Settling an old debate, a new remote sensing technique establishes that Mt. Isto in northeastern Alaska is taller than surrounding peaks.
Arctic Alaska is so remote and inaccessible that there have been few accurate maps of much of its terrain. This puts pilots at risk of crashing into peaks and adds uncertainty for oil developers building pipelines.
This problem has been in particular focus in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeastern Alaska, where scientists have debated which is the region’s highest peak—Mt. Chamberlin or Mt. Isto.
But a new analysis, based on new mapping technology, has found that Isto is indeed taller, at 8,976 feet (2,736 meters). The next highest is actually Mt. Hubley, at 8,917 feet (2,718 meters), followed by Chamberlin at 8,901 feet (2,713 meters). These new measurements also show that Isto is about 330 feet (100 meters) taller than the highest peak in Arctic Canada—a fact that was also previously debated.
The new map project was led by Matt Nolan of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who announced the findings Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
Prior to Nolan’s work, the most accurate maps of the area were made in the 1950s, when scientists estimated peak heights based on aerial photos. But the resolution of those photos was limited by the technology of the time and the lack of GPS.
Nolan’s new results were verified by professional ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers, who climbed several of the summits with a GPS tracker to fact check Nolan’s new system of remote sensing. The work was supported in part by the National Geographic Society.
DesLauriers, who is also a member of The North Face athlete team, says she was glad to use her adventure skills to help people “understand our natural environment,” adding that the project “speaks to the age of exploration still being open for those who wish to look deeper into the questions which remain.”
How it Works
Over the past few years, Nolan has developed a new sensing system that leverages recent advancements in technology to provide more data at a lower cost. He named it fodar, a combination of foto and LiDAR (light detection and ranging). LiDAR has been around about two decades and is increasingly used for Earth science and archaeology. But it’s expensive. Equipment costs between $500,000 and $1 million, and it requires an airplane.
In contrast, Nolan’s system cost him less than $30,000, although he says cheaper versions could be used for less-precise measurements. Nolan’s fodar has three main elements: a “prosumer”-grade digital camera, a survey-quality GPS receiver, and a software algorithm called Structure-from-Motion.
Nolan can operate the system by himself, while flying a small plane over the area he wants to survey. He places the camera in a mount, and then each time it takes a picture, the GPS records its exact position. The software then turns the picture into a precise 3-D model. Nolan says the system could be soon be mounted on a drone, which would drive costs down further.
The algorithm that powers the system was developed for the computer graphics and robotics industries, to both fill out the animations in cartoons and to allow robot vehicles to navigate without running into things. In fodar, the algorithm also corrects for lens distortion in the camera. Without that innovation, surveyors had to use ultra-expensive professional cameras that were specifically designed for the task and made in small batches. Today’s consumer cameras also have a much better range in terms of light and lens quality, so they now rival models that used to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
“It used to be that Earth scientists looked forward to making one good map of an area in their career, but now we can make them as often as we need them,” says Nolan.
Beyond Maps
By mapping areas over time with detail on the level of mere centimeters, fodar can help scientists measure changes in the landscape, such as snow and ice levels, erosion, avalanches, subsidence, and more.
For example, Nolan and DesLauriers found that the peak of Mt. Okpilak in Alaska moved some 49 feet (15 meters) laterally and 6 inches (15 centimeters) vertically just between April and July 2015. The team thinks a big storm resculpted the ice cornice overlying the peak during that time.
“Fodar won't totally replace LiDAR, which will still be good for some applications, but it will lead to an explosion of scientific analysis,” says Nolan.
accurate 正确的，精密的
aerial 大气的，空中的 aerial photo 空照图
verify 确认，证实
leverage 利用
detection 探知，发觉
prosumer 生产消费者
algorithm 演算法
drone 无人机
distortion 变形，失真
batch 一批生产的量
mere 仅仅
avalanche 雪崩
subsidence 下陷
laterally 外侧
cornice 檐口
Friday, December 18, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Why a Wild Pig Befriended a Herd of Cows
Pigs are more intelligent than we give them credit for, expert says.
This is some pig: A wild boar is a celebrity in Germany after joining a small herd of cows on a farm near Hamburg.
Farmer Dirk Reese has watched the bristly interloper—which he calls Banana—integrate into the herd over the last couple of months, according to news reports. The cows seem unbothered by the new addition, and the boar acts right at home among them.
Much of what we hear these days about wild boar is bad news, about their invasive and destructive nature as their populations spread across the U.S. and Europe.
But in this case, the animal is doing no harm—and its intelligence and need for companionship may explain why it decided to join the herd.
Smart and Sociable
“One thing we’ve learned about pigs [both wild and domestic] is that they are very socially complex,” says Lori Marino, executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy in Utah.
“In the wild they live in a social group—a male will be with several females, their babies, and immature males. And in captivity we’ve seen time and again that housing them alone makes them very unhappy. When you put them together, they get the stimulation they need and just blossom.”
Pigs are also every bit as intelligent as dogs, she says.
“We don’t know why this [boar] is alone, but clearly it left the forest and latched on to whomever it could find,” she says. “Pigs are smart; this one knew what it was doing.”
Cows, also very social, may be brighter bulbs than once thought, too, she says.
“There’s more going on there than you’d think; they’re not just a bunch of big animals with their heads down, chewing grass.” They develop friendships, hold grudges, and have excellent memories, for example.
"Cute Little Mistake"
Another reason the boar-and-cow family seems to jibe is they're similar creatures.
As ungulates—hooved mammals—there's some overlap in behavior. “It’s not like a pig hanging around with a lion,” Marino says.
Boar also munch grass, but mostly they root around for underground snacks, which means competition for food isn’t really an issue for this mixed group.
“It’s a cute little mistake, but it also shows how socially flexible these animals are. Everyone is getting something out of the relationship.”
boar 野猪
celebrity 名声，名人
bristly 很多刚毛的，易怒的
invasive 侵害的
destructive 破坏的
companionship 伙伴关系
sociable 喜社交的
advocacy 辩护，支援
in captivity 被捕获
latch 抓住
bulb 球根，球状物
grudge 不满，嫉妒
jibe 和谐，一直
hoof hooved 行走
overlap 重叠部分
This is some pig: A wild boar is a celebrity in Germany after joining a small herd of cows on a farm near Hamburg.
Farmer Dirk Reese has watched the bristly interloper—which he calls Banana—integrate into the herd over the last couple of months, according to news reports. The cows seem unbothered by the new addition, and the boar acts right at home among them.
