听力文本

It seems the first resident of Earth to break the sound barrier wasn't Chuck Yeager, after all.
He was about a hundred million years ,too late.
Apatosaurus was a cousin of Brontosaurus,but even bigger,with a 40-foot-tail more than three feet thick at the butt end but no wider than your pinky at the tip.
That dainty end made the tail too fragile for clubbing attackers.
So what was it for?Maybe this:
The idea that Apatosaurus might have used its tail like a bullwhip—to scare off predators, communicate or even show off for potential mates—gained traction about 20 years ago.
That's when paleontologist Philip Currie of the University of Alberta teamed with Nathan Myhrvold to create a computer simulation that showed the whip-cracking tail was plausible.
Myhrvold is the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures
an invention firm in the Seattle suburbs—where I'm executive editor.
This week at a meeting of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology, Myhrvold, Currie and Dhileep Sivam, also of Intellectual Ventures, unveiled a quarter-scale physical model of an Apatosaurus tail made from aluminum vertebrae and steel tendons.
Give the big end of the model a strong push and pull, and it does this:
Our analysis of high-speed video of the tail in action found that the tip moves at more than 800 miles an hour—fast enough to break the sound barrier and create a small sonic boom.
A full-size apatosaur whipping its tail in this way could probably have produced a sound loud enough to shatter human eardrums.
Which must have really gotten their attention back in the late Jurassic.

参考译文

似乎突破音障的第一位地球居民并非查克·叶格G~LHQFQEn;,A0)#e(aL。
查克是在地球诞生1亿年之后才有了那次创举，但为时已晚#3NPfCzwVGzC。
侏罗纪时期的迷惑龙是雷龙的表亲，但是体型则更为庞大,它的尾巴长达40英尺，尾部厚度超过3英尺，但尾部尖端比你的小手指还细2)]SR5sNcX。
就是这样精致小巧的尾巴尖对于它们袭击进攻者而言实在是不堪一击b_uM^[QGl|qK。
但是它有什么用处呢?可能是这样的:
迷惑龙用自己的尾巴作为鞭子—它通过甩尾吓跑捕食者，同潜在伴侣交流进行交流或甚至炫耀—这样的作用在20年前就引起了人们的注意力QGo]p_Ot#d。

因此阿尔伯塔大学的古生物学家菲利普·柯里尔同内森·梅沃德合作研发了一款电脑模拟程序表明这样的甩尾存在一定意义_QpL=Y+YHTe5wLHh。
梅沃德则成为高智公司的创始人并出任CEOW4brJ0vs%@=6-gD@JuM。
这是一家位于西雅图郊区的发明公司—而我则任职执行总监Q1-|DE,JGTrT9L。
在本周古脊椎动物学会举办的一场会议上，梅尔沃德和同样是高智公司的德利普·斯瓦姆公布了1/4比例大小由铝骨及钢肌腱制成的迷惑龙尾椎骨模型f9%0|JYUPc。
给这个尾部模型施加一个强大的推力及拉力后就会产生这样的声音@g_;xaWX#K。
通过对甩尾高速视频分析我们发现尾部末端每小时可移动超过800英里—速度之快足以打破音障并造成小型音爆uBq)Z6CrKP。
而成年迷惑龙这种甩尾的方式足以震碎人类的耳膜7F8eChZK93XNOQXnV0。
这项研究也将人类的注意力转移到了侏罗纪时代末期6MSg!ZWZx2z=jdt。

译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！

重点讲解

1.show off 展示

例句:All right, there's no need to show off.
好了，没必要炫耀;_yWCrZW|,。

2.executive editor 执行编辑

例句:In a statement, Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times, expressed satisfaction about Mr.Zhao's release.
在一份声明中，比尔凯勒，执行编辑的时候，表示满意，对赵先生的释放[7jDyWK.O;b*]kesR。

3.made from 由…做成

例句:The payment is to be made from a choice of customer accounts with sufficient funds for completing the transaction.
支付将通过选择具有足够余额完成交易的客户帐户进行;%;*Nw!+o9t@Xc_Y[v2。

4.enough to 足够

例句:The airplane is large enough to accommodate over400 passengers.
这架飞机大得足以容纳400多名乘客|ZY2=Rcljn7%。