Unit 10 lớp 12

For a long time the image most people had of a gorilla was a dangerous-looking animal with big, bared teeth. But researchers studying gorillas show a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are peaceful, gantle, sociable, and mainly plant-eating creatures.
Gorillas live in family groups. A typical group is led by the biggest and strongest grown-up male gorilla. He is called a silverback because the hair on a male’s back turns from black to silvery grey as he grows up. A silverback’s group usually includes one or two sub-adult males and a few lemales and their young.
Mountain gorillas spend much of their time eating. Their food includes a variety of plants, along with a few kinds of insects and worms. At night the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees. The heavier ones may nest in grasses on the ground. Babies sleep with their mothers at night.
Life for mountain gorillas is not always peaceful. They are endangered and threatened by civil wars in the smaller parts of Africa. Hunters kill them for food. Their forests are cut down for farmland, fuel, and housing . But many scientists, forest rangers and other concerned people are working hard to protect mountain gorillas and their habitats.
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Tapescript:
High in dense bamboo forests in the misty mountains of southwestern China lives one of the world’s rarest mammals: the panda. Panda feed mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves. Occasionally they eat other plants, fish or small animals. Panda eat fast and they eat a lot. They spend about 12 hours a day doing it.
Pandas are in extreme danger today. There are only about 600 of these black-and - white bears in the wild and a hundred in captivity. One of the reasons is that the survival rate of the cubs is very low: more than half of them die shortly after birth. The Chinese government is considering cloning the panda in their efforts to save this animal.