英國學(xué)生科學(xué)讀本 Lesson 6 一杯水
第五課 牛
Every boy and girl knows the cow, and likes to hear about her. A young cow is called a calf, and the male of the cow is called an ox or a bull. THE PET CALF (家養(yǎng)的小牛)
小朋友們都知道牛, 也都喜歡聽牛的故事。小牛的英語叫calf, 成年的公牛英語叫ox或bull。
The cow has short straight hair all over her body. There is a tuft of long hair at the end of her tail, with which she drives away the flies.
牛渾身都長著短毛, 尾巴尖兒上, 還有一叢長毛, 牛就用這叢長毛趕蒼蠅。
Most cows have horns. Some of them are straight, and others curved. You may have seen cows using their horns to drive away dogs that tried to bite them. When they do this, they put down their heads and rush at the dogs, trying to toss them in the air. The horns are hollow, and are made of the same kind of stuff as our finger nails.
大多數(shù)牛都有角。有些牛角是直的, 有些牛角是彎的。你可能見過, 牛會用角趕跑那些想咬它的狗。這時候, 牛把腦袋低下, 朝著狗沖過去, 想把狗一下子撞飛!牛角是空心的, 跟咱們的指甲, 是一樣的東西做的。
Now, look at the hoof of the cow, and you will see that it is split or "cloven. " The cloven hoof is really two hoofs, which are the strong nails of the cow's toes. The cow has four toes on each foot; two long toes in front, and two short ones behind.
看看牛的蹄子。你看見蹄子是"分開"的, 也可以說是"分趾"(cloven)。這種"分趾"其實是兩個"蹄子", 也就是牛腳趾上堅硬的指甲。牛的每只腳上都有四個腳趾, 兩個長腳趾在前面, 兩個短腳趾在后面。
Have you ever seen a cow eating? If you looked into her mouth, you would see that she has eight sharp cutting teeth in the front of her lower jaw; but in the front of her upper jaw she has no teeth. She has a hard pad there instead.
你見過牛吃東西嗎?朝牛嘴里看, 就能看見, 牛的下頜前面, 有八顆鋒利的下門齒, 但是上頜沒有門齒, 只有一個硬硬的齒墊。
The cow takes the grass between this pad and her front teeth and tears it off. Then she swallows the grass without chewing it. When the cow has eaten a good deal of grass, she lies down and begins to chew the cud.
牛把青草咬在齒墊和下門齒中間, 撕下來, 然后不嚼就把草吞了下去。牛吃了很多草之后, 就臥下來開始"反芻"(chew the cud)。
This means that she brings the grass up again, a little at a time, out of her stomach into her mouth. She chews the grass well this time with her broad back teeth, and then swallows it again. This time the grass goes into another part of the cow's stomach.
"反芻"的意思, 是把草一點兒一點兒地, 從胃里退回到嘴里, 用后面的臼齒細(xì)細(xì)地嚼一遍, 然后再咽下去。這次的草, 就到了牛胃的另一個地方。
The cow is of great use to us. We like to drink her milk; and we make some of the milk into butter and cheese.
牛對我們的用處可大了!我們都喜歡喝牛奶, 還把一些牛奶做成黃油和奶酪。
After the cow is killed, she is also of use to us. Her flesh is very good for food. The flesh of the cow is called beef, and that of the calf is called veal.
牛死了之后, 也是對我們有用的：牛肉是很好的食物。牛肉的英語叫 beef, 小牛肉的英語叫veal。
The skin or hide of the cow is made into leather for our boots and shoes. The horns are made into combs, spoons, and cups. Buttons, and the handles of knives, are also made of cow's horn.
牛皮(hide)可以做成皮, 用來做我們穿的鞋和靴子。牛角可以做成梳子、勺子、杯子、扣子。還有, 刀把兒也是牛角做的哦!
The fat of the cow, called tallow, is used for making soap and candles. Even the cow's hair is of use, for it is mixed with the plaster which is put on the walls of our rooms. The hair holds the plaster together, and keeps it from falling off the walls.
牛的脂肪就是牛油(tallow)。牛油可以做肥皂和蠟燭。連牛毛也是有用的, 它可以跟灰泥混合在一起, 涂在屋子的墻上。牛毛可以讓灰泥牢固, 不讓它從墻上掉下來。
