Horizon：Brilliant animals in the world
【明報專訊】Do you think animals are clever? What can they do? Are they clever enough to finish different tasks? Let's find out the truth!?
◆Canada - beaver (dam builder)
Beavers are great engineers. They use their powerful jaws and teeth to cut down trees and then use the branches to build dams in rivers or lakes. The dams, which can be 2 metres tall and 500 metres long, keep them safe from predators and rushing water. Although beavers can be found throughout North America and some parts of Europe, people think of Canada when it comes to beavers because the beaver is the national symbol of Canada.
◆Cambodia - rat (minesweeper helper)
In Cambodia, there are some rats that have been carefully trained for a year to detect landmines so that they can alert humans to safely remove the dangerous bombs. One of them is Magawa. The 70-centimetre gigantic rat sniffed out over 100 mines during its 5-year life-saving career. It was awarded a gold medal for its heroism. It retired after it became old and died peacefully. Other trained rats do the same job in Africa too.
◆China - cormorants ( fishermen)
Cormorants(鸕鶿) are big birds. For thousands of years, Chinese fishermen have used these skilled divers to catch big fish. This old custom is called cormorant fishing. The fishermen tie a cord at the birds' throats. When the birds have caught a fish, the fishermen bring them back to the bamboo boat and the birds spit the fish up. The birds can enjoy a feast of smaller fish each day. Tourists are eager to witness this tradition. This practice can be found in Japan too.
■Gear up
There are more rats like Magawa in the world.
(True/False)
(Answer on next text)
■Glossary
dam (n) 水壩
landmine (n) 地雷
feast (n) 盛宴
practice (n) 習俗
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[Smarties' Power English 第343期]
