SSS 2008-09-18
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(九)月
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.
Breaking a mirror means seven years bad luck. So does spilling salt or meeting a black cat. We’ve all heard such silly-sounding superstitions 2. Of course why anybody would believe that stepping on a crack could break your mother’s back is a mystery. But according to an article in the Royal Society journal Biological Sciences, superstitious 3 behaviors are a natural product of evolution.
Imagine an animal living in an environment where, over the course of a day, he might hear some rustling 4 in the leaves or maybe in the grass. Now, movements in the grass could signal a predator 5 attack, whereas the breeze in the trees is probably just the wind. Still, the animal has a choice: he can ignore all this rustling and go about his business, or he can run and hide.
The most logical response would be to hide only when he hears the grass move. But what if it’s hard to tell whether the noise came from the grass or the trees? “I could’ve sworn that was the trees” could be his final thought. So the animal learns to bolt at the sound of the breeze, because it could foretell 6 certain doom 7. That better-safe-than-sorry attitude is essentially 8 a superstition 1. One that that cautious critter will likely pass on to his young. Knock on wood.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
- It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
- Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。
- Old superstitions seem incredible to educated people. 旧的迷信对于受过教育的人来说是不可思议的。
- Do away with all fetishes and superstitions. 破除一切盲目崇拜和迷信。
- They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。
- These superstitious practices should be abolished as soon as possible.这些迷信做法应尽早取消。
- The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
- Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。
- Willow trees breaking out into buds foretell the coming of spring.柳枝绽青报春来。
- The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。
- The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
- The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。
- Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
- She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。