Much of what we hear these days about wild boar is bad news, about their invasive and destructive nature as their populations spread across the U.S. and Europe.
But in this case, the animal is doing no harm—and its intelligence and need for companionship may explain why it decided to join the herd.
Smart and Sociable
“One thing we’ve learned about pigs [both wild and domestic] is that they are very socially complex,” says Lori Marino, executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy in Utah.
“In the wild they live in a social group—a male will be with several females, their babies, and immature males. And in captivity we’ve seen time and again that housing them alone makes them very unhappy. When you put them together, they get the stimulation they need and just blossom.”
Pigs are also every bit as intelligent as dogs, she says.
“We don’t know why this [boar] is alone, but clearly it left the forest and latched on to whomever it could find,” she says. “Pigs are smart; this one knew what it was doing.”
Cows, also very social, may be brighter bulbs than once thought, too, she says.
“There’s more going on there than you’d think; they’re not just a bunch of big animals with their heads down, chewing grass.” They develop friendships, hold grudges, and have excellent memories, for example.
"Cute Little Mistake"
Another reason the boar-and-cow family seems to jibe is they're similar creatures.
As ungulates—hooved mammals—there's some overlap in behavior. “It’s not like a pig hanging around with a lion,” Marino says.
Boar also munch grass, but mostly they root around for underground snacks, which means competition for food isn’t really an issue for this mixed group.
“It’s a cute little mistake, but it also shows how socially flexible these animals are. Everyone is getting something out of the relationship.”
boar 野猪
celebrity 名声，名人
bristly 很多刚毛的，易怒的
invasive 侵害的
destructive 破坏的
companionship 伙伴关系
sociable 喜社交的
advocacy 辩护，支援
in captivity 被捕获
latch 抓住
bulb 球根，球状物
grudge 不满，嫉妒
jibe 和谐，一直
hoof hooved 行走
overlap 重叠部分
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
New Discovery Solves One Mystery of Stonehenge’s Construction
Tools, a quarry, and a sunken road say a lot about Stonehenge. They also raise new questions for archaeologists.
New findings from a team of British archaeologists shed light on how some of Stonehenge’s monoliths were extracted and transported.
In an announcement Monday, the team said it found extensive evidence of Neolithic stone quarrying at two sites in Wales that supplied the distinctive ‘bluestones’ erected at Stonehenge around 5,000 years ago. Forty-three bluestones survive out of an estimated 80 that once stood at Stonehenge; they form an inner horseshoe at the site, surrounded by the outer circle of much larger giant sandstone monoliths. By dating and studying artifacts from the quarries, the archaeologists have determined when and how prehistoric people first extracted these bluestones.
The Welsh quarries are located in the Preseli hills in north Pembrokeshire, roughly 180 miles (290 km) from Stonehenge by land. The bluestones weigh 1-2 tons and are up to 8 feet tall.
The stones are volcanic and igneous rocks with precise geological signatures that match the inner horseshoe of smaller rocks at Stonehenge. Geologists have shown that this region of Wales is the only part of the British Isles that contains a particular type of rock—spotted dolerite—common in the bluestones.
Archaeologists have uncovered stone tools, dirt ramps and platforms, burnt charcoal and chestnuts, and an ancient sunken road that was likely the exit route from the quarry. “While we knew the locations where the rocks originated, the really exciting thing was to find actual quarries,” says Mike Parker Pearson, director of the project and a professor at University College London. “They built extensive facilities here: platforms, ramps, a loading bay. You can see chisel marks where they drove in wooden wedges at the recesses on the outcrop.”
Radiocarbon dates from charcoal and burned hazelnuts at prehistoric campfires show Neolithic activity at the quarries between 5,400 and 5,200 years ago. Researchers believe that Stonehenge was not built before 5000 BC. This raises a puzzling question: where were the stones during those 400 years?
“It’s intriguing,” Parker Pearson says, “and while it could’ve taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, that’s pretty improbable. It’s more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument somewhere near the quarries that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire.” Locating and studying the site of this possible local monument will be a primary research goal for the team in 2016.
Naturally forming rock pillars at the quarry sites made things somewhat easier for the prehistoric workers. “They only had to insert wooden wedges into the cracks between the pillars and then let the Welsh rain do the rest by swelling the wood to ease each pillar off the rock face,” says Dr. Josh Pollard of the University of Southampton. “The quarry-workers then lowered the thin pillars onto platforms of earth and stone, a sort of ‘loading bay’ from where the huge stones could be dragged away along trackways leading out of each quarry.”
Eighty of the bluestone monoliths were eventually transported to Stonehenge. Moving two-ton monoliths across nearly 200 miles of countryside is an extraordinary undertaking, but examples from India show that stones this size can be carried on wooden lattices by groups as small as 60 people.
Removing the stones from the quarries required a combination of strength and ingenuity. The narrow width of the exit pathway—only 6 feet (1.8 m) across— is too small to accommodate the use of wooden rollers. Archaeologists believe that workers used a combination of ropes, levers, and a fulcrum to position the stones on top of wooden sledges that were carried or slid downhill. “You need two teams,” says Parker Pearson, “one on the top with a rope taking the strain and lowering it slowly and another, standing roughly 3 feet lower, ready to receive it.”
Though the workers at the site likely ate a diet of mostly meat, no bones or antlers have survived because of the area’s highly acidic soil. What does survive is evidence of snacks on roasted chestnuts, a staple of the Neolithic diet. Parker Pearson thinks that a group of at least 25 workers did the quarrying, probably walking to the site each day from nearby settlements.
If research over the next year reveals a local monument near the quarry where the bluestones were initially used, this could suggest that the builders of Stonehenge migrated from Wales. Deducing the purpose and function of the local monument might also solve long-standing mysteries about the role that Stonehenge played in the culture of prehistoric Britain. The research of Parker Pearson and his team was supported by a grant from National Geographic Science and Exploration.
