California Condor’s Shocking Recovery
加州神鹰惊人的复苏

California condors are North America’s largest birds, with wind-length of up to 3 meters. In the 1980s, electrical lines an d lead poisoning(铅中毒) nearly drove them to dying out. Now, electric shock training and medical treatment are helping to rescue these big birds.
加州神鹰是北美洲最大的鸟类，翼展可达3米。在20世纪80年代，电线和铅中毒几乎导致它们灭绝。现在，电击训练和医疗治疗正在帮助拯救这些大鸟。

In the late 1980s, the last few condors were taken from the wild, and there are now more than 150 flying over California and nearby Arizona, Utah and Baja in Mexico.
在20世纪80年代末，最后几只神鹰被从野外带走，现在有超过150只飞翔在加利福尼亚以及附近的亚利桑那州、犹他州和墨西哥的下加利福尼亚半岛。

Electrical lines have been killing them off. “As they go in to rest for the night, they just don’t see the power lines,” says Bruce Rideout of San Diego Zoo. Their wings can bridge the gap between lines, resulting in electrocution(电死) if they touch two lines at once.
电线一直在杀死它们。“当它们去休息时，它们就是看不到电线，”圣地亚哥动物园的布鲁斯·赖德奥特说。它们的翅膀可以横跨电线之间的空隙，如果同时触碰到两根电线，就会导致电死。

So scientists have come up with a shocking idea. Tall poles, placed in large training areas, teach the birds to stay clear of electrical lines by giving them a painful but undeadly electric shock. Before the training was introduced, 66% of set-freed condors died of electrocution. This has now dropped to 18%.
于是科学家们想出了一个令人震惊的主意。高大的杆子被放置在大型训练区，通过给它们一个痛苦但不致命的电击，教会鸟类远离电线。在引入训练之前，66%的释放神鹰死于电死。现在这个数字已经降到了18%。

Lead poisonous has proved more difficult to deal with. When condors eat dead bodies of other animals containing lead, they absorb large quantities of lead. This affects their nervous systems and ability to produce baby birds, and can lead to kidney(肾) failures and death. So condors with high levels of lead are sent to Los Angeles Zoo, where they are treated with calcium EDTA, a chemical that removes lead from the blood over several days. This work is starting to pay off. The annual death rate for adult condors has dropped from 38% in 2000 to 5.4% in 2011.
铅中毒证明更难以处理。当神鹰吃含有铅的其他动物尸体时，它们会吸收大量的铅。这会影响它们的神经系统和繁殖能力，可能导致肾衰竭和死亡。因此，铅含量高的神鹰被送到洛杉矶动物园，在那里它们接受钙EDTA治疗，这种化学物质可以在几天内清除血液中的铅。这项工作开始见效。成年神鹰的年死亡率从2000年的38%降到了2011年的5.4%。

Rideout’s team thinks that the California condors’ average survival time in the wild is now just under eight years. “Although these measures are not effective forever, they are vital for now,” he says. “They are truly good birds that are worth every effort we put into recovering them. ”
赖德奥特的团队认为，加州神鹰在野外的平均生存时间现在不到八年。“虽然这些措施不会永远有效，但它们现在是至关重要的，”他说。“它们确实是值得我们每个人投入努力去恢复的好鸟。”

1. California condors attract researchers’ interest because they .
   A.are active at night
   B.had to be bred in the wild
   C.are found on in California
   D.almost died out in the 1980s
   答案：D

2. Researchers have found electrical lines are .
   A.blocking condors’ journey home
   B. big killers of Califorbnia condoras
   C. rest places for condors at night
   D. used to keep condors away
   答案：B

3. According to Paraghaph 5 ,lead poisoning .
   A.makes condors too nervous to fly
   B. has little effect on condors’ kidneys
   C. can hardly be gotten rid of form condors’ blood
   D. makes it different for condors to produce baby birds
   答案：D

4. The passage shows that .
   A.the average survival time of condors is satisfactory
   B.Rideout’s research interest lies in electric engineering
   C.the efforts to protect condors bave brought good results
   D.researchers have found the final answers to the problem
   答案：C