时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:2017年Scientific American(二)月


英语课

Pesticide 1 Additive 2 Could Be One Culprit in Bee Deaths


农药添加剂是蜜蜂死亡的一大诱因


Springtime is flower season. And that includes some 90 million almond trees in California. It's the largest pollination 3 event in the U.S.—and beekeepers truck in two thirds of the nation's captive honeybees to do the job. But for the last decade or so, the keepers have complained about failing colonies, with underdeveloped bees ejected from their hives.


春天是百花开放的季节。这当然包括加利福尼亚约900万棵的杏树。这是美国规模最庞大的授粉事件。养蜂人用该国家2/3的蜜蜂来做这项工作。但是,在过去十年,这些养蜂人抱怨道,蜜蜂数量下降,原因是一些未充分发育的蜜蜂被赶出蜂巢。


Now a study identifies one possible culprits. Not a pesticide, but one of the many ingredients used alongside them. "So these are added into a formulation to enhance the efficacy of the active ingredients." Julia Fine, an entomologist at Penn State. "It's just called "other ingredients" and they often are the bulk of the formulated 4 product."


现在一项研究确定了可能的罪魁祸首。不是农药,而是很多农药中所有的一种成分。“这些成分添加到农药中以提高农药的有效性。”茱莉亚·法恩是宾州州立大学的昆虫学家。“我们通查将它称之为“其他成分”,并且在很多产品中都包含这些成分。”


The chemical in question is known as an organosilicone surfactant. Fine and her colleagues fed the chemical to honeybee larvae 5 over time, and exposed them to a cocktail 6 of common beehive viruses. And they found that larvae exposed to the chemical and the viruses together appeared to die in greater numbers than did bees exposed to the viruses or the chemical alone—a possible synergistic effect. And the symptoms they saw mirrored the ones beekeepers observed in their hives. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.


存有问题的化学成分是一种有机硅表面活性剂。法恩和她的同事们长时间以来,将这样物质喂给这些蜜蜂的幼虫。并让这些幼虫接触各种常见蜂巢病毒,结果她们发现,接触这种化学成分以及病毒的幼虫的死亡数量远远大于仅接触这种化学成分或者病毒的幼虫——这可能是一种综合效应。研究人员所看到的症状反应了养蜂人在蜂巢中观察到的现象。该研究结果发表在《科学报告》杂志上。


Fine and her team still have to determine how much of these chemicals actually make it into the bees' food. But they do know hundreds of thousands of pounds of them are used in almond orchards 7 each year. And elsewhere. "Agriculture is just one use for organosilicone surfactants. It's all over the place. So if we can find it has any effect in an organism, it will be relevant."


法恩和她的团队还必须确定有多少化学物质成为了蜜蜂的食物。但是,结果发现每年有大量的这些化学物质用于杏园子。以及其他地方。“不仅仅是农业应用有机硅表面活性剂。这种物质到处都是。如果我们发现,它对有机物产生影响,那么就存在相关性。”



1 pesticide
n.杀虫剂,农药
  • The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
  • This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。
2 additive
adj.附加的;n.添加剂
  • Colour is often an additive in foods.颜料经常是各种食物中的添加物。
  • Strict safety tests are carried out on food additives.对食品添加剂进行了严格的安全检测。
3 pollination
n.授粉
  • The flowers get pollination by insects.这些花通过昆虫授粉。
  • Without sufficient pollination,the growth of the corn is stunted.没有得到充足的授粉,谷物的长势就会受阻。
4 formulated
v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 );规划;确切地阐述;用公式表示
  • He claims that the writer never consciously formulated his own theoretical position. 他声称该作家从未有意识地阐明他自己的理论见解。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This idea can be formulated in two different ways. 这个意思可以有两种说法。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
5 larvae
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。
6 cocktail
n.鸡尾酒;餐前开胃小吃;混合物
  • We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
  • At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上,人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。
7 orchards
(通常指围起来的)果园( orchard的名词复数 )
  • They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园,把平地变成了粮仓。
  • Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。
学英语单词
abbondanza
acceleration from rest
accidental resemblance
activator-dissociation system
aeacides
Alma Center
araucaria families
atmospheric-pressure counter
attached storage
average information matrix
bending length
boatswain's chair
charle's law
corrosive bittern brine
database indexed search
deteriorative change
dielectric drier
divcom
Dunaujvaros
electromagnetic starter
exogastric
exoperidium
external fixation of fracture
farceuses
filipe
flagellants
floating sleeve
foul-air flue
freelancers
ftn
Fūlādābād
goucher
hand sth round
hobits
hot secondary air
if i live to be a hundred
in stereo
in the schools
internal transference
lifespeed
limiting power
liquid-solid cyclone
low roller
Madeleine, Monts.de la
maholi
midget socket
minimum-delay coding
minispread
mode expander
modifier formula
network intrusion detection systems
non-reciprocal trade preference
Nordurandron
of fixation line
oil-bearing sand
Oxypinone
peachblow
phancifull
photo opportunist
piping bag
planetary spacecraft
potestatems
ppes
Primula sinuata
prober interface
qualitative description
quantized interval
quiet arc
rodnina
sampled data computer
scinaia pseudojaponica
scollon
secure against
self-incriminations
sensitizing dose
sound profile
stomias nebulosus
storage economy
stretchless
sun si-miao
syntaxical
systematic fashion information
tachyglossid
the cultivation of tress
the Sons of the Revolution
thorium halide
three graces
top-end
tunicae vagfnalis propria testis
turn of winding
Ubon Ratchathani, Changwat
unipoint
unstable frame
virtual channel link
watergas
Wawasee, L.
wedge dislocation
wing-tip
word load
yuen long
zilberstein