quarry 采石场
sunken 水底的，比地面低的
shed 发出（光热，香味）
monolith 一棵石柱
Neolithic 新石器时代的 Paleolithic 旧石器时代的
distinctive 特有的
erect 立起，建设
artifact （与自然相对的）人工物，工艺品，人工遗物
igneous 火成的
isle 岛，小岛
dolerite 粗粒玄武岩
ramp 斜坡
charcoal 木炭
chestnut 栗子
chisel 凿子
wedge 楔，楔形
recesses 深处 the recesses of a cave
outcrop 露出的岩层
hazelnut 榛子
intriguing 引起好奇心的
dismantle 分解，拆分
swell 膨胀
ease 松弛
undertaking 事业，约定
lattice 格子
ingenuity 独出心裁
accommodate 容纳
fulcrum 支点，支柱
sledge 雪橇
slide slid 滑行
antler 鹿角
staple 基本食品
initially 最初
deduce 推论
quarry 采石场
sunken 水底的，比地面低的
shed 发出（光热，香味）
monolith 一棵石柱
Neolithic 新石器时代的 Paleolithic 旧石器时代的
distinctive 特有的
erect 立起，建设
artifact （与自然相对的）人工物，工艺品，人工遗物
igneous 火成的
isle 岛，小岛
dolerite 粗粒玄武岩
ramp 斜坡
charcoal 木炭
chestnut 栗子
chisel 凿子
wedge 楔，楔形
recesses 深处 the recesses of a cave
outcrop 露出的岩层
hazelnut 榛子
intriguing 引起好奇心的
dismantle 分解，拆分
swell 膨胀
ease 松弛
undertaking 事业，约定
lattice 格子
ingenuity 独出心裁
accommodate 容纳
fulcrum 支点，支柱
sledge 雪橇
slide slid 滑行
antler 鹿角
staple 基本食品
initially 最初
deduce 推论
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
10 Surprising Facts About Yellowstone
The world’s oldest national park changed the way people think about nature, leaving an enduring legacy.
Yellowstone, the world’s first—and still most famous—national park, was established in 1872, the year the Brooklyn Bridge opened and President Ulysses S. Grant completed his first term in the White House (then called the Executive Mansion). That same year Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days and Thomas Edison perfected the duplex telegraph. But nothing changed the world like Yellowstone.
The new park taught people the value of restraint; that we save wild places so they might one day save us.
Here are ten surprising facts about Yellowstone and its enduring legacy, from the new National Geographic book The National Parks: An Illustrated History.
1. Three years before the establishment of the park, when explorer David E. Folsom first sighted Yellowstone Lake in 1869, he called it “a scene of transcendental beauty.” Other wondrous features abounded, including canyons, thermal basins, and rock formations that “bore a strong resemblance to an old castle.”
2. Folsom and his fellow explorer Charles W. Cook wrote an account of their expedition but had trouble selling it because magazine editors believed it too far-fetched.
3. When members of the 1870 Washburn-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone returned home thin and haggard, a witness said all but one appeared unfit to be seen on the street. Yet all the men talked excitedly, as if they’d discovered a children’s fairy tale.
4. Painter Thomas Moran of the 1871 Hayden Expedition sold his 7’x12’ canvas painting Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for $10,000—to Congress. It was the first landscape painting ever featured in the U.S. Senate lobby.
5. When Yellowstone National Park was established, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana were not yet states. As such, the park proposal received little opposition from regional governments and business interests. According to one far-sighted congressman, the park would be “a breathing place for the American lungs.”
6. At first, Americans thought one national park was enough. But Yellowstone had power. It became a source of national pride, and it attracted people from all over, creating its own economy. And so the idea grew into what we have today: thousands of national parks around the world.
7. In the beginning, Yellowstone was administered by the U.S. Army. Not until 1916 was the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) established. For decades the park was managed to increase visitor satisfaction, which included stocking non-native species of fish and killing out the wolves to increase the numbers of elk and other grazing animals (which the public wanted to see at the time).
8. In the early 1950s professor A. Starker Leopold (eldest son of author/ecologist Aldo Leopold) told his graduate students that given the steady evolution of science-based management on public lands, one day the NPS will let forest fires burn. None of his students believed him. Some 35 years later, in the summer of 1988, the NPS let the Yellowstone fires burn.
9. During that fiery summer, businesses in the park complained that letting the fires burn would disfigure and blacken the park and ruin tourism. It did not.
Yellowstone received more visitors in 1989 than in any other year that decade. Burned pine bark proved nutritious for elk. Grizzlies prospered. Aspen seedlings appeared everywhere. And over the next eight years white bark pine seedlings appeared in all 275 study plots monitored by the NPS.
10. The 1995 re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone (after a 70-year absence) proved to be a miracle, of sorts. “An ocean of elk and bison awaited them,” wrote Montana writer Rick Bass.
In snapping the park’s ecology back into balance, the wolves gave countless other species greater vitality. Elk no longer behaved like feedlot cattle. They were elk again, agile and alert. Streamside vegetation rebounded. Bright little songbirds returned.
“There is color in the land again,” wrote Bass. “Or perhaps it was always there, like a pigment in the soil, but was simply rendered imperceptible for awhile.”
executive 行政上的；职员官员
duplex 复式的，公寓上下相连的
restraint 抑制，自制
transcendental 卓越的
wondrous 不可思议的
canyon 峡谷
thermal 热的，温泉的
resemblance 类似
bear bore born 持有
bear some relation [resemblance] to… 与…有关[类似]
bear no reference to… 与…无关
bear a part in something 与谋事有关系
expedition 探险，远征
far-fetched 牵强的，不着边际的 fetch 引出，捕获人心
haggard 憔悴的，野生的
unfit 不健康的，不适合的
canvas 油画
far-sighted 有远见的
satisfaction 充足，满足
elk 麋鹿
grazing 放牧，牧草地
disfigure 损毁，使变丑
bark 树皮
grizzly 北美洲灰熊
prosper 繁荣，成功
aspen 杨树
seedlings 苗
miracle 奇迹
bison 野牛
vitality 活力，生机
feedlot 饲育场
agile 机敏的
render 给与，表达
imperceptible 难以察觉的
Yellowstone, the world’s first—and still most famous—national park, was established in 1872, the year the Brooklyn Bridge opened and President Ulysses S. Grant completed his first term in the White House (then called the Executive Mansion). That same year Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days and Thomas Edison perfected the duplex telegraph. But nothing changed the world like Yellowstone.
The new park taught people the value of restraint; that we save wild places so they might one day save us.
Here are ten surprising facts about Yellowstone and its enduring legacy, from the new National Geographic book The National Parks: An Illustrated History.
1. Three years before the establishment of the park, when explorer David E. Folsom first sighted Yellowstone Lake in 1869, he called it “a scene of transcendental beauty.” Other wondrous features abounded, including canyons, thermal basins, and rock formations that “bore a strong resemblance to an old castle.”
2. Folsom and his fellow explorer Charles W. Cook wrote an account of their expedition but had trouble selling it because magazine editors believed it too far-fetched.
