Level/难度等级 : Level 4 CEFR C1C2;国内:大学 ,词汇：216个
Happy Mother’s Day!
母亲节快乐!
To celebrate Mother’s Day, we’re in California’s Monterey Bay, where a sea otter mom gives her 3-day-old pup a place to snuggle and gives us an amazingly cute picture to boot. These incredibly photogenic animal moms shower their kids with attention, cradling them and grooming them for hours. But all that love is more than a gesture of affection, as newborn sea otter pups can’t swim. The pups are totally dependent for about six months, so mom will carry them around on her stomach like you see here. When the little one does venture into the water on its own, mom will rub the pup to fluff its coat, which causes the fur to retain air bubbles, insulating it from chilly water and causing the youngster to float like a cork.
为了庆祝母亲节，我们来到了加州的蒙特利湾，在那里，一只海獭妈妈给她3天大的小海獭一个可以依偎的地方，还给了我们一张非常可爱的照片。这些非常上镜的动物妈妈对它们的孩子倾注了大量的关注，长时间地呵护它们，为它们梳理毛发。但所有这些爱都不仅仅是一种情感的表达，因为新生的海獭幼崽不会游泳。幼崽在六个月的时间里完全依赖它们，所以妈妈会把它们放在肚子上，就像你看到的那样。当小海豚自己冒险下水时，妈妈会摩擦小海豚，让它的皮毛蓬松起来，这样皮毛上就会有气泡，让它与寒冷的水隔绝，让小海豚像软木塞一样漂浮在水面上。
And that fur is remarkable—it’s considered the thickest of any mammal on earth at up to 1 million hairs per square inch. After about four weeks, sea otter pups will start swimming and eating on their own–at six weeks they’ll start diving by themselves, too. Until then, mom keeps them close. When she does have to leave a pup in search of food, she’ll sometimes wrap the little one in kelp, which keeps it from floating away while she looks for dinner.
它的皮毛很特别——它被认为是地球上最厚的哺乳动物，每平方英寸有100万根毛发。大约四周后，海獭幼崽会开始自己游泳和进食，在六周时，它们也会开始自己潜水。在那之前，妈妈会把他们关在一起。当她不得不留下幼崽寻找食物时，她有时会把幼崽裹在海藻里，这样在她寻找晚餐时，幼崽就不会漂走了。
A sea otter makes its home in…
A A den
B A burrow
C The open sea
What’s so special and unique about a sea otter’s fur?
A Its camouflage function
B Its thickness
C Its color
Sea otters provide vital protection for what?
A Kelp forests
B Jellyfish
C Viral memes
The sea otter is considered a ‘keystone species’ because it’s critical to the function of an entire ecosystem. Sea otters eat a tremendous amount of sea urchins. By keeping the urchin population in check, sea otters help protect kelp forests, which can be decimated by voracious grazing sea urchins.