[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:A Puma at Large] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.53]Lesson 1 [00:03.33]A puma at large [00:11.48]Where must the puma have come from? [00:16.23]Pumas are large cat-like animals which are found in America. [00:22.55]When reports came into London Zoo [00:25.23]that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south of London [00:30.05]they were not taken seriously. [00:32.83]However as the evidence began to accumulate [00:36.90]experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate [00:40.93]for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma [00:45.10]were extraordinarily similar. [00:48.55]The hunt for the puma began in a small village [00:51.66]where a woman picking blackberries saw 'a large cat'only five yards away from her. [00:59.33]It immediately ran away when she saw it [01:02.60]and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered. [01:10.15]The search proved difficult [01:12.44]for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning [01:16.61]and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. [01:21.13]Wherever it went it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits. [01:28.97]Paw prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to bushes. [01:35.85]Several people complained of 'cat-like noises' at night [01:39.87]and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. [01:45.08]The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma [01:50.36]but where had it come from? [01:52.53]As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country [01:57.20]this one must have been in the possession of a private collector [02:01.53]and somehow managed to escape. [02:04.93]The hunt went on for several weeks but the puma was not caught. [02:10.88]It is disturbing to think [02:12.66]that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside.