[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:Flying Cats] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.47]Lesson 9 [00:03.38]Flying cats [00:11.65]How do cats try to protect themselves when falling from great heights? [00:18.98]Cats never fail to fascinate human beings. [00:22.86]They can be friendly and affectionate towards humans, [00:26.41]but they lead mysterious lives of their own as well. [00:30.71]They never become submissive like dogs and horses. [00:35.05]As a result,humans have learned to respect feline independence. [00:40.45]Most cats remain suspicious of humans all their lives. [00:45.59]One of the things that fascinates us most about cats is the popular belief [00:50.66]that they have nine lives. [00:53.39]Apparently,there is a good deal of truth in this idea. [00:57.17]A cat's ability to survive falls is based on fact. [01:02.17]Recently the New York Animal Medical Centre [01:05.70]made a study of 132 cats over a period of five months. [01:11.85]All these cats had one experience in common: they had fallen off high buildings, [01:17.88]yet only eight of them died from shock or injuries. [01:22.01]Of course,New York is the ideal place for such an interesting study, [01:26.91]because there is no shortage of tall buildings. [01:30.76]There are plenty of high-rise windowsills to fall from! [01:34.82]One cat,Sabrina, fell 32 storeys,yet only suffered from a broken tooth. [01:43.41]'Cats behave like well-trained paratroopers,'a doctor said. [01:48.07]It seems that the further cats fall,the less they are likely to injure themselves. [01:54.39]In a long drop,they reach speeds of 60 miles an hour and more. [01:59.97]At high speeds, falling cats have time to relax. [02:04.43]They stretch out their legs like flying squirrels. [02:08.06]This increases their air-resistance [02:10.79]and reduces the shock of impact when they hit the ground.