3. When members of the 1870 Washburn-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone returned home thin and haggard, a witness said all but one appeared unfit to be seen on the street. Yet all the men talked excitedly, as if they’d discovered a children’s fairy tale.
4. Painter Thomas Moran of the 1871 Hayden Expedition sold his 7’x12’ canvas painting Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for $10,000—to Congress. It was the first landscape painting ever featured in the U.S. Senate lobby.
5. When Yellowstone National Park was established, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana were not yet states. As such, the park proposal received little opposition from regional governments and business interests. According to one far-sighted congressman, the park would be “a breathing place for the American lungs.”
6. At first, Americans thought one national park was enough. But Yellowstone had power. It became a source of national pride, and it attracted people from all over, creating its own economy. And so the idea grew into what we have today: thousands of national parks around the world.
7. In the beginning, Yellowstone was administered by the U.S. Army. Not until 1916 was the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) established. For decades the park was managed to increase visitor satisfaction, which included stocking non-native species of fish and killing out the wolves to increase the numbers of elk and other grazing animals (which the public wanted to see at the time).
8. In the early 1950s professor A. Starker Leopold (eldest son of author/ecologist Aldo Leopold) told his graduate students that given the steady evolution of science-based management on public lands, one day the NPS will let forest fires burn. None of his students believed him. Some 35 years later, in the summer of 1988, the NPS let the Yellowstone fires burn.
9. During that fiery summer, businesses in the park complained that letting the fires burn would disfigure and blacken the park and ruin tourism. It did not.
Yellowstone received more visitors in 1989 than in any other year that decade. Burned pine bark proved nutritious for elk. Grizzlies prospered. Aspen seedlings appeared everywhere. And over the next eight years white bark pine seedlings appeared in all 275 study plots monitored by the NPS.
10. The 1995 re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone (after a 70-year absence) proved to be a miracle, of sorts. “An ocean of elk and bison awaited them,” wrote Montana writer Rick Bass.
In snapping the park’s ecology back into balance, the wolves gave countless other species greater vitality. Elk no longer behaved like feedlot cattle. They were elk again, agile and alert. Streamside vegetation rebounded. Bright little songbirds returned.
“There is color in the land again,” wrote Bass. “Or perhaps it was always there, like a pigment in the soil, but was simply rendered imperceptible for awhile.”
executive 行政上的；职员官员
duplex 复式的，公寓上下相连的
restraint 抑制，自制
transcendental 卓越的
wondrous 不可思议的
canyon 峡谷
thermal 热的，温泉的
resemblance 类似
bear bore born 持有
bear some relation [resemblance] to… 与…有关[类似]
bear no reference to… 与…无关
bear a part in something 与谋事有关系
expedition 探险，远征
far-fetched 牵强的，不着边际的 fetch 引出，捕获人心
haggard 憔悴的，野生的
unfit 不健康的，不适合的
canvas 油画
far-sighted 有远见的
satisfaction 充足，满足
elk 麋鹿
grazing 放牧，牧草地
disfigure 损毁，使变丑
bark 树皮
grizzly 北美洲灰熊
prosper 繁荣，成功
aspen 杨树
seedlings 苗
miracle 奇迹
bison 野牛
vitality 活力，生机
feedlot 饲育场
agile 机敏的
render 给与，表达
imperceptible 难以察觉的
Monday, December 7, 2015
Watch a Comet Fly By the Moon and Venus
Comet Catalina is putting on a show that will only get better over the coming weeks.
Skywatchers are getting an early holiday gift in the form of a brightening comet sweeping across early morning skies. This is comet Catalina, in the latter half of its one-way trip through the inner solar system.
Formally known as C/2013 US10, comet Catalina is now climbing the eastern morning sky and emerging in the pre-dawn twilight in the Northern Hemisphere. Observers report that it shines at magnitude 6, just shy of being visible to the naked eye but easy to spot with binoculars. And over the course of the next few days, the comet will glide by two of the brightest objects in the night sky, Venus and the moon, making it a cinch to find even for novice stargazers.
The icy interloper gets its name from the Catalina Sky Survey, which searches for comets and near-Earth asteroids using two telescopes in Arizona and discovered comet Catalina on Halloween 2013. According to the comet’s calculated trajectory, it probably originated from the Oort Cloud, a frozen reservoir of comets located beyond Pluto. A passing star may have disturbed the comet, which then got pulled toward the inner solar system by the sun’s gravity.
On its inward journey earlier this year, until mid-November when it rounded the sun, comet Catalina was visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Now on the return journey to the outer solar system, it is putting on a final sky show in the north.
To hunt down comet Catalina, face southeast about an hour before local sunrise. The comet will be some 15 degrees above the horizon, about equal to the span between your pinky and index fingers held at arm’s length. The comet will be found within the constellation Virgo, the maiden.
Look for a small, fuzzy patch of light through your binoculars. Small telescopes may even show off hints of two splayed tails. Backyard amateur astrophotographers have been snapping amazing close-up images of the comet that clearly show these tails of gas and dust pointing away from the sun.
On Monday, December 7, the comet will appear near the bright planet Venus, the most brilliant starlike object visible in the morning sky. The two objects will be separated by only 4 degrees, less than the width of your three middle fingers. Perched just above the planet will be a razor-thin crescent moon.
As the days pass, comet Catalina will appear to climb higher in the sky and may even become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. (Sky and Telescope offers this detailed finder chart outlining the comet’s pathway.) By January 1, it will make a close pass by the bright orange star Arcturus, coming within a half degree, a separation equal to the width of the full moon disk.
Only two weeks later, the comet will skim by the handle of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. And on January 12, Catalina will make its closest approach to Earth at 67 million miles (108 million kilometers), when it may be visible to the naked eye around local midnight in near overhead skies.
Clear skies!
twilight 黎明黄昏的暮光
binoculars 双筒望远镜
glide 滑行
cinch 容易做的事
novice 初学者
stargazer 占星家，天文学者
interloper 闯入者
asteroid 小行星
trajectory 轨道
reservoir 蓄水池，宝库
Pluto 冥王星
pinky finger 小手指
index finger 食指
constellation 星座
maiden 未婚的；处女
patch 补丁，斑块
splay 散开
perch 停留，栖息
Arcturus 大角星
Skywatchers are getting an early holiday gift in the form of a brightening comet sweeping across early morning skies. This is comet Catalina, in the latter half of its one-way trip through the inner solar system.
