托福口语 Task 4

Today we're going to talk about a fascinating adaptation in the animal kingdom: camouflage. Now, camouflage isn't just about blending in with the background—it's a complex strategy that animals use to survive. There are two main types: cryptic coloration, where an animal matches its environment to avoid detection, and disruptive coloration, where bold patterns break up the animal's outline. Let me give you two examples. First, the leafy sea dragon. This fish lives among seaweed and kelp. Its body has leaf-like appendages that perfectly mimic the surrounding plants, making it nearly invisible to predators. That's cryptic coloration. Second, the zebra. Zebras live in grasslands where there are no stripes to match, so why do they have them? When a herd of zebras runs together, their black and white stripes create a confusing visual effect—it's hard for a predator like a lion to single out one animal. This is disruptive coloration; the pattern breaks up the zebra's body shape, especially in motion. So, as you can see, camouflage can work in very different ways depending on the animal's habitat and behavior.