普通高中课程标准实验教科书英语选修高三选修9 Unit 3 Australia-Using Language
Reading and discussing
Before you read the following text, read the title and look at the pictures. Discuss with a partner what you expect to read about in the text.
AUSTRALIA’S DANGEROUS CREATURES
Australia is home to more than 170 different kinds of snake and 115 of these are poisonous. In fact, Australia has more kinds of venomous snake than any other country in the world. Luckily, the poison of most snakes can kill or paralyze only small creatures.A few varieties, however, can kill humans, so it is just as well that snakes are very shy and usually attack only if they are disturbed and feel threatened.
There are also approximately 2,000 different kinds of spider in Australia and, like snakes, most have a poisonous bite. However, the majority have no effect on humans or cause only mild sickness.Only a few have venom that is powerful enough to kill a human being. While a small number of Australians are bitten by spiders each year, most recover without any medical treatment.
The seas around Australia contain over 160 different kinds of shark, which vary in size from just 20 centimetres to over 14 metres. However, although they look dangerous because of their wide mouths and sharp teeth, all but two or three kinds are harmless to humans.
Another potentially dangerous sea animal is the jellyfish. Most kinds of poisonous jellyfish can cause severe pain to anyone who touches them but the poison of the box jellyfish can actually kill a human, especially if that person has a weak heart. The tiniest amount of poison from a box jellyfish can kill in less than five minutes and it is probably the most poisonous animal in the world.
There is one other dangerous animal in Australia worth mentioning, and that is the crocodile. Although two types of crocodile live in Australia, only the saltwater crocodile has been known to kill humans. This crocodile moves very quickly when it sees something it considers to be food, and from time to time a crocodile has snatched someone before he or she is even aware that the crocodile is there.
You might think that with all these dangerous animals Australia is an unsafe place to live in or visit. However, this is far from the truth. There are no more than a handful of shark attacks each year and only three deaths have been reported in the last five years.Similarly, in the last three years there have been only two reported deaths from crocodile attacks. Since 1956, when an anti-venom treatment for redback spider bites was developed, there have been no deaths from redbacks, and since 1981 when a treatment was developed for funnelweb spider poison, there have been no deaths from this spider either. Treatments for jellyfish stings and s~aakebites have also been developed and in the last five years there have been only three deaths from jellyfish stings and about the same number from snakebites.
