DAY4>Animals in Mythology:part2

During the Middle Ages, people belivevd a unicorn's horn could cure many illnesses and neutralize poison. As it was considered very valuable, a powdered form of " Unicorn's Horn" was sold in many druggist's shop.

Did unicorn ever really exist? This is a question that remains unanswered today. some believe that, like the dragon, the unicorn never existed and was simple an animal from a fairy tale or mythology. Others believe that the unicorn still exists in remote regions of the earth, and can be seen only by people of exceptional virtue and honesty. There are still others who believe that the unicorn was a type of a hunman in order to survive. Someday, they believe, these humans will become unicorns once again. A final point of view is that, like the dinosaur, unicorns once exsited but became extinct. This theory suggests that because the unicorn's horn was used as a type of medicine, humans hunted the animal out of existence.

Animals such as the narwhal may provide evidence, or give us a clue, that unicorns once exsited on earth. The male narwhal is a huge sea creature that can be found in the Arctic seas. This animal has a single horn, or tusk, that projects from its forehead -similar to that of the unicorn. In fact, in the seventeenth century, people often confused the narwhal to the unicorn has led some people to believe that perhaps the unicorn is the narwhal's ancestor, or vice versa. Although narwhals have also been hunted for centuries , they may have escaped extinction for different reasons: they are only found in certain parts of the world, and are hunted by only a relatively small number of people.




1. cure (v) 治療
2. neutralize (v) 中和.使中立
3. powdered (a) 粉末狀的
4. druggist (n) 藥劑師.藥商.藥房老闆
5. remote (a) 偏僻的
6. exceptional (a) 異常的.例外的.優秀的
7. virtue (n) 美德.善良
8. in order to 為了
9. survive (v) 倖存
10. extinct (a) 絕種的.滅亡的
11. existence (n) 生存.存在
12. narwhal (n) 獨角鯨
13. Arctic (a) 北極的
14. tusk (n) 長牙
15. ancestor (n) 祖先
16. vice versa 反之亦然
17. extinction (n) 絕種
18. relatively (adv) 相對地