高中三年级英语(人教版)全一册 Unit 14 Reading 2

　　The best way to stay safe is to develop a way to receive an early warning when danger approaches. Many animals stay together in large groups and use sounds and body language to warn each other if they see or hear something suspicious. Some animals even work together with other species to stay safe. The birds you often see on the back of a water buffalo have an important job: they help warn the buffalo of danger.

　　EAT OR BE EATEN (Ⅱ)

　　The "eat or be eaten" nature of life in the wild also causes predators, or animals that hunt other animals, to adapt in order to become better at finding and killing their prey. Predators often use one of three basic strategies: they run after their prey, slowly follow their prey, or hide and wait for their prey. All three methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Running after the prey is usually effective, but it requires great speed and a lot of energy. Since the running makes the predator very tired, it usually selects large animals as its prey. By doing so, the difficult chase will be worth the effort. To slowly follow another animal, for example, to walk in the water looking for fish as many birds do, requires very little energy but takes a lot of time. A predator that hunts in this way can choose smaller prey, since the method is less firing and it can hunt several times a day. Hiding and waiting is of course the easiest way to hunt, but it is not as effective. It may take a very long time until something edible walks by. Therefore, animals that hunt in this way have adapted by digesting food slowly. They are able to go without food for a long period of time.

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