SSS 2010-01-05
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(一)月
Sometimes it pays to look like a pile of poop. At least if you’re a tasty caterpillar 1 trying to avoid getting eaten by hungry birds. Because a study in the journal Science shows that even young chicks tend to overlook caterpillars 2 disguised as dung.
Animals have come up with some pretty clever tricks for keeping themselves off a predator’s dinner plate. Some use camouflage 3, adopting colors and patterns that help them blend into the environment. Others masquerade as something inedible 4, like bird droppings or twigs 5. But scientists got to wondering whether the two approaches are really so different. Maybe critters dressed as twigs also “blend in” so that predators 6 just don’t see them. To find out, scientists presented some twiggy-looking caterpillars to two sets of hand-reared chicks. They found that baby birds that had never seen sticks before gobbled those bad boys right up. But chicks who were shown real twigs first took much longer to peck at the mimics 7, and did so more gingerly than their naïve friends.
That means the birds could see the caterpillars, but were fooled by the costume, at least temporarily. Which, for a caterpillar on a leaf in the wild, could mean the difference between eating and being eaten.
—Karen Hopkin
- A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
- A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。
- Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
- Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句
- The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
- The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。
- The food was totally inedible.食物完全无法下咽。
- These chemicals make the fruit inedible.这些化学品使这种水果不宜食用。
- Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
- Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。
- birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
- The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Methods:Models were generate by CT scan,Mimics software and Abaqus software. 方法：采用CT扫描，Mimics软件和Abaqus软件的CAD进行三维有限元模型的创建。 来自互联网
- Relaxing the mind and body mimics the effect that some blood-pressure pills would have. 放松身心会产生某些降压药才能产生的效果。 来自辞典例句