Formally known as C/2013 US10, comet Catalina is now climbing the eastern morning sky and emerging in the pre-dawn twilight in the Northern Hemisphere. Observers report that it shines at magnitude 6, just shy of being visible to the naked eye but easy to spot with binoculars. And over the course of the next few days, the comet will glide by two of the brightest objects in the night sky, Venus and the moon, making it a cinch to find even for novice stargazers.
The icy interloper gets its name from the Catalina Sky Survey, which searches for comets and near-Earth asteroids using two telescopes in Arizona and discovered comet Catalina on Halloween 2013. According to the comet’s calculated trajectory, it probably originated from the Oort Cloud, a frozen reservoir of comets located beyond Pluto. A passing star may have disturbed the comet, which then got pulled toward the inner solar system by the sun’s gravity.
On its inward journey earlier this year, until mid-November when it rounded the sun, comet Catalina was visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Now on the return journey to the outer solar system, it is putting on a final sky show in the north.
To hunt down comet Catalina, face southeast about an hour before local sunrise. The comet will be some 15 degrees above the horizon, about equal to the span between your pinky and index fingers held at arm’s length. The comet will be found within the constellation Virgo, the maiden.
Look for a small, fuzzy patch of light through your binoculars. Small telescopes may even show off hints of two splayed tails. Backyard amateur astrophotographers have been snapping amazing close-up images of the comet that clearly show these tails of gas and dust pointing away from the sun.
On Monday, December 7, the comet will appear near the bright planet Venus, the most brilliant starlike object visible in the morning sky. The two objects will be separated by only 4 degrees, less than the width of your three middle fingers. Perched just above the planet will be a razor-thin crescent moon.
As the days pass, comet Catalina will appear to climb higher in the sky and may even become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. (Sky and Telescope offers this detailed finder chart outlining the comet’s pathway.) By January 1, it will make a close pass by the bright orange star Arcturus, coming within a half degree, a separation equal to the width of the full moon disk.
Only two weeks later, the comet will skim by the handle of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. And on January 12, Catalina will make its closest approach to Earth at 67 million miles (108 million kilometers), when it may be visible to the naked eye around local midnight in near overhead skies.
Clear skies!
twilight 黎明黄昏的暮光
binoculars 双筒望远镜
glide 滑行
cinch 容易做的事
novice 初学者
stargazer 占星家，天文学者
interloper 闯入者
asteroid 小行星
trajectory 轨道
reservoir 蓄水池，宝库
Pluto 冥王星
pinky finger 小手指
index finger 食指
constellation 星座
maiden 未婚的；处女
patch 补丁，斑块
splay 散开
perch 停留，栖息
Arcturus 大角星
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Have You Seen the Blessed Mother? Creating Visions of Mary
In the December issue of National Geographic magazine, photographer Diana Markosian explores the worldwide devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Her first trip for the story took her to the town of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in 1981 experienced its first apparition of the Virgin Mary. Mary reportedly appeared to six children, identifying herself as the “Queen of Peace” and handing down the first of thousands of messages to them. (Some claim she still speaks to them daily.)
The local government tried to squash the reports, but the children persisted in telling their stories. Since then millions have flocked to Medjugorje to seek their own connection with Mary.
Markosian set out to photograph some of these pilgrims, but when she first arrived she wasn’t quite sure what to shoot—or how to make the sort of images she was used to creating.
“This was my first assignment for National Geographic,” she says. “I never worked on a story like this and wasn’t sure if I was the right photographer for it. When I spoke to [Director of Photography] Sarah Leen about why she picked me for it, she said because I photograph things that are no longer there.”
Most of Markosian’s prior work has been personal projects that deal with loss, and her subjects participated in the storytelling process, guiding her along the way.
In Medjugorje, she says she felt like she’d been thrown into another world. “I was meeting people at some of their lowest points in life. They needed an intercessor to turn to. They needed Mary. I didn’t know how to respond to this. I am Christian but never grew up with Mary.”
After five days in town, Markosian went to a print shop and had a simple sign made that read, “Have you seen the Blessed Mother?” The sign included her local phone number. She posted it in three different locations near “Apparition Hill,” where pilgrims visit a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Then she waited.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” says Markosian. “I wanted to meet people who had some sort of relationship with Mary as a way of connecting to her myself. I didn’t know if anyone would respond.”
Markosian got a few calls—some from people who thought she had seen the Virgin Mary, others from people who wanted to know how to see the Virgin Mary, and others from people who wanted to share the visions they’d had.
And it was that idea of visions that finally put Markosian on the right creative track, sparking the idea to make collaborative portraits showing a person together with their vision of Mary.
“The sign was a catalyst for focusing me in a way that I wasn’t before,” says Markosian. “I was trying to stay away from being literal and wanted to use my voice and my method for telling stories. My personal work is about collaboration, and I was really missing that.”
Markosian commissioned local artist Lisa Abbott, who she met in Medjugorje, to sketch the visions of people she photographed. Abbott worked on the sketches in the evening and would share them with Markosian the next day, even continuing to work on them after Markosian had left town. Abbott described each sketch as a “delicate and intimate encounter” with Mary, and she said she “felt the guidance and personal love of Mary” when doing the work.
Overall, Markosian says creating the collaborative portraits ultimately helped turn something that felt abstract into something more real.
“I thought it wasn’t enough just to have portraits and the words— I wanted to visualize it. I wanted to show what these visions look like.”
devotion 热爱
apparition 幻影，幽灵 apparition of（幽灵的出现）
squash 将压扁，使沉默
persist 固执，坚持
flock 聚集
set out 叙述，排列 set out to do（着手去做）
intercessor 调停者，仲裁者
collaborative 共同的
catalyst 触媒，给与对方刺激的人
literal 文字的，无想象力的
commission 委托，任命
delicate 纤细的
intimate 亲密的，发自内心的
ultimately 最终
visualize 设想，使可见
Her first trip for the story took her to the town of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in 1981 experienced its first apparition of the Virgin Mary. Mary reportedly appeared to six children, identifying herself as the “Queen of Peace” and handing down the first of thousands of messages to them. (Some claim she still speaks to them daily.)
The local government tried to squash the reports, but the children persisted in telling their stories. Since then millions have flocked to Medjugorje to seek their own connection with Mary.
Markosian set out to photograph some of these pilgrims, but when she first arrived she wasn’t quite sure what to shoot—or how to make the sort of images she was used to creating.
“This was my first assignment for National Geographic,” she says. “I never worked on a story like this and wasn’t sure if I was the right photographer for it. When I spoke to [Director of Photography] Sarah Leen about why she picked me for it, she said because I photograph things that are no longer there.”
