【時(shí)事聚焦】章魚“保羅”，全名保羅·愛倫，2008年出生于英國的多塞特，持英國護(hù)照，現(xiàn)生活于德國的奧博豪森海洋館，世界著名先知，偉大的動(dòng)物預(yù)言家，最愛食物為貽貝。保羅在剛結(jié)束不久的南非世界杯期間走紅全球，7次“預(yù)言”德國隊(duì)賽績(jī)，全部猜中，最后又成功預(yù)測(cè)了西班牙1：0戰(zhàn)勝荷蘭奪得世界杯冠軍，100%的預(yù)測(cè)準(zhǔn)確率使其成為眼下最負(fù)盛名的足球“神算子”的同時(shí)，也給他帶來了不少“死亡威脅”。詳見以下原版新聞：

Paul: The "psychic" octopus

Paul, the "psychic" octopus, finished the 2010 FIFA World Cup? with a flawless record as Spain's 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Sunday's final left him with eight perfect predictions.

The eight-legged oracle has become a FIFA World Cup sensation by correctly forecasting all seven Germany games in South Africa and he finished the tournament in style by predicting a Spanish victory in the Soccer City sign-off. No one knows how he does it, but for a while it made him the most popular invertebrate in Germany, stealing headlines even from the coalition government.

As Paul foretold last week, Spain won their first world title after Andres Iniesta's 116th-minute strike broke the Netherlands' hearts. The tentacled tipster also correctly predicted Germany would beat Uruguay in Saturday's third place play-off.

In the now familiar routine, two boxes were lowered into his tank last week, each containing a mussel and the flags of the two opposing teams. Paul went straight to the correct box both times, wrenched open the lid and gobbled the tasty morsel.

But the art of football predicting has become a dangerous job for the English-born clairvoyant. He fell offside with bitter German fans who threatened to turn him into sushi after he predicted a semi-final defeat for the Mannschaft against Spain.

Paul's home, an aquarium in western Germany, has received death-threat emails saying "we want Paul for the pan," said entertainment supervisor Daniel Fey. No less an authority than Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero has called for octopus bodyguards. Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian has called for the creature to be given an "immediate" free transfer to Spain to "ensure his protection."

Stung by Paul's "treachery" at picking Spain over Germany in last Wednesday's semi-final, some sections of the 350,000-strong crowd watching the game on giant screens in Berlin sang anti-octopus songs.

His prediction of a Spanish victory is expected to be the last for Paul, who in octopus terms is a pensioner, at the grand old age of two-and-a-half. Octopuses generally live three years at the latest.

【熱點(diǎn)話題】章魚保羅的出現(xiàn)讓全世界奇也罷、嘆也罷、喜也罷、恨也罷，各位“烤鴨”可是要多留個(gè)心眼，因?yàn)樵?a target="_blank">雅思聽力的Section2和Section4部分，經(jīng)常會(huì)考到介紹動(dòng)物或者植物的語段（動(dòng)物居多些），尤其是在Section4的學(xué)術(shù)類講座中，動(dòng)物更是經(jīng)久不衰的話題之一。

單在劍橋雅思考試真題系列中出現(xiàn)的介紹動(dòng)物的篇目就有：劍6-Test4-Section4: Asiatic lions；劍4-Test4-Section4: Sharks in Australia；劍3-Test3-Section4: Ostrich。如果大家每次收集和整理的雅思聽力考題回顧后就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，動(dòng)物話題的出現(xiàn)頻率是很高的。

在動(dòng)物話題中，常見的考查內(nèi)容有：

通識(shí)性介紹

講述某動(dòng)物的身體結(jié)構(gòu)與生活習(xí)性，比如數(shù)量（number），身長(zhǎng)（length）或身高（height），體重（weight），骨骼（skeleton），皮膚（skin），毛皮（fur），血液（blood）、大腦（brain），活動(dòng)范圍（territory），遷徙模式（migration pattern），食物（food），速度（speed），棲息地（habitat），生長(zhǎng)階段（growth stage），進(jìn)化（evolution）等。

專項(xiàng)性介紹

介紹某動(dòng)物的一個(gè)具體特點(diǎn)及其對(duì)于人類的啟示，比如蜜蜂的視力（bee’s optic）、鯨魚和海豚的集體擱淺現(xiàn)象（the stranding of whales and dolphins）等。

比較性介紹

比較的內(nèi)容有一種動(dòng)物的優(yōu)、缺點(diǎn)比較；幾種相似動(dòng)物的優(yōu)、缺點(diǎn)或特點(diǎn)比較；動(dòng)物與人類的比較。

實(shí)驗(yàn)性介紹

為了更好地了解動(dòng)物，人們通常會(huì)在不傷害他們的前提下對(duì)其開展實(shí)驗(yàn)研究，比如在某種鳥類的腿部固定身份識(shí)別環(huán)（put leg identification）以便跟蹤研究。

【背景常識(shí)】保羅神奇的預(yù)測(cè)能力一直為人們所津津樂道，其命運(yùn)也牽動(dòng)著世界各國球迷的心。據(jù)奧博豪森水族館宣布，隨著本屆世界杯的結(jié)束，保羅即將光榮退休。退休后的章魚，將做它最喜歡做的事，取悅來拜訪它的小朋友們。摘掉預(yù)言家的光環(huán)，躲開聚光燈的追捧，做回一條普通的章魚，自由自在地度過余生也許就是保羅最希望的吧。那么什么才是一條“普通的章魚”，它到底是一種什么樣的生物呢？讓我們一起來了解一下：

The octopus is a cephalopod mollusk in the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Most octopuses have no internal or external skeleton, allowing them to squeeze through tight places. Octopuses are highly intelligent, probably the most intelligent of all invertebrates.

The octopus inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. For defense against predators, they hide, flee quickly, expel ink, or use color-changing camouflage. An octopus trails its eight arms behind it as it swims. All octopuses are venomous, but only the small blue-ringed octopuses are deadly to humans.

In the larger sense, there are around 300 recognized octopus species, which is over one-third of the total number of known cephalopod species. The term octopus may also be used to refer only to those creatures in the genus Octopus.

【必殺詞匯】分析認(rèn)為，一旦雅思聽力考到有關(guān)動(dòng)物的話題，以下詞匯極有可能落入出題者的考察范圍之內(nèi)（考慮到動(dòng)物場(chǎng)景常見section 4，因此有些詞匯會(huì)略顯專業(yè)）：

mollusk 軟體動(dòng)物

symmetric 對(duì)稱的，均勻的

beak 鳥喙，（鳥喙形的）某種嘴

internal 內(nèi)部的，體內(nèi)的

external 外部的，體外的

skeleton 骨骼

intelligent 有才智的

region 范圍，區(qū)域

inhabit 居住于，棲息于

camouflage 偽裝，掩飾

coral reef 珊瑚礁

predator 捕食者

species 物種

creature 生物，（尤指）動(dòng)物