Прилагательные, описывающие Жирафа Карточки   PDF-1            PDF-2

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Общая информация о жирафе: 

Look at the picture. You can see a giraffe standing in the grass at a hill. The giraffe (Giraffa) is a genus of African even-toed (1) ungulate (2) mammals.

It has two dull (3) horns covered with short fur skin. Its elongated ears are pricked and rotate like radar screens. Its black eyes are set on either (4) side of its face. They are lined with thick eyelashes. Its muzzle is elongated too with two nostrils at the end of its nose. The Giraffe's neck is really long with a mane along the spine (5). Its mane goes from its neck to just below its shoulders in the back of its body. We can’t see its tongue here but usually it’s dark, very long, and muscular. It has four long legs and its skin is covered with a camouflage pattern (6) that consists of dark spots (7). It has a medium length tail with a furry brush on its end to swipe (8) away insects.

Male giraffes can reach heights up to 5.5-6.1 m (about 1/3 of the length is its neck) and its weight ranges (9) from 900-1200 kg. Females are usually a little smaller and lighter. A giraffe's neck is unusually long, despite the fact that giraffes, like almost all other mammals, have only seven cervical (10) vertebraes (11).

Giraffes are able to run fast and, in the case of emergency, reach a speed of up to 55 km/hr. For short distances they can beat a racehorse. It is also remarkable that these seemingly (12) cumbersome (13) and slow-moving animals can jump over barriers even as high as 1.85m high.

Giraffes are totally herbivorous (14) animals. The main food is acacia. Every day the giraffe consumes about 30 kg of food and spends between 16 to 20 hours a day eating. Among all mammals, giraffes are the ones that need the least amount of sleep. It sleeps from 10 minutes to 2 hours a day. On average, giraffes sleep 1.9 hours a day. Giraffes can sleep both standing and lying down.

It is widely believed that giraffes are voiceless animals. However, they communicate with each other at frequencies (15) below 20 Hz, which are indistinguishable (16) to the human ear.

Immediately after birth, the giraffe cub reaches 1.8 m in height and weigh 50 kg. In an hour it can firmly stand on its legs and can start running after a few hours.

Due to its size, the giraffe has few natural enemies. If a predator dares (17) to attack it, it effectively defends itself with the blows (18) of the front hooves. Such a blow is capable of smashing the skull (19) of any predator. Lions, leopards, hyenas and others usually attack young giraffes.

In the wild their life expectancy (20) is about 25 years, in captivity - about 35 years.

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