Woolly and Fang

Woolly and Fang, written by Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Philip Newsome.

《伍利和方戈》 作者：斯蒂芬·科斯格罗夫 插画：菲利普·纽瑟姆。

Millions of years ago, the Earth was always warm. All creatures, dinosaurs and others, that roamed the Earth enjoyed good lives. And then, the Earth became bitterly cold. Lakes and rivers froze solid. The snow began to fall and became so deep that it compacted, turning into massive frozen mountains called glaciers. These glaciers continued to grow and grow, and soon the Earth was nearly completely covered in ice.

数百万年前，地球一直都暖洋洋的。 所有漫步在地球上的生物，不管是恐龙还是其他动物，都生活得安稳惬意。 后来，地球变得冷得刺骨。 湖泊和河流都冻成了硬块。 雪花纷纷飘落，积雪越积越深，压实之后变成了巨大的冰山，我们叫它冰川。 冰川不断地越长越大，没过多久，地球几乎完全被冰盖住了。

A winter's chill like no other draped the earth in icy wonder. Crystal and snow blanketed the earth. It was like a white rose, beautiful but with bitterly long, cold thorns. It was the coming of the Ice Age. The dinosaurs and other creatures were unable to survive the sharp thorns of the Ice Age. But some creatures did survive. There were great bears with thick layers of fat and heavy coats of fur. There were woolly mammoths, elephant -like creatures covered in long, thick hair. Their tusks were long and curved, well suited to move chunks of ice and snow as they searched for grasses beneath the frozen snow and ice.

一场前所未有的冬日严寒，把大地裹进了一片冰天雪地之中。 冰晶和积雪铺满了整个大地。 它就像一朵白玫瑰，美丽却长着又冷又尖的长刺。 冰河时代来临了。 恐龙和其他生物都熬不过冰河时代的刺骨严寒，没法生存下去。 不过，还是有一些生物活了下来。 其中有体型庞大的熊，它们长着厚厚的脂肪层和浓密的皮毛。 还有猛犸象，这种长得像大象的动物，浑身覆盖着又长又厚的毛发。 它们的象牙又长又弯，刚好适合拨开大块的冰雪，好找到冻雪下埋着的青草。

Here, too, were the mighty saber -toothed tigers, heavy of coat and strong of limb. They were called saber -toothed because their two upper fangs were curved like a sword or saber. They were hunters who preyed upon those creatures that lived on the edge of the glaciers. They ate anything and everything that they could catch. One of their favorite foods was the woolly mammoth.

这里还生活着威风的剑齿虎，它们长着浓密皮毛，四肢强健有力。 它们之所以叫剑齿虎，是因为上颚的两颗弯獠牙长得像剑或是军刀。 它们是猎手，靠捕食生活在冰川边缘的动物为生。 凡是能抓到的猎物，它们通通都吃。 它们最爱的猎物之一就是猛犸象。

Now, the mammoth may have been the tiger's favorite food, but it was also the most dangerous. For you see, the mammoths were just that—mammoth. They were big and had thick hides covered by long, woolly coats. Some of them weighed over a ton, and could easily step on a saber -toothed tiger. More importantly, if a mammoth was mad, its long, curled tusks could be great weapons. The saber -toothed tigers contented themselves with snacking on the smaller creatures that lived on and around the Blue Ice Glacier. Still, they looked for any opportunity to have a big, woolly mammoth meal. They watched for the old, the injured, and a special delicacy, the baby mammoth.

虽说猛犸象是剑齿虎最爱的猎物，可它们同时也是最危险的猎物。 你要知道，猛犸象就是名副其实的庞然大物。 它们体型庞大，长着厚皮，外面还裹着长长的绒毛。 有些猛犸象体重超过一吨，轻轻松松就能踩扁一头剑齿虎。 更重要的是，如果猛犸象发起怒来，那长长的弯象牙就是超强的武器。 所以剑齿虎只能凑合着吃蓝冰冰川周边的小型动物果腹。 但它们一直没放弃，时刻等待着能吃上一顿肥美的猛犸大餐的机会。 它们盯着年老的、受伤的猛犸，还有特别美味的小猛犸。

One blustery cold day, colder than most others, a baby saber -toothed tiger was born in a snow cave near the heart of a blue ice glacier. His coat was thick, and he had two large eyes. For the most part, he looked like any other saber -toothed tiger, but he had two of the longest saber teeth that you have ever seen. Proudly, his mother and his father named him Fang.

一个寒风呼啸的大冷天，比往常都要冷，一头小剑齿虎在蓝冰冰川核心附近的雪洞里出生了。 它长着厚厚的皮毛，还有一双大大的眼睛。 大体上来看，它和其他小剑齿虎没什么两样，但它长着两颗你从没见过的超长剑齿。 它的爸爸妈妈骄傲地给它取名叫方戈。