听力文本

Almost every animal makes some kind of sound. It may be his language. He barks, moos, clucks, bleats, mews, whinnies, croaks, roars, grunts, cries, snarls, chirps, screeches, crows, hisses, whines, laughs, squeals, cackles, squawks, snorts, bellows,or sings. But the giraffe is said to be the only jungle animal that makes no sound.
In the rivers of the jungle lives a huge fat animal called a hippopotamus. Hippopotamus means a river horse,but he is really more like a huge fat pig. Like a pig, he loves to wallow in mud and water. When he lies asleep with perhaps only his back showing above the water he looks like a large rock or a submarine partly under the water. A magician once sold a secret for turning lead into gold. I will tell you the secret and won’tcharge you anything for it. This is it. “Put the lead in a pot on the fire and stir it for half an hour while you do not once think of the word Hippopotamus.” If you can do that the lead will turn to gold. Do you think you could do that? Then you don’t know how hard it iS to try not to think of Hippopotamus. Here’s another good rule if you want to learn any hard name in geography: try not to think of it for half an hour.
Another big clumsy animal is the Rhinoceros. He would take a prize in any Ugly Show. He has very short legs and one or two horns on his nose, and his skin is so thick that a hunter can’t shoot him except in the stomach, and he can’t shoot him there because his legs are so short his stomach is almost on the ground. When aperson is so dumb that nothing we say seems to have any eftect on him or trouble him. we say he has a hide like a rhinoceros.

参考译文

几乎所有的动物都会发出某种声音，那也许就是动物的语言。有的汪汪地叫，有的哞哞地叫，有的咯咯地叫，有的咩咩地叫，有的喵喵地叫，有的嘶叫，有的呱呱地叫，有的吼叫，有的发呼噜声，有的嗷叫，有的露齿咆哮、有的吱吱喳喳地叫，有的尖叫，有的喔喔叫，有的发嘶嘶声，有的呜呜叫，有的发笑声，有的吱吱叫，有的咯咯叫，有的嘎嘎大叫，有的呼哧呼哧喷鼻息，有的怒吼，有的啼啭。但据说长颈鹿是丛林中唯一不发出声音的动物。
丛林的河流中生活着一种巨大、肥胖的动物叫河马。“河马”的意思是“河里的马”，但它更像一头巨大的肥猪。像猪一样，河马喜欢在泥水中打滚。河马睡着了的时候，只有背部露出水面，这时它看起来就像一块巨大的岩石，或者像没有完全浮出水面的潜艇。有一个魔术师曾经出售将铅变成金子的秘诀。我愿告诉你这个秘密，而不收取任何费用。这个秘密就是，“将铅放入炉上的一只锅里，搅动半个小时，在这期间一次都不要想‘河马’这个单词。”如果你能做到这一点，铅就会变成金子。你认为你能做到这一点吗？那么，你根本不知道，努力不去想“河马”有多难。如果你想记住地理书里什么较难的名字，这里有一个很好的规则，那就是：半个小时努力不去想它。
还有一种又大又笨拙的动物是犀牛。如果举行什么“选丑大赛”的话，犀牛一定会得奖。犀牛腿非常短，鼻子上长着一个或两个角，皮很厚，猎人只能射击它的肚子。向犀牛的肚子射击也不是件容易的事，因为它的腿太短了，它的肚子几乎就紧贴在地面上。如果一个人很愚钝，无论我们说什么，似乎都无法触动他或令他苦恼，我们就说他“皮厚得像犀牛皮”。