♢ Nailed it. 口語中常用，“搞定!”
♢ Weird 怪異的(這個詞在口語中也常用，比如 “That’s so weird.”)
♢Reptile 托福高頻詞匯!!不認(rèn)識的請去面壁( ￣ ￣)
✎ It was a creature so outlandish that scientists say it reminds them of the fanciful beasts conjured up by Dr. Seuss. But would the famous children's book author have thought up a marine reptile with a hammerhead snout it used to snack on algae?
這真的是一種古怪的生物，科學(xué)家們說看到它讓人想起S博士書中那些想象出來的奇幻野獸，但不知道這位的童書作者是否想過會有一種海洋爬行動物長著錘頭般的鼻子，而且還能吃海藻?
♢ marine reptile 海生爬行動物(高頻詞匯)
♢ outlandish 怪異的，古怪的
♢ conjure up 提出，想象
♢ algae 海藻，藻類(高頻詞匯)
✎ Scientists on Friday announced the discovery in southern China of new fossils of a reptile from 242 million years ago called Atopodentatus that clarify the nature of this strange crocodile-sized, plant-eating sea-dweller.
科學(xué)家們于周五對外公布了這個奇怪生物的發(fā)現(xiàn)，并澄清了它的特征，鱷魚尺寸，吃素食，海洋居住者，它是發(fā)現(xiàn)于中國南方的一個24.2億年前的稱作A的爬行動物化石。
注：我們在看到這種一句話有30個單詞的句子時，不要方~~方法是抓主干成分!主謂賓很簡單：Scientists announced the discovery. 隨后就是一堆的介詞短語及從句來進(jìn)行修飾~~~而那個A開頭的專有名詞，我們根本不需要知道它是什么意思~~!!
✎ When the first fossils of Atopodentatus were found in 2014, scientists thought, based on its poorly preserved skull, it had a down-turned snout resembling a flamingo's beak with a vertical, zipper-like mouth. But two new fossil specimens, described in research published in the journal Science Advances, resolved the matter.
當(dāng)2014年第一個A的化石被發(fā)現(xiàn)，根據(jù)現(xiàn)存僅有的頭骨，科學(xué)家們猜想它有一個向下翻轉(zhuǎn)的鼻子，就像動物F垂直拉鏈唇。但是，根據(jù)發(fā)布在SA期刊上的調(diào)查中描述的兩個新化石樣本，這個推測已被訂正。
♢ based on 依據(jù)....
♢ fossil specimens 化石樣本
♢ publish 出版，發(fā)行，發(fā)布
✎ Atopodentatus apparently used chisel-like teeth along the edge of its blunt, hammer-shaped snout to scrape algae off hard underwater surfaces. It then quickly opened its mouth to create suction before closing its jaws to filter the plant material through densely packed and needle-shaped teeth much like baleen whales strain tiny shrimp-like krill from seawater.
顯然，A是沿著它鈍的錘子形狀的鼻子的邊緣用鑿子似的牙去剮蹭掉水平面下的海藻硬的表面，然后迅速的張開大嘴吸進(jìn)去。在閉嘴之前用緊密的、針狀的牙齒過濾掉植物體，就像須鯨從海水中獲取磷蝦一樣。
注：這種描述細(xì)節(jié)的句子，不管是程度好還是差的學(xué)生讀起來都覺得難，不過好在托福閱讀并不是特別喜歡考這種細(xì)節(jié)!更傾向于考查你抓重點、關(guān)鍵詞的能力!
♢ scrape off 刮掉
♢ suction 吸力
♢ filter 過濾
✎ When thinking of hammerhead creatures, sharks may come to mind. But Atopodentatus' hammerhead feature differed in location and function from the sharks, whose eyes are on the end of lateral extensions on their head.
當(dāng)想到鑿子頭生物，我們會想到鯊魚，但是A的鑿子頭特點在位置和功能上與鯊魚不同，它的眼睛位于從頭部側(cè)面延伸出去的末端。
♢ come to mind 出現(xiàn)在腦海中
♢ lateral 側(cè)面的，橫向的
✎ Atopodentatus appeared during the Triassic Period relatively soon after the biggest mass extinction of species in Earth's history, illustrating that life was bouncing back nicely. Other oddball creatures also swam the seas at the time, including a reptile called Dinocephalosaurus whose neck comprised half of its 17-foot (5.25 meters) length.
Atopodentatus出現(xiàn)在三疊紀(jì)時期，緊隨生物大滅絕后，表明生物有很強的恢復(fù)力。在那時還有其他海洋中的怪異生物，如脖子占全長的一般的D這種爬行動物。
♢ bounce back 反彈，迅速恢復(fù)活力