Most of Markosian’s prior work has been personal projects that deal with loss, and her subjects participated in the storytelling process, guiding her along the way.
In Medjugorje, she says she felt like she’d been thrown into another world. “I was meeting people at some of their lowest points in life. They needed an intercessor to turn to. They needed Mary. I didn’t know how to respond to this. I am Christian but never grew up with Mary.”
After five days in town, Markosian went to a print shop and had a simple sign made that read, “Have you seen the Blessed Mother?” The sign included her local phone number. She posted it in three different locations near “Apparition Hill,” where pilgrims visit a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Then she waited.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” says Markosian. “I wanted to meet people who had some sort of relationship with Mary as a way of connecting to her myself. I didn’t know if anyone would respond.”
Markosian got a few calls—some from people who thought she had seen the Virgin Mary, others from people who wanted to know how to see the Virgin Mary, and others from people who wanted to share the visions they’d had.
And it was that idea of visions that finally put Markosian on the right creative track, sparking the idea to make collaborative portraits showing a person together with their vision of Mary.
“The sign was a catalyst for focusing me in a way that I wasn’t before,” says Markosian. “I was trying to stay away from being literal and wanted to use my voice and my method for telling stories. My personal work is about collaboration, and I was really missing that.”
Markosian commissioned local artist Lisa Abbott, who she met in Medjugorje, to sketch the visions of people she photographed. Abbott worked on the sketches in the evening and would share them with Markosian the next day, even continuing to work on them after Markosian had left town. Abbott described each sketch as a “delicate and intimate encounter” with Mary, and she said she “felt the guidance and personal love of Mary” when doing the work.
Overall, Markosian says creating the collaborative portraits ultimately helped turn something that felt abstract into something more real.
“I thought it wasn’t enough just to have portraits and the words— I wanted to visualize it. I wanted to show what these visions look like.”
devotion 热爱
apparition 幻影，幽灵 apparition of（幽灵的出现）
squash 将压扁，使沉默
persist 固执，坚持
flock 聚集
set out 叙述，排列 set out to do（着手去做）
intercessor 调停者，仲裁者
collaborative 共同的
catalyst 触媒，给与对方刺激的人
literal 文字的，无想象力的
commission 委托，任命
delicate 纤细的
intimate 亲密的，发自内心的
ultimately 最终
visualize 设想，使可见
Friday, December 4, 2015
Fresh Hope for Combating Climate Change
If a climate disaster is to be averted, we’ll have to move forward without relying as much on fossil fuels. It can be done.
THIS YEAR COULD BE THE TURNING POINT. Laurence Tubiana thinks so. She’s a small, elegant, white-haired woman of 63. At a press briefing in a noisy restaurant near Washington’s Capitol Hill, she apologized for being incapable of raising her voice—which in a diplomat is no doubt an excellent quality. Tubiana is no ordinary diplomat: She’s France’s “climate ambassador,” charged with the greatest cat-herding project in history. For the past year and a half she has been traveling the world, meeting with negotiators from 195 countries, trying to ensure that the global climate confab in Paris this December will be a success—a watershed in the struggle against climate change. “This notion of a turning point—that’s super important,” Tubiana says.
There are at least 20 reasons to fear she will fail. Since 1992, when the world’s nations agreed at Rio de Janeiro to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,” they’ve met 20 times without moving the needle on carbon emissions. In that interval we’ve added almost as much carbon to the atmosphere as we did in the previous century. Last year and the past decade were the warmest since temperature records began. Record-breaking heat waves are now five times as likely as they once were. A large part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, scientists reported last year, is doomed to collapse—meaning that in the coming centuries sea level will rise at least four feet and probably much more. We’re already redrawing the map of the planet, especially of the zones where animals, plants, and people can live.
And yet there’s also an unmistakable trace of hope in the air. A lot of it is still just talk. China and the United States, the two largest carbon emitters, have announced a deal to reduce emissions. Six European oil companies say they’d welcome a carbon tax. A giant Norwegian pension fund has pledged to stop investing in coal. And the pope has brought his immense spiritual authority to bear on the problem.
But the reasons for hope go beyond promises and declarations. In 2014 global carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning didn’t increase, even though the global economy was growing. We won’t know for years if it’s a trend, but it was the first time that had happened. One reason emissions were flat was that China, for the first time this century, burned less coal than the year before. And one reason for that was that the production of renewable energy—wind and solar and hydropower—is booming in China, as it is in many other countries, because the cost has plummeted. Even Saudi Arabia is bullish on solar. “The world is tipping now,” says Hans-Josef Fell, co-author of a law that ignited Germany’s renewable energy boom. It’s the kind of tipping point we want.
We’ve seen others. In the past half century we’ve created a world in which people on average live two decades longer than they did before, in which they cross oceans in a day with barely a thought, in which they communicate instantaneously and globally for barely a penny and carry libraries in the palm of their hand. Fossil fuels helped make it all possible—but by the second half of the 21st century, if a climate disaster is to be averted, we’ll have to be moving forward without them. Anyone who thinks we can’t complete that revolution doesn’t appreciate how utterly we’ve already changed the world. Anyone who thinks we won’t choose to complete that revolution—or at least not fast enough—well, that may turn out to be true. We’re on an unprecedented adventure whose outcome can’t be known and whose stakes couldn’t be higher. We’ve lived through other global transformations, but for the first time ever we’re trying to steer one, to secure a more hopeful future for the whole planet.
The late novelist E. L. Doctorow once described his writing process this way: “It’s like driving a car at night—you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Fixing climate change is going to require improvisation like that. We don’t have to be able to see the whole road ahead to a happy end—but we do have to believe that we can get there. That’s what the negotiators will be trying to achieve in Paris. They’ve stopped thinking they can write a treaty that will bind every country to a specific quota for reducing emissions. Instead they’re looking for a way to “send a very strong signal to the business sector,” Tubiana says, to “create a self-fulfilling prophecy that the low-carbon economy is happening.” When we look back at 2015 from our warmer future, we’ll know if this was when the prophecy started to come true.
