环球自然日®-故事播讲（2022年度）英文素材-8.Lost of Scallop

Scallop, Oyster and Pearl Oyster, three good friends live on a flat coral reef. They can fix themselves on the reef with their sturdy foot, so that they can enjoy the rich plankton feast in the sea without moving themselves.

One morning, Oyster was suddenly awakened by a harsh scream. It turned out that Pearl Oyster was screaming. She yelled: "Oh my God, Scallop is gone!"

On the reef where Scallop had been lived, there was only a clump of byssus.

Pearl Oyster began to cry: "We have never been apart. Scallop must have been captured! What if by human?"

Hearing the word "human", Oyster's body shook: "Please don't be human! If our oysters are caught by human, we will be made into oyster sauce! They love that sauce when they are cooking. And if Scallop is caught, he will be a dried scallop!" When Pearl Oyster heard it, he burst into tears.

"Wait!" Oyster said after carefully checking the byssus, "Our byssus is made of very strong protein and will not break easily. And the cross-section of this byssus is not messy but smooth, and look like it fell off by itself. Our byssus can also fall off on its own."

Pearl Oyster raised her soft foot and said, "However, even if Scallop fell off his own byssus, he should be nearby now. We have only one soft foot, and we move more slowly than a snail."

"You are right." Oyster scratched itself in distress.

Suddenly, a familiar shout came from distance: "Pearl Oyster, Oysters, I'm back!"

Pearl Oyster and Oyster looked in that direction and found that a strange object was flapping its two "wings" and swam towards them. Closer, isn't that Scallop? With Pearl Oyster and Oyster surprised gaze, Scallop slowly fell down and closed his shell elegantly and landed on the byssus.

"How?" Pearl Oyster was so surprised. "How can you swim?"

"Yes," Scallop scratched his head, "I'm so sorry everyone, I ran away from home this morning."

It turned out that just yesterday, something unpleasant happened among three good friends.

Pearl Oyster showed off early in the morning: "Look! I just discovered that there is a beautiful pearl in my arms!"

Oyster ignored him, he was attentively enjoying a plankton meal. Scallop argued:"It’s not a big deal. I can produce pearls, too."

"You call your little balls pearls?" Pearl Oyster laughed. "Everyone knows that only the pearls produced by pearl oysters are the roundest, largest, and smoothest."

At first, they ignored each other. Scallop was angry and annoyed, so when Pearl Oyster and Oyster were sleeping, he broke free of its foot and swam away.

In fact, the adductor muscle (that is, the muscle responsible for closing the shell) of the scallop is particularly developed. When the muscle contracts violently, it can pull the two shells and swim in the sea like flapping wings.

Pearl Oyster said, "Sorry for being so mean, I shouldn't show off myself. You are great, you can swim such a long distance, we can't do it."

Scallop lowered his head and said: "After I went away, I realized how much I miss you. So, I'm back again!"

Since then, the three good friends continue to lie comfortably in their shells, they chat, bathe and enjoy plankton feast as before. They promised that they would be friends forever and would never be apart.