chicken

Chickens are omnivores. In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even animals as large as lizards, small snakes, or young mice. The average chicken may live for five to ten years, depending on the breed.

Under natural conditions, most birds lay only until a clutch is complete, and they will then incubate all the eggs. Hens are then said to "go broody". The broody hen will stop laying and instead will focus on the incubation of the eggs (a full clutch is usually about 12 eggs). She will "sit" or "set" on the nest, protesting or pecking in defense if disturbed or removed, and she will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust-bathe. While brooding, the hen maintains the nest at a constant temperature and humidity, as well as turning the eggs regularly during the first part of the incubation. To stimulate broodiness, owners may place several artificial eggs in the nest. To discourage it, they may place the hen in an elevated cage with an open wire floor.

Fertile chicken eggs hatch at the end of the incubation period, about 21 days. {以上有大量六级/考研单词}

More than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of meat and eggs. In the United States alone, more than 8 billion chickens are slaughtered each year for meat, and more than 300 million chickens are reared for egg production.

截止2022年05月24日，全球238个国家人口总数为7,898,236,143人，中国1,447,301,400人，印度1,403,018,576人，美国334,282,669人。

2020年1-12月，我国鸡肉(含整鸡、鸡块、鸡爪、鸡翅)累计进口量达143.30万吨，同比增加98.28%，累计进口额32.83亿美元，同比增加74.78%，平均到岸价格2291美元/吨，同比下跌11.85%；其中12月份进口量为14.58万吨，同比增加82.11%，环比增加14.11%，平均到岸价格2075美元/吨，同比下跌26.58%，环比下跌0.89%。进口的鸡肉来自巴西、美国、俄罗斯、泰国等12个国家，其中巴西是第一大进口来源国，进口量达63.76万吨，占比44.50%，而后依次是美国(39.11万吨，占比27.30%)、俄罗斯(14.16万吨，占比9.88%)、泰国(10.27万吨，占比7.17%)、阿根廷(9.22万吨，占比6.43%)，其余从智利、白俄罗斯、法国、波兰、塞尔维亚、乌克兰、土耳其进口。

pork, mutton, beef... BBC的纪录片《The Adventure of English》里说"English animal, French meat". 因为英国被诺曼人统治过，期间英国人养动物，法国人吃肉。诺曼人可能不爱吃鸡肉。

A chicken run [鸡栏] is simply an outdoor enclosure that allows your chickens the space they need to exercise and stay active while also protecting them from danger, such as predators. 有部动画电影叫Chicken Run, 应译为“鸡场(风云)”。"The chicken runs."=“小鸡跑”；"Chicken, run!"=“小鸡，跑！”；"Chicken: Run!" = “小鸡说跑”。cockpit: 斗鸡场; 驾驶舱。

Chicken wire, or poultry netting, is a mesh of wire commonly used to fence in fowl, such as chickens, in a run or coop. It is made of thin, flexible, galvanized [镀锌的] steel wire with hexagonal [六边形的] gaps. IT业用hex表示十六进制，而hex的原意可能只是“六”。

• If you call someone a chicken, you mean that they are afraid to do something.
• Chicken is also an adjective; "chicken-hearted" [缺乏勇气的; 胆小的]
• If someone chickens out of something they were intending to do, they decide not to do it because they are afraid.

• "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" is used to say that it is difficult or impossible to decide which of two things happened first, or which action is the cause and which is the effect.
• "a chicken and egg situation/problem etc" is a situation in which it is impossible to decide which of two things happened first, or which action is the cause and which is the effect.

If you say that someone is counting their chickens, you mean that they are assuming that they will be successful or get something, when this is not certain... The Milkmaid and Her Pail, Fables of Aesop [伊索寓言]

If you think that an amount of money is so small it is hardly worth having or considering, you can say that it is chicken feed.

If you say that someone is no spring chicken, you are saying that they are not young. [当红炸子鸡……猪肉涨价后才出来的“小鲜肉”]

Chickenpox [水痘] is an infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus [水痘带状疱疹病毒]. It causes an itchy rash with small, fluid-filled blisters. Chickenpox is highly contagious to people who haven't had the disease or been vaccinated against it. Today, a vaccine is available that protects children against chickenpox.

Monkeypox [猴痘] is a rare disease that is caused by infection with monkeypox virus. Before smallpox [天花] was eradicated, it was a serious infectious disease caused by the variola virus.

六级/考研单词: seldom, scratch, insect, clutch, hen, nest, peck, disturb, brood, humid, stimulate, discourage, elevate, cage, fertile, hatch, billion, rear, unite, slaughter, million, pork, adventure, outdoor, enclose, prey, poultry, rigid, adjective, situate, fable, infect, virus, rash, contagious, haven, vaccine, eradicate