英语流行话题听力:Unit52 尼斯湖水怪

[00:00.08] Unit 52 The Loch Ness Monster Loch Ness, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, is twenty four miles long and, at one point, [00:11.48] one and a half miles wide. [00:14.34] It has an average depth of four hundred and fifty feet and at times drops close to a thousand. [00:21.15] It is cold and murky, with dangerous currents. [00:24.26] In short, it is the perfect place to hide a monster from even the sharpest eyes of science. [00:31.24] The Loch Ness Monster, also called Nessie, is supposedly living in this area. [00:37.50] The earliest recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was in the biography of St. Columba by Adamnan in the year 565 AD. [00:46.30] The monster apparently attacked and killed a man who was swimming in the River Ness. [00:54.34] The monster did not make headlines again until August 27, 1930 when 3 fishermen reported seeing a creature 20 feet long approaching their boat, [01:05.27] throwing water in the air. [01:07.40] As it passes them, its wake caused their boat to rock violently. [01:13.05] In 1933, after a new road was built along the Loch, the number of reports soared. [01:21.54] Early in 1934 there was a land sighting of the beast. [01:26.22] Arthur Grant, a young vet student, was out on his motorcycle one evening when he almost ran into the monster as it crossed the road. [01:35.46] Grant's description of the thing, small head, long thin neck and tail with a big body, [01:42.11] seemed to match the appearance of the Plesiosauru, an aquatic type of dinosaur that has been extinct for 65 million years. [01:51.38] In 1962 The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau was formed to act as a research organization for information about the creature. [02:01.14] In the beginning it only conducted research for a few weeks in a year, but eventually the Bureau established mobile camera stations. [02:11.34] Searches were conducted using hot air-balloons and infrared night time cameras, sonar scanners and submarines. [02:20.13] Dr. Roy Mackal, a Loch Ness researcher, has suggested a large mammal like a primitive whale. [02:27.47] Others suggest a long necked seal or giant otter. [02:32.12] A few suggest an over grown eel. [02:35.49] Probably the most famous picture of the Loch Ness monster was the" surgeon's photo" supposedly taken by Colonel Robert Wilson. [02:45.15] This photo was acknowledged as a fake, though, by Christain Spurling, who helped build the model monster that was photographed. [02:53.49] He admitted the trick shortly before he died at age 90, in 1993. [02:58.16] Efforts have continued to find the monster. [03:03.30] A great deal of information was discovered about the Loch, but they have yet to produce any concrete evidence of a monster. [03:12.47] Skeptics argue that the water in the Loch is too cold for a reptile like the Plesiosaur. [03:19.11] They also argue an air breathing animal, like a whale or seal, would spend much more time on the surface than the creature seems to and would be spotted more often. [03:30.59] Some scientists have wondered if the sightings might be caused by a underwater wave which is known to sometimes occur in deep, [03:38.24] long, cold lakes, like Loch Ness. [03:42.31] Such a wave might push debris to the surface that might look like a strange animal.

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