The Legend of Nessie尼斯湖水怪传说

Have you heard about the Loch Ness（尼斯湖）monster（怪物）？ It is called Nessie. Some people say it eats people. Others say its a friendly dinosaur（恐龙）. What does the monster look like？ What is it， really？ Lets find more about the Loch Ness monster together.

Nessies home水怪故乡

Nessie lives in Loch Ness in Scotland（苏格兰）， UK.“Loch” means“lake”in the old Scottish language（古苏格兰语）. Loch Ness is a long， deep lake. It is around 36 km long and 1，206 km deep. The bottom of the lake is as flat（平坦的）as a soccer field（足球场）. The lake never freezes（ 结冰）. Its water runs across Scotland from southwest（西南）to northeast（东北）.

What does Nessie look like？水怪长什么样？

We can only picture Nessie from peoples words. It has a long neck. But its head is small. It has a huge hump（驼峰）behind its neck.

Some people say its gray， but others say its green. Local（ 当地的） people believe Nessie is friendly， as long as people dont disturb（打扰）it.

The picture of the Loch Ness monster有人拍到尼斯湖水怪的照片了？

This picture came out in 1934. It brought peoples attention（注意）from all over the world to Nessie. Since then， the lake became a tourist attraction（旅游胜地）. But 60 years later， people find out this picture is just a toy submarine（潜水艇玩具）.

Is it a living dinosaur？尼斯湖水怪真的是恐龙吗？

Put peoples words about Nessie together， you will find it really looks like a dinosaur. Now more and more people believe its a plesiosaur（ 蛇颈龙）. Plesiosaurs are relatives（亲戚）of dinosaurs. They also have long necks， small heads and they live in the water. The only problem is plesiosaurs went extinct（灭绝的）65 million（百万）years ago. Or did they？

（李蓓/供稿）

Words（P10～12）：

map地图

line线

thick厚的

fur 皮毛

Eskimo爱斯基摩人

seagulls海鸥

born出生

weigh重量为

sense of ... ......的感覺

research研究

thin薄的（比较级：thinner更薄的）

protect保护

environment环境

air conditioner空调