TPO 47

The reading passage and the listening section are both about pterosaurs are able to fly or not. The article proposes some compelling reasons to explain pterosaurs cannot fly. However, the speaker casts doubt about it and delves into several reasons and examples to refute it.

First of all, the article mentions that pterosaurs probably were cold-blood, and they cannot produce considerable energy for supplying them to fly. Conversely, the speaker argues that pterosaurs had dense hairs. That was the piece of evidence to suggest that pterosaurs might be the warm-blood. Because warm-blood animals required hairs for covering their body to keep their body warm.

Secondly, in the article, it suggests that pterosaurs were too heavy and large, which cause pterosaurs were not able to fly. Nevertheless, the speaker opposes this idea. Pterosaurs had hollow bones, which means their bones were not solid. The hollow bones lowered their weigh and made them possible for flying despite they had large body.

Last but not least, the speaker disagrees with that pterosaurs did not have ability to take off since their legs were too weak and small. The speaker aruges that birds and pterosaurs are using different methods to take off. Birds use two legs to jump or run, but pterosaurs implement four legs to help them to gain energy for launching into air. Moreover, the recent evidence shows that pterosaurs do not have any trouble on using four legs to run or jump.