1 Wild Australia

CHAPTER 1 Australia and Its Wildlife A LONG TIME AGO, AUSTRALIA WAS PART OF A SUPERCONTINENT CALLED GONDWANA. Because Australia left the supercontinent 130 million years ago, the animals here are different from animals in other places. The wildlife can be dangerous to people: there are venomous snakes and spiders, and crocodiles, too. Some animals only come from Australia, like the koala and the platypus. There are also many beautiful birds. Some are big and cannot fly, like the emu. The Australian animal that everybody knows is the kangaroo. Its babies live in a pouch on the mother's body. You can find exciting animals all over Australia.

第一章澳大利亚和它的野生动物很久以前，澳大利亚是一个叫做冈瓦纳的超大陆的一部分。 由于澳大利亚在1.3亿年前离开了超级大陆，这里的动物与其他地方的动物不同。 野生动物对人类来说可能是危险的：有毒蛇和蜘蛛，还有鳄鱼。 有些动物只来自澳大利亚，比如考拉和鸭嘴兽。 还有许多美丽的鸟。 有些体型很大，不能飞，比如鸸鹋。 大家都知道的澳大利亚动物是袋鼠。 它的孩子生活在母亲身体上的育儿袋里。 你可以在澳大利亚各地找到令人兴奋的动物。

CHAPTER 2 Mammals MAMMALS ARE ANIMALS THAT START THEIR LIVES AS BABIES AND NOT AS EGGS. THEY DRINK THEIR MOTHER'S MILK. MANY MAMMALS IN THE WORLD ONLY COME FROM AUSTRALIA. The kangaroo is the national animal of Australia. Its picture is on some Australian money. Kangaroos can be gray or red. Baby kangaroos live in their mother's pouch. Australians call a baby kangaroo a joey. The kangaroo is the only large animal that jumps—goes up and down—from one place to another. It is very fast: with its big legs and feet, a kangaroo can jump at 70 kilometers an hour! The koala is a very beautiful animal with gray hair and a black nose. It lives in the trees, and it finds its food there. It has a pouch for its babies, like the kangaroo. Koalas sleep for most of the day because the weather in Australia can be very hot. Some people say the Aborigine word koala means "does not drink," but this is wrong. It's only a name. The koala gets a lot of water from the plants it eats, but like every animal it also drinks water when it's thirsty.

第二章哺乳动物哺乳动物是从婴儿而不是卵开始生活的动物。 他们喝妈妈的奶。 世界上许多哺乳动物只来自澳大利亚。 袋鼠是澳大利亚的国兽。 澳大利亚的一些货币上有它的图案。 袋鼠可以是灰色或红色的。 小袋鼠生活在妈妈的育儿袋里。 澳大利亚人称小袋鼠为joey。 袋鼠是唯一能从一个地方跳到另一个地方的大型动物。 它跑得非常快：凭借它的大腿和脚，袋鼠每小时可以跳70公里！考拉是一种非常漂亮的动物，有灰色的头发和黑色的鼻子。 它住在树上，在树上寻找食物。 像袋鼠一样，它有一个装宝宝的育儿袋。 考拉一天中的大部分时间都在睡觉，因为澳大利亚的天气非常热。 有些人说，考拉这个土著词的意思是“不喝”，但这是错误的。 这只是一个名字。考拉从它吃的植物中获得大量的水分，但像所有动物一样，它口渴的时候也会喝水。

The Tasmanian devil lives in Tasmania, the second, smaller island of Australia. It has a pouch, too. It eats other animals. It has a big head and black fur. It also has long hairs on its face. It uses the hairs to feel things, like cats do. The hairs tell the animal what is near it. When the first people came to Tasmania, they ate many Tasmanian devils. There are not many Tasmanian devils living in Australia today. The dingo is a dog, but it is not a pet! We think the first dingoes came to Australia with people many thousands of years ago. Dingoes eat meat, and farmers do not like them because they eat sheep. Dingoes can be dangerous. If you visit a place where there are dingoes, you must watch your children. In 1980, a mother in Australia lost her baby. She said a dingo took it. People thought that she wasn't right, but she was!

袋獾生活在澳大利亚第二个较小的岛屿塔斯马尼亚岛。 它也有一个袋子。它吃其他动物。 它有一个大脑袋和黑色的皮毛。 它的脸上也有长毛。 它像猫一样用毛来感觉东西。 毛发告诉动物它附近有什么。 当第一批人来到塔斯马尼亚时，他们吃了很多塔斯马尼亚魔鬼。 如今生活在澳大利亚的袋獾已经不多了。 澳洲野狗是狗，但不是宠物！我们认为第一批野狗是在几千年前随人类来到澳大利亚的。 澳洲野狗吃肉，农民不喜欢它们，因为它们吃羊。 澳洲野狗可能很危险。如果你去一个有澳洲野狗的地方，你一定要照看好你的孩子。 1980年，澳大利亚的一位母亲失去了她的孩子。 她说是一只野狗把它拿走了。人们认为她是不对的，但她是对的！

