Life on the edge

6 Minute English

语言学习

2017-01-19

6 分钟
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  • This is a download from BBC Learning English.

  • To find out more, visit our website.

  • Hello and welcome to Six Minute English, I'm Alice.

  • And I'm Neil.

  • So Alice, what's your ideal place to be?

  • Oh, curled up on the sofa with a good book in front of a log fire.

  • Last night it was very cold.

  • Well, for me, lying in a hammock under a palm tree on a tropical beach with a cool breeze.

  • I don't like it when it's too hot.

  • Hmm, yes, true.

  • Humans don't cope well with extremes of temperature, but some species do.

  • The subject of today's show is extremophiles.

  • These are microorganisms that have adapted to live in what we would consider to be extreme conditions.

  • For example, living in near-boiling acidic water or frozen at the bottom of an Antarctic lake.

  • Hmm, those do sound like pretty extreme conditions.

  • Yes, the thing is, what sounds hostile or unfriendly to us are perfect environments for extremophiles.

  • And in fact, they wouldn't survive without them.

  • Now, are you tough enough to face up to today's quiz question, Neil?

  • Oh, I think so.

  • All right, then here goes, which US National Park is home to geezers or hot springs that shoot hot water and steam into the air,