avert 回避，避免
briefing 简要报告 at a briefing（在说明会上）
diplomat 外交官
negotiator 交涉人 negotiate 协定，交涉
confab=confabulation 交谈，闲谈
notion 观念，意见，意志
anthropogenic 人为起源
interference 干涉
move the needle (on) 使变化
interval 间隔，距离
doom 注定，宣判
unmistakable 不会误解的
pension 养老金
pledge 保证
pope 教皇
immense 巨大的
authority 权威
declaration 声明
plummet 急落
bullish 公牛般的，乐观的
tip 倾斜 tipping point（转折点）
ignite 点火，引发
barely 很少
instantaneously 即席地
palm 手掌
utterly 完全
unprecedented 空前的 precedent（先例）
stakes （复数）赏金
improvisation 即兴
treaty 条约
bind 捆绑，约束
quota 配额，指标
sector 部门
prophecy 预言
THIS YEAR COULD BE THE TURNING POINT. Laurence Tubiana thinks so. She’s a small, elegant, white-haired woman of 63. At a press briefing in a noisy restaurant near Washington’s Capitol Hill, she apologized for being incapable of raising her voice—which in a diplomat is no doubt an excellent quality. Tubiana is no ordinary diplomat: She’s France’s “climate ambassador,” charged with the greatest cat-herding project in history. For the past year and a half she has been traveling the world, meeting with negotiators from 195 countries, trying to ensure that the global climate confab in Paris this December will be a success—a watershed in the struggle against climate change. “This notion of a turning point—that’s super important,” Tubiana says.
There are at least 20 reasons to fear she will fail. Since 1992, when the world’s nations agreed at Rio de Janeiro to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,” they’ve met 20 times without moving the needle on carbon emissions. In that interval we’ve added almost as much carbon to the atmosphere as we did in the previous century. Last year and the past decade were the warmest since temperature records began. Record-breaking heat waves are now five times as likely as they once were. A large part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, scientists reported last year, is doomed to collapse—meaning that in the coming centuries sea level will rise at least four feet and probably much more. We’re already redrawing the map of the planet, especially of the zones where animals, plants, and people can live.
And yet there’s also an unmistakable trace of hope in the air. A lot of it is still just talk. China and the United States, the two largest carbon emitters, have announced a deal to reduce emissions. Six European oil companies say they’d welcome a carbon tax. A giant Norwegian pension fund has pledged to stop investing in coal. And the pope has brought his immense spiritual authority to bear on the problem.
But the reasons for hope go beyond promises and declarations. In 2014 global carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning didn’t increase, even though the global economy was growing. We won’t know for years if it’s a trend, but it was the first time that had happened. One reason emissions were flat was that China, for the first time this century, burned less coal than the year before. And one reason for that was that the production of renewable energy—wind and solar and hydropower—is booming in China, as it is in many other countries, because the cost has plummeted. Even Saudi Arabia is bullish on solar. “The world is tipping now,” says Hans-Josef Fell, co-author of a law that ignited Germany’s renewable energy boom. It’s the kind of tipping point we want.
We’ve seen others. In the past half century we’ve created a world in which people on average live two decades longer than they did before, in which they cross oceans in a day with barely a thought, in which they communicate instantaneously and globally for barely a penny and carry libraries in the palm of their hand. Fossil fuels helped make it all possible—but by the second half of the 21st century, if a climate disaster is to be averted, we’ll have to be moving forward without them. Anyone who thinks we can’t complete that revolution doesn’t appreciate how utterly we’ve already changed the world. Anyone who thinks we won’t choose to complete that revolution—or at least not fast enough—well, that may turn out to be true. We’re on an unprecedented adventure whose outcome can’t be known and whose stakes couldn’t be higher. We’ve lived through other global transformations, but for the first time ever we’re trying to steer one, to secure a more hopeful future for the whole planet.
The late novelist E. L. Doctorow once described his writing process this way: “It’s like driving a car at night—you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Fixing climate change is going to require improvisation like that. We don’t have to be able to see the whole road ahead to a happy end—but we do have to believe that we can get there. That’s what the negotiators will be trying to achieve in Paris. They’ve stopped thinking they can write a treaty that will bind every country to a specific quota for reducing emissions. Instead they’re looking for a way to “send a very strong signal to the business sector,” Tubiana says, to “create a self-fulfilling prophecy that the low-carbon economy is happening.” When we look back at 2015 from our warmer future, we’ll know if this was when the prophecy started to come true.
avert 回避，避免
briefing 简要报告 at a briefing（在说明会上）
diplomat 外交官
negotiator 交涉人 negotiate 协定，交涉
confab=confabulation 交谈，闲谈
notion 观念，意见，意志
anthropogenic 人为起源
interference 干涉
move the needle (on) 使变化
interval 间隔，距离
doom 注定，宣判
unmistakable 不会误解的
pension 养老金
pledge 保证
pope 教皇
immense 巨大的
authority 权威
declaration 声明
plummet 急落
bullish 公牛般的，乐观的
tip 倾斜 tipping point（转折点）
ignite 点火，引发
barely 很少
instantaneously 即席地
palm 手掌
utterly 完全
unprecedented 空前的 precedent（先例）
stakes （复数）赏金
improvisation 即兴
treaty 条约
bind 捆绑，约束
quota 配额，指标
sector 部门
prophecy 预言
Thursday, December 3, 2015
10 Ways Big Cats Are Just Like Little Cats
They may be giant and ferocious but at the end of the day, wild cats are just like our furry little feline (and domesticated) friends. Help us celebrate Big Cat Week and check out all the ways these beautiful beasts are really just like your average fur ball.
1. When They Play
Cats of all shapes and sizes love to play with each other and they all play the same way—with some good old fashion fighting for fun. Friendly tendencies such as rolling around and chasing each other is most common with lions. They are known as the most social compared to other wild cat species, living in prides with about 15 members.
2. When They Yawn
Just like domestic house cats, tigers spend most of their days resting or sleeping—16 to 20 hours in fact. Tigers are mostly nocturnal and do most of their hunting during the evening hours, an activity that requires lots of energy. They live in a constant cycle of eating and resting.
3. When They Groom
All cats groom themselves whether to keep clean, however when the cheetah grooms itself, it tends to purr. That’s right, the fastest land animal known to man doesn’t roar it purrs! It’s actually the most different out of all big cats because cheetahs tend to hunt during the day rather than at night.
4. When They Are Temperamental
Any and every cat can be a diva. If it’s in a bad mood, they will hiss and growl you away. This natural tendency comes from your little cat’s ancestors, like this wild panther. Panthers are considered to be more temperamental than their relatives due to the fact that they are more inbred than others.
5. When They Scratch
This type of behavior is common for cats big and small, wild and tame. Lions and all their cat cousins, no matter how distant, scratch their claws for sharpening. This is also a great way for them to stretch out muscles to prepare for a long night of hunting.
