Discovering the oldest complete fish fossil

山東 李全忠

目前最古老的完整鯊魚化石，是由中國科學家團隊發現的。這塊化石約有4.39億年的歷史。

主題 語 境：探 索 與 發 現 篇幅：325詞 建 議 用 時：7分鐘

2 The fossil was a jawed fish, some 439 million years old, and the findings from the Chongqing site, along with other fossil findings in nearby Guizhou Province, have excited the science world, as they are 11 million years older than any jawed fish fossil found before.It is a significant discovery because scientists have suspected that jaws evolved (進化) some 450 million years ago, but there had yet to be any fossils that supported this theory.The oldest fossils with jaws found were 439 million years old.

3 The research team recently published four papers on the discoveries.Today they are staring at complete early fishes, 11 million years earlier than the previous oldest finds.These are both the most exciting as well as the most challenging fossils the team have had the privilege to work on.

4 Some of the fish that were discovered were placoderms, an extinct class of fish that have hard plates that formed a shield around the head and trunk, while others were an ancestral type of shark called acanthodian.

5 The scientists have found the oldest-known teeth of any vertebrate (脊椎動物), 14 million years older than any previous findings, as well as two other shark descendants.China has been the site of numerous discoveries in recent years, including fossils of feathered dinosaurs, as well as the oldest known animals on Earth.

6 The discovery of the Chongqing site is indeed significant for fossil hunting.It made the team realize they had found a jaw-dropping fossil site.They are now close to the core of solving the fishy tree of early jawed vertebrates.

Reading Check

Inference1.What do we know about the discovery of the Chongqing site?

A.It was made by scientists at work.

B.It happened six years ago.

蔣大偉追上鄭馨：怎么了，你這是？鄭馨大聲地：我不想跟她說話！不想看見她！蔣大偉說：咱不是說好了來拿車錢嗎？你不開口，我替你說！鄭馨倔強地：我不想看見她！我看見她就煩！蔣大偉耐著性子：別呀？你煩我可就麻煩了！我聽出來了，她是你后媽，后媽也是媽，你就不能張口叫一聲？鄭馨執拗地：不！是她把我媽逼走了！她不是我媽！蔣大偉：好好，我不想斷你們的家務事，我只拿我的車錢！這樣好不好，你不叫我替你叫，然后你就接著說，只要拿了車錢，咱立馬就走，到了蘭江大橋，你砰地一聲下去了，就永遠也不用見她了！行嗎？鄭馨猶疑地看著他，蔣大偉握握拳頭：我以人格向你保證！

C.It relates to animals' origin.

D.It was done all by chance.

Detail2.Why is the discovery of the Chongqing site important?

A.It inspires scientists to work on.

B.It provides evidence of jaws' evolving.

C.It helps four papers to be published.

D.It finds the oldest animal on Earth.

Gist3.In which part of a magazine can you read this text?

A.Science.

B.Culture.

C.Tourism.

D.Entertainment.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

Some of the fish that were discovered were placoderms, an extinct class of fish that have hard plates that formed a shield around the head and trunk, while others were an ancestral type of shark called acanthodian.一些被發現的魚類是盾皮魚，這是一種已經滅絕的魚類，其頭部和軀干周圍堅硬的鱗片形成了一道屏障，而另一些則是一種被稱為棘魚的鯊魚祖先。

【點石成金】本句是一個并列復合句。句中的while連接并列從句，在第一個分句中的三個that都引導定語從句。

Ⅱ.Fill in the blanks with a proper expression

along with__significant__stare at__previous__unbelievable__be clo___se_to

1.This house doesn't compare with our ________ one.

2.I know it sounds ________ but I never want to cheat.

3.I would rather ________ a clear, star-filled sky than a TV set.

4.There are no ________ differences between the two groups of students.

5.The problem of pollution arises ________ the rapid development of industry.

6.The task should ________ students' life, learning experience and social reality.