国家地理:Family Feuds: Fire Ant Thievery 蚂蚁族仇
时间：2018-12-30 作者：英语课 分类：国家地理2007年
英语课
This is a fire ant colony in the southeastern United States. Like all ant colonies, it's ruled by a queen and all her workers and warriors 1 are made up completely of female offspring. Unlike other ants, fire ants seem to have almost criminal leanings. It's as if they wanna grow their colony into the biggest, baddest empire in town and they wanna do it now. And what a better way to accomplish that than, well, kidnapping. The queen's minion 2s scour 4 the neighborhood for other newly founded fire ant colonies and then pilfer 5 the brood and bring the hostage larvae 6 back to their own queen. It's hard to tell what an ant is thinking. But if you are running a kidnapping syndicate, you'd want enthusiastic workers like these men, they're into it. Sometimes one queen will even team up with another queen, so their colony will have the best chance of survival. That's really what it's all about, bigger colony, better chance for survival. The hitch 7 is the colony will only let one queen survive, somehow the ants figure out which is their favorite. And well, get ready for more crime, the other is beheaded. The ants who did this may very well have sent their own mother to the chopping block. But, it's all for the sake of the colony, so it's ok. If, right?
leaning: (n.) An inclination 8, a tendency, or a preference. 一种倾向、趋势或爱好
bad: (a.)【俚语】Very good; great. 非常好的；极棒的
minion: (n.) An obsequious 9 follower 10 or dependent; a sycophant 11. 奴才
syndicate: (n) A loose affiliation 12 of gangsters 13 in control of organized criminal activities. 罪犯辛迪加
hitch: (n.) An impediment or a delay 妨碍或耽搁
behead: (v.) 斩首，砍头
leaning: (n.) An inclination 8, a tendency, or a preference. 一种倾向、趋势或爱好
bad: (a.)【俚语】Very good; great. 非常好的；极棒的
minion: (n.) An obsequious 9 follower 10 or dependent; a sycophant 11. 奴才
syndicate: (n) A loose affiliation 12 of gangsters 13 in control of organized criminal activities. 罪犯辛迪加
hitch: (n.) An impediment or a delay 妨碍或耽搁
behead: (v.) 斩首，砍头
武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )
- I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
- The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。
n.宠仆；宠爱之人
- At worst some egregious minion had conducted a childish private enterprise.这最多也不过是一批低能的小人物自己干的无聊把戏而已。
- She delegated the job to one of her minions.她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。
n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者
- She delegated the job to one of her minions. 她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。 来自辞典例句
- I have been a slave to the vicious-those whom I served were his minions. 我当过那帮坏人的奴隶，我伺候的都是他的爪牙。 来自辞典例句
v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷
- Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
- We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。
v.盗，偷，窃
- Staff were pilfering behind the bar.店员在柜台后有些小偷小摸的行为。
- When food stores close,they go to work,pilfering food for resale on the black market.食品店关门后，他们就行动起来，偷食品拿到黑市上出售。
n.幼虫
- Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
- The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。
v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉
- They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
- All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。
n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好
- She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
- I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。
adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的
- He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air.他看着两位太太,满脸谄媚的神情。
- He was obsequious to his superiors,but he didn't get any favor.他巴结上司，但没得到任何好处。
n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒
- He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
- Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。
n.马屁精
- The dictator is surrounded by sycophants who are frightened to tell him what he may not like.独裁者被一群不敢谏言的佞臣簇拥着。
- Bestowing favor on a dubious sycophant often leads to the downfall of dynasties.宠用奸佞是历代王朝亡国的重要原因。
n.联系，联合
- There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
- The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。