6. When They’re Territorial
While big cats tend to be solitary creatures, they can be just as territorial as the average house cat. If things get too crowded, conflict arises and cats of any type will butt heads to secure their home space. The puma could be the most territorial as it has the biggest geographic range of any land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. This may be a result of their territorial nature, making it necessary to spread out and live in low population densities.
7. When They Smell
Big and domestic cats have an incredible sense of smell and tend to both open up their mouths to get a better whiff like this snow leopard. This kind of big cat is very reclusive, making a sighting in the wild very rare. They tend to live in steep cliff areas where they prey on sheep and goats.
8. When They Hang Up High
Cats love high places. While your kitty may enjoy observing from on top your kitchen counter or cat condo, a higher place serves as a concealed site from which to hunt in the wild. Mountain lions are strong jumpers and can depend on their hind legs, which are longer than the front ones, to reach great heights.
9. When They Hunt
This goes without saying, as wild big cats survive on their prey. But while you may think the clouded leopard is far too wild to relate to your cat, they both have the same hunting techniques and even similar prey. The Sunda Clouded Leopard hunts a variety of prey such as deer, wild pigs, and birds. You heard that right! At the end of the day, this kind of leopard is just like your beloved kitty-cat, chasing after birds.
10. When They Love
Jaguars are known to be solitary animals but they do have an affectionate side when it comes to taking care of their young. A male will do whatever it takes to protect his home range and resident females from outside threats during mating season while a mother spends up to 2 years raising her cubs and preparing them for survival.
ferocious 凶猛的，残忍的
feline 猫科的，像猫一样的；猫科动物
domesticated 家庭的
beast 动物，大型的四脚兽
tendency 倾向，癖好 tendency to
chase 追逐，捕获
pride 狮群 a pride of lions
yawn 哈欠；打哈欠
nocturnal 夜间的，夜行的 diurnal 昼间的，昼行的
groom 使清洁，打理
cheetah 非洲猎豹
purr 咕噜咕噜的响声；发出喉音
roar 咆哮
temperamental 气质的，神经质的
diva 女歌唱家，女主角
hiss 发出嘘声，发嘶嘶声;嘶嘶声，嘘声
growl 低吼，低声咆哮着说
panther 美洲豹，黑豹
inbred 天生的，近亲繁殖的
tame 被饲养的，柔顺的
claw 爪
stretch out 伸展，拉抻
territorial 土地的，领土的
butt 用头顶，碰撞
whiff 吸或吹气 a whiff of fresh cool air
leopard 金钱豹
reclusive 隐居的
steep 急勾配的，险要的；绝壁
condo=condominium 公寓
conceal 隐藏
jaguar 美洲虎
affectionate 慈爱的，有感情的
1. When They Play
Cats of all shapes and sizes love to play with each other and they all play the same way—with some good old fashion fighting for fun. Friendly tendencies such as rolling around and chasing each other is most common with lions. They are known as the most social compared to other wild cat species, living in prides with about 15 members.
2. When They Yawn
Just like domestic house cats, tigers spend most of their days resting or sleeping—16 to 20 hours in fact. Tigers are mostly nocturnal and do most of their hunting during the evening hours, an activity that requires lots of energy. They live in a constant cycle of eating and resting.
3. When They Groom
All cats groom themselves whether to keep clean, however when the cheetah grooms itself, it tends to purr. That’s right, the fastest land animal known to man doesn’t roar it purrs! It’s actually the most different out of all big cats because cheetahs tend to hunt during the day rather than at night.
4. When They Are Temperamental
Any and every cat can be a diva. If it’s in a bad mood, they will hiss and growl you away. This natural tendency comes from your little cat’s ancestors, like this wild panther. Panthers are considered to be more temperamental than their relatives due to the fact that they are more inbred than others.
5. When They Scratch
This type of behavior is common for cats big and small, wild and tame. Lions and all their cat cousins, no matter how distant, scratch their claws for sharpening. This is also a great way for them to stretch out muscles to prepare for a long night of hunting.
6. When They’re Territorial
While big cats tend to be solitary creatures, they can be just as territorial as the average house cat. If things get too crowded, conflict arises and cats of any type will butt heads to secure their home space. The puma could be the most territorial as it has the biggest geographic range of any land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. This may be a result of their territorial nature, making it necessary to spread out and live in low population densities.
7. When They Smell
Big and domestic cats have an incredible sense of smell and tend to both open up their mouths to get a better whiff like this snow leopard. This kind of big cat is very reclusive, making a sighting in the wild very rare. They tend to live in steep cliff areas where they prey on sheep and goats.
8. When They Hang Up High
Cats love high places. While your kitty may enjoy observing from on top your kitchen counter or cat condo, a higher place serves as a concealed site from which to hunt in the wild. Mountain lions are strong jumpers and can depend on their hind legs, which are longer than the front ones, to reach great heights.
9. When They Hunt
This goes without saying, as wild big cats survive on their prey. But while you may think the clouded leopard is far too wild to relate to your cat, they both have the same hunting techniques and even similar prey. The Sunda Clouded Leopard hunts a variety of prey such as deer, wild pigs, and birds. You heard that right! At the end of the day, this kind of leopard is just like your beloved kitty-cat, chasing after birds.
10. When They Love
Jaguars are known to be solitary animals but they do have an affectionate side when it comes to taking care of their young. A male will do whatever it takes to protect his home range and resident females from outside threats during mating season while a mother spends up to 2 years raising her cubs and preparing them for survival.
ferocious 凶猛的，残忍的
feline 猫科的，像猫一样的；猫科动物
domesticated 家庭的
beast 动物，大型的四脚兽
tendency 倾向，癖好 tendency to
chase 追逐，捕获
pride 狮群 a pride of lions
yawn 哈欠；打哈欠
nocturnal 夜间的，夜行的 diurnal 昼间的，昼行的
groom 使清洁，打理
cheetah 非洲猎豹
purr 咕噜咕噜的响声；发出喉音
roar 咆哮
temperamental 气质的，神经质的
diva 女歌唱家，女主角
hiss 发出嘘声，发嘶嘶声;嘶嘶声，嘘声
growl 低吼，低声咆哮着说
panther 美洲豹，黑豹
inbred 天生的，近亲繁殖的
tame 被饲养的，柔顺的
claw 爪
stretch out 伸展，拉抻
territorial 土地的，领土的
butt 用头顶，碰撞
whiff 吸或吹气 a whiff of fresh cool air
leopard 金钱豹
reclusive 隐居的
steep 急勾配的，险要的；绝壁
condo=condominium 公寓
conceal 隐藏
jaguar 美洲虎
affectionate 慈爱的，有感情的
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