, beginning at the rear of the body and extending onto the tail. The thylacine’s average nose-  to-tail length for adult males was 162.6 cm, compared to 153.7 cm for females.

The thylacine appeared to occupy most types of terrain except dense rainforest, with open eucalyptus forest thought to be its prime habitat. In terms of feeding, it was exclusively carnivorous, and its stomach was muscular with an ability to distend so that it could eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. The thylacine was not a fast runner and probably caught its prey by exhausting it during a long pursuit. During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more on scent than any other sense. They emerged to hunt during the evening, night and early morning and tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day. Despite the common name ‘tiger’, the thylacine had a shy, nervous temperament. Although mainly nocturnal, it was sighted moving during the day and some individuals were even recorded  basking in the sun.

The thylacine had an extended breeding season from winter to spring, with indications that some breeding took place throughout the year. The thylacine, like all marsupials, was tiny and hairless when born. Newborns crawled into the pouch on the belly of their mother, and attached  themselves to one of the four teats, remaining there for up to three months. When old enough to  leave the pouch, the young stayed in a lair such as a deep rocky cave, well-hidden nest or hollow log, whilst the mother hunted.

Approximately 4.000 years ago, the thylacine was widespread throughout New Guinea and most of mainland Australia, as well as the island of Tasmania. The mostrecent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil from Murray Cave in Western Australia,   which is around 3.100 years old. Its extinction coincided closely with the arrival of wild dogs called dingoes in Australia and a similar predator in New Guinea. Dingoes never reached   Tasmania, and most scientists see this as the main reason for the thylacine’s survival there.

The dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and continued for    a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep farmers and bounty hunters**    with shotguns. While this determined campaign undoubtedly played a large part, it is likely that   various other factors also contributed to the decline and eventual extinction of the species. These include  competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease which may also have affected the thylacine.

There was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne Zoo in 1899. This was despite the large numbers that went through some zoos, particularly London Zoo and Tasmania’s Hobart Zoo. The famous naturalist John Gould foresaw the thylacine’s demise when he published his Mammals ofAustralia between 1848 and 1863.writing, ‘The numbers of  this singular animal will speedily diminish, extermination will have its full sway, and it will then, like the wolf of England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past.’

However, there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine, nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the decades that followed. A notable exception was T.T. Flynn, Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania. In 1914. he was sufficiently concerned about the scarcity of the thylacine to suggest that some should be captured and placed on a small island. But it was not until 1929. with the species on the very edge of extinction, that Tasmania’s Animals and Birds Protection Board passed a motion protecting thylacines only for the month of December, which was thought to be their prime breeding season. The last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in the north-east of Tasmania in 1930. leaving just captive specimens. Official protection of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced in July 1936. 59 days before the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo on 7th September, 1936.

There have been numerous expeditions and searches for the thylacine over the years, none of which has produced definitive evidence that thylacines still exist. The species was declared extinct by the Tasmanian government in 1986.

参考译文：

袋狼

已灭绝的袋狼，也被称为塔斯马尼亚虎，是一种表面上看起来像狗的有袋动物。

它最显着的特征是背部有13-19条深棕色条纹，从身体后部开始，一直延伸到尾巴。成年雄性袋狼的鼻子到尾巴长度平均为162.6厘米，而雌性则为153.7厘米。

除茂密的热带雨林外，袋狼似乎生活在大多数地形，开阔的桉树林被认为是其主要栖息地。在摄食方面，它完全是肉食性的，它的胃部肌肉发达，能够膨胀，因此可以一次吃下大量的食物，这可能是为了弥补长时间狩猎不成功和食物匮乏的情况。袋狼跑得不快，很可能是在漫长的追捕过程中耗尽了猎物的体力抓住猎物。在长途追逐中，袋狼可能更依赖于气味而不是其他感官。他们在傍晚、夜间和清晨出现捕猎，白天则倾向于撤退到山丘和森林中避难。尽管俗称“老虎”,袋狼有一种害羞、紧张的气质。虽然主要是夜间活动，但有人看到它在白天活动，甚至有人记录到有些在晒太阳。

袋狼的繁殖季节从冬季延长到春季，有迹象表明全年都在进行一些繁殖。像所有有袋动物一样，袋狼在出生时很小而且没有毛。新生儿爬进母亲腹部的育儿袋中，并依附在四个乳头中的一个上，并在那里停留长达三个月。当大到可以离开育儿袋时，幼崽会呆在一个巢穴中，比如深石洞、隐藏良好的巢穴或空心原木，而母亲则在狩猎。

大约4000年前，袋狼在新几内亚和澳大利亚大陆的大部分地区以及塔斯马尼亚岛广泛分布。在澳大利亚西部的默里洞穴中，发现了一具碳年代久远的袋狼化石，距今约有3100年。它的灭绝于被称为澳大利亚野狗和新几内亚类似捕食者的到来密切相关。野狗从未到达塔斯马尼亚，大多数科学家认为这是袋狼在那里生存的主要原因。

塔斯马尼亚州袋狼的急剧下降始于1830年代并持续了一个世纪，人们普遍认为，这要归因于牧羊人和使用霰弹枪的赏金猎人的不懈努力。虽然这场活动无疑起了很大的作用，但其他各种因素也可能导致该物种的衰退和最终灭绝。包括与欧洲定居者引入的野狗的竞争，栖息地的丧失以及猎物的消失，以及可能也影响了袋狼的类似犬瘟热的疾病。

1899年在墨尔本动物园，只有一次成功的人工饲养袋狼繁殖。尽管在一些动物园，特别是伦敦动物园和塔斯马尼亚的霍巴特动物园，有大量的袋狼。著名的博物学家JohnGould在1848年至1863年间出版《澳大利亚哺乳动物》时预见到了袋狼的消亡，他写道：这种奇异的动物将迅速减少，彻底地走向灭绝，到那时，它将像英格兰和苏格兰的狼一样，被记录为过去的动物。

然而，保护袋狼的公众压力似乎很小，科学家们也没有对该物种在随后的几十年中的衰落表示太多关注。一个值得注意的例外是塔斯马尼亚大学生物学教授TTFlynn。1914年，他非常关注袋狼的稀缺性，建议将一些袋狼捕获并安置在一个小岛上。但直到1929年，随着物种濒临灭绝，塔斯马尼亚动物和鸟类保护委员会才通过了一项仅在12月份保护袋狼的提议，因为12月被认为是它们的主要繁殖季节。1930年，最后一只野生袋狼在塔斯马尼亚东北部被一名农民射杀的，只留下了圈养的袋狼。塔斯马尼亚政府于1936年7月开始对该物种进行官方保护，59天后，最后一只已知的袋狼于1936年9月7日在霍巴特动物园死亡。

多年来，人们对袋狼进行了无数次探险和搜索，但都没有提供明确的证据证明袋狼仍然存在。1986年，塔斯马尼亚政府宣布该物种灭绝。