24 A2+ shark attack

CHAPTER 1 Shark Facts MYTH: ALL SHARKS ARE LARGE AND GRAY WITH BIG TEETH. In 1995, John McCosker and his team were near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. They were trying to catch small, spotted ocean animals. They were studying these unusual animals because they thought they might be a new species of shark. It took a long time. They studied the animals until 2012! Finally, with DNA testing, they found out the animals are a new species. They're a kind of catshark. We now know of about 400 species of sharks, and scientists are finding new species all the time. Species can be very different from each other. For example, the whale shark can grow to be 20 meters long and 100 years old. The dogfish shark is much shorter— about 20 centimeters long, and it only lives for about 16 years.

关于鲨鱼的传说：所有的鲨鱼都是大的、灰色的、有大牙齿的。 1995年，约翰·麦科斯克和他的团队在太平洋的加拉帕戈斯群岛附近。 他们试图捕捉小的、有斑点的海洋动物。 他们正在研究这些不寻常的动物，因为他们认为它们可能是一种新的鲨鱼。 花了很长时间。他们研究这些动物直到2012年！最后，通过DNA测试，他们发现这些动物是一个新物种。 它们是一种猫鲨。 我们现在知道大约有400种鲨鱼，科学家们一直在发现新的物种。 物种之间可能非常不同。 例如，鲸鲨可以长到20米长，100岁。 角鲨鲨要短得多，只有20厘米长，寿命只有16年左右。

These are some of the more usual species of sharks.

这些是一些比较常见的鲨鱼种类。

Sharks can be very different, but they all have one thing in common: a lot of teeth. They have rows of teeth under each other, so when teeth fall out, new ones are already in place. Many sharks have hundreds of teeth, but the whale shark has thousands! One whale shark can have more than 30,000 teeth in its life! The whale shark is huge, and on its back it has yellow spots. In Spanish, the whale shark is called dominö, because its spots look like the dots in the game dominoes. In Java, it is called geger lintang, which means "stars in the back." And in Kenya, it is called papa shilingi. A shilingi is a silver coin. An old story says that coins were thrown from the sky and landed on the big whale shark, giving it spots.

鲨鱼可能非常不同，但它们都有一个共同点：很多牙齿。 它们在彼此下面有一排排牙齿，所以当牙齿脱落时，新的牙齿已经长出来了。 许多鲨鱼有数百颗牙齿，但鲸鲨却有数千颗！一条鲸鲨一生中可以有3万多颗牙齿！鲸鲨体型巨大，背上有黄色斑点。 在西班牙语中，鲸鲨被称为dominö，因为它的斑点看起来像多米诺骨牌上的点。 在爪哇，它被称为geger lintang，意思是“背后的星星”。 在肯尼亚，它被称为papa shilingi。 一枚先令是一枚银币。 一个古老的故事说，硬币从天上扔下来，落在大鲸鲨身上，给它留下了斑点。

Because sharks have so many teeth, it's not surprising that people often find shark teeth on the beach. By studying fossilized shark teeth, scientists found out that sharks are a very old species. They have been in the oceans for over 400 million years. They are older than dinosaurs! Maybe it's because they have been around for so long, or because they are dangerous, or because they can be so huge, but no matter what the reason, sharks are important to people around the world.

因为鲨鱼有很多牙齿，所以人们经常在海滩上发现鲨鱼的牙齿也就不足为奇了。 通过研究鲨鱼牙齿化石，科学家们发现鲨鱼是一种非常古老的物种。 它们已经在海洋里生活了4亿年。 它们比恐龙还要古老！也许是因为它们已经存在了很长时间，或者因为它们很危险，或者因为它们太大了，但不管是什么原因，鲨鱼对世界各地的人们都很重要。

CHAPTER 2 People Eaters MYTH: ALL SHARKS ARE DANGEROUS ANIMALS THAT ATTACK AND KILL PEOPLE. When many people think of sharks, they think of the 1975 movie Jaws. People in the movie are swimming and playing in the ocean. People in the movie theater see a shark fin on the screen. Then they hear scary music... DUN, DUN, DUN, DUN. Suddenly, a great white shark attacks the swimmers! It's not only movies that make sharks look scary. TV shows do as well. For one week every year, the Discovery Channel's Shark Week has show after show about shark attacks. People love it! But, because of movies and television, many people are afraid of sharks. They think that all sharks want to eat people. It is true that some sharks eat people, but we are certainly not their main source of food.

误传：所有的鲨鱼都是攻击和杀人的危险动物。 当许多人想到鲨鱼时，他们会想到1975年的电影《大白鲨》。 电影里的人在海里游泳和玩耍。 人们在电影院的屏幕上看到一个鱼翅。 然后他们听到可怕的音乐…… 咚，咚，咚，咚。突然，一条大白鲨袭击了游泳者！不仅仅是电影让鲨鱼看起来很可怕。 电视节目也是如此。每年的一周，探索频道的“鲨鱼周”都会有一个又一个关于鲨鱼袭击的节目。 人们喜欢它！但是，由于电影和电视，许多人害怕鲨鱼。 他们认为所有的鲨鱼都想吃人。 的确，有些鲨鱼会吃人，但我们肯定不是它们的主要食物来源。

Many sharks don't eat people at all. For example, the whale shark only eats small things in the ocean that are not any bigger than a person's finger! In fact, people hurt sharks more than sharks hurt people. Each year, only 5 to 15 people in the world die because of shark attacks. However, 20 to 100 million sharks die every year because people kill them. Some are killed for food, and others are killed in nets when fishermen are trying to catch other fish. In some species, the number of sharks has fallen by 50 percent. Some sharks, like angel sharks, are already endangered, and others, like great white sharks and whale sharks, may soon become endangered.

许多鲨鱼根本不吃人。 例如，鲸鲨只吃海洋中比人的手指还小的东西！事实上，人伤害鲨鱼比鲨鱼伤害人更多。 每年，世界上只有5到15人死于鲨鱼袭击。 然而，每年有2000万到1亿只鲨鱼因人类捕杀而死亡。 一些被杀死作为食物，另一些在渔民试图捕捉其他鱼时被渔网杀死。 在某些物种中，鲨鱼的数量下降了50%。 一些鲨鱼，如天使鲨，已经濒临灭绝，而另一些鲨鱼，如大白鲨和鲸鲨，可能很快就会濒临灭绝。