luosteve的部落格

在紐西蘭，如果有人告訴你，他剛剛看見kiwi蹦蹦跳跳地跑開，他可不是在說笑話喔。那個人口中所說的kiwi並非我們眾所皆知果肉呈金黃色或綠色，且果皮為毛茸茸咖啡色的「奇異果」，而指紐西蘭特有的「奇異鳥」。  

When in New Zealand , if someone tells you that he just saw a kiwi hopping away, he was not joking. The kiwi he mentioned was not the fruit with golden or green flesh and brown hairy skin  known to everyone but a bird endemic to New Zealand .
 

今兒個，俺就向諸位介紹這屬於紐西蘭國家級象徵之一的—奇異鳥。  

Today, I’m going to introduce you one of the national symbols of New Zealand —the Kiwi Bird. 
 

在上一趟的紐西蘭班中，我逛了幾家紀念品店，買買一些當地有趣的小東西。俺赫然發現這些店中有各式各樣奇異鳥造型或圖案的紀念品，頓時也讓我對這鳥類感到好奇，想對它一探究竟。  

On my last flight to Auckland , I went to some souvenir stores, shopping for something local and interesting. I found an array of products made in the form of kiwi or with the icons of this bird, which suddenly intrigued me to find out more about it.

** 上述…, shopping…這裡逗號後直接用Ving是因為省略了連接詞「and」，而此用法有與逗點前的描述同時間進行，也就是邊(做)…邊(做)…的意思。

咱們就來看看這印在某奇異鳥產品上，關於其背景的小常識，會讓我們對奇異鳥更加了解喔！  

Let’s take a look at the background knowledge about kiwi printed on the tag of a kiwi product below, which gives us an insight into the bird.
 

透過上頭的說明，我們可知道奇異鳥是種很特別的鳥類。牠是極少數不能飛的鳥類之一，且只有在夜間出沒。紐西蘭是奇異鳥的故鄉，且目前正瀕臨絕種。由下圖您可看見牠是如此的口愛說。所以啦，我們得好好保護這小巧口愛的鳥，別讓它在人間蒸發。 

From the description above, we know how special and unique a kiwi is. It’s one of the very small number of birds which cannot fly and only active in the night. New Zealand is the only home to kiwi and they are now on the brink of extinction. You can see how cute it is from the picture below. So, let’s try to protect this little, cute bird from disappearing.  

  說文解字  

Key Words  

1). to hop：跳躍  

2). flesh：(水果的)果肉  

3). hairy：多毛的  

4). endemic：某地特有的  後常+ to 地方  

5). souvenir：紀念品  

6). an array of：各式各樣的 (= a variety of = various of)  

7). icon：圖案  

8). to intrigue：激起…的好奇心或興趣  

9). tag：標籤  

10). insight：洞悉、了解  ~ into… 更加了解…  

11). nocturnal：夜行性的  

12). flightless：不能飛的、無法飛行的  

13). beak：(鳥的)嘴、喙  

14). nostrils：鼻孔  

15). species：(生物的)種類  

16). endangered：快要絕種的  

17). be home to：某地特有的  如：Taiwan is home to beef noodles.台灣是牛肉麵的故鄉  

18). on the brink of：瀕臨…的  

19). extinction：絕種