CHAPTER 3 Birds AUSTRALIA HAS A LOT OF DIFFERENT BIRDS. FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, UNTIL PEOPLE CAME TO AUSTRALIA WITH DOGS AND CATS, THERE WERE NO OTHER ANIMALS TO EAT THE BIRDS. SO MANY KINDS OF BIRDS DIDN'T NEED TO FLY. The emu is Australia's biggest and most famous bird. It cannot fly, but it can run very fast: 50 kilometers an hour! Emus can be taller than a man. Most of them live in forests, and they eat plants. There are now emu farms in Australia, because people like to eat their meat. Emu eggs are very big. An Aborigine story says that when the world was young, somebody sent an emu egg into the sky and made the sun. Aborigines also see a big picture of a black emu in the night sky. Another famous Australian bird is the kookaburra. There are different kinds of kookaburra with different colors. When you listen to them, they sound like people laughing. Kookaburras eat snakes and other birds. Sometimes when people are cooking outside their homes, kookaburras fly down and take the food.

第三章鸟类澳大利亚有许多不同的鸟类。 数百万年来，在人们带着猫狗来到澳大利亚之前，没有其他动物吃鸟类。 所以很多种类的鸟不需要飞。 鸸鹋是澳大利亚最大、最著名的鸟类。 它不会飞，但它能跑得很快：每小时50公里！鸸鹋可以比人还高。 它们大多生活在森林里，以植物为食。 现在澳大利亚有鸸鹋农场，因为人们喜欢吃它们的肉。 鸸鹋蛋非常大。一个土著居民的故事说，当世界还年轻的时候，有人把一颗鸸鹋蛋送上天空，形成了太阳。 土著人还在夜空中看到一幅黑色鸸鹋的大图。 另一种著名的澳大利亚鸟类是笑翠鸟。 有不同种类的笑翠鸟和不同的颜色。 当你听它们的时候，它们听起来就像人们在笑。 笑翠鸟吃蛇和其他鸟类。 有时，当人们在外面做饭时，笑翠鸟会飞下来叼走食物。

CHAPTER 4 Reptiles SNAKES, CROCODILES, AND LIZARDS ARE REPTILES. THEY ARE ANIMALS THAT COME FROM EGGS. Most snakes in Australia are dangerous. You can die if they put their venom in your body. One of the most venomous snakes in the world is the Inland Taipan. It lives in hot places and eats small animals. It's difficult to see because its color changes. This snake isn't usually a problem, because it doesn't like to be near people. Crocodiles live in oceans or rivers. They have big teeth and long bodies. They can be six meters long. They live for a long time: some live for more than a hundred years! Crocodiles eat meat, fish, and sometimes people! It isn't good to go near a crocodile. But it isn't always easy to see crocodiles. You can sometimes think they are a part of a tree in the water.

蛇、鳄鱼和蜥蜴都是爬行动物。 它们是由蛋孵出来的动物。 澳大利亚的大多数蛇都很危险。 如果它们把毒液注入你体内，你会死的。 世界上最毒的蛇之一是内陆大班蛇。 它生活在炎热的地方，吃小动物。 很难看到，因为它的颜色会变化。 这种蛇通常不是问题，因为它不喜欢靠近人。 鳄鱼生活在海洋或河流中。 它们有大牙齿和长长的身体。 它们可以有六米长。 它们活得很长：有些活了一百多年！鳄鱼吃肉、鱼，有时也吃人！靠近鳄鱼是不好的。 但看到鳄鱼并不总是那么容易。 有时你可以把它们想象成水中一棵树的一部分。

CHAPTER 5 River and Sea Life THERE IS A LOT OF LIFE IN AUSTRALIA'S RIVERS AND SEAS. The platypus lives in Australia's rivers. It's a mammal, but it's very different from other mammals. It's the only mammal to come from an egg, and it's venomous, too! People in England first saw the platypus in 1798. They didn't it was one animal. They thought it was two animals together. The platypus sleeps for 14 hours a day and eats small animals. It uses electricity to "see" these animals! No other mammal does this. The Great Barrier Reef is a wall of coral in the sea near Australia. It's 600,000 years old, and it's very big —2,600 kilometers long! Very small sea animals make coral and live in it, Coral reefs are a great home for animals and plants. The Great Barrier Reef is home to 1,500 kinds of fish and more than 2,000 kinds of plants. Some of them cannot live in any other place, so they need the reef.

第五章河流和海洋生物澳大利亚的河流和海洋里有很多生物。 鸭嘴兽生活在澳大利亚的河流中。 它是一种哺乳动物，但它与其他哺乳动物非常不同。 它是唯一一种从蛋里孵出来的哺乳动物，而且它也是有毒的！1798年，英国人第一次看到鸭嘴兽。 他们没有，是一只动物。 他们以为是两只动物在一起。 鸭嘴兽每天睡14个小时，吃小动物。 它用电来“看到”这些动物！没有其他哺乳动物会这样。 大堡礁是澳大利亚附近海域的一堵珊瑚墙。 它有60万年的历史，而且非常大——2600公里长！非常小的海洋动物制造珊瑚并生活在其中，珊瑚礁是动植物的伟大家园。 大堡礁是1500种鱼类和2000多种植物的家园。 它们中的一些无法在其他地方生存，所以它们需要珊瑚礁。