托福口语 Task 4

Today we're going to talk about a fascinating survival strategy in the animal kingdom: mimicry. Specifically, I want to focus on how some animals use mimicry not to hide from predators, but to attract prey. This is called aggressive mimicry. One classic example is the anglerfish. It lives in the deep, dark ocean where food is scarce. To lure prey, it has a special fin that glows and wiggles like a small worm or fish. When a curious smaller fish approaches to eat what it thinks is a meal, the anglerfish quickly snaps it up. Another example is the bolas spider. Instead of spinning a web, this spider produces a single silk line with a sticky ball at the end, which it swings. The ball emits a chemical that mimics the pheromone of a female moth. Male moths, attracted by the scent, fly right into the sticky ball, and the spider reels it in. So in both cases, the predator uses a deceptive signal—either visual or chemical—to trick its prey into coming close.