Animal’s “Sixth Sense”
    A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals,____1____, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that1 they possess a “sixth sense” for____2____, experts said.
    Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly____3____ wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
    “No elephants are dead, not____4____ a dead rabbit. I think animals can____5____ disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H. D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The____6____ washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife____7____ and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.
    “There has been a lot of____8____ evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior____9____ at Johannesburg Zoo.
    “There have been no____10____ studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting2，” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this____11____ ·
    “Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain____12____ especially birds ... there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters/’ said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
    Animals____13____ rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
    The notion of an animal “sixth sense” — or____14____ other mythical power — is an enduring one3 which the evidence on Sri Larika’s ravaged coast is likely to add to.
    The Romans saw owls____15____ omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.
    詞匯：
    tsunami / ts?'n?m? / n.海嘯
    trigger / 'tr?g?(r) / v.引發(fā)，觸發(fā)
    ravaged / 'r?v?d?id / adj.被毀壞的
    leopard / 'lep?d / n.豹
    eruption / ?'r?p??n / n.噴發(fā)
    migrate / ma?'gre?t / v.遷移
    volcanic / v?l'k?n?k / adj.火山的
    concur / k?n'k??(r) / v.(with)同意，贊成
    impending / ?m'pend?? / adj.迫近的
    predator / 'pred?t?(r) / n.食肉動(dòng)物
    mythical / 'm?θ?kl / adj.神話般的
    owl / a?l / n.貓頭鷹
    omen / '??m?n / n.預(yù)兆，征兆
    endow / ?n'da? / v.賦予