时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:初学者听力文摘精选


英语课

Fruit Flies Love Alcohol!

果蝇喜欢酒精!



When human females are pregnant, they’re advised to stay away from alcohol, for fear of harming the fetus 1. And most parents refrain from giving their infants bottles full of whiskey or beer, for obvious reasons.

当人类女性怀孕时,人们就会建议她们戒酒,以免伤害胎儿。大多数父母都不会给婴儿接触满瓶的威士忌或者啤酒,原因是显而易见的。



But if you’re a fruit fly, literally 2 dousing 3 your offspring in alcohol is apparently 4 one of the best ways to protect them from danger, particularly from certain types of wasps 6.

但如果你是一只果蝇,毫不夸张的说,你把后代浸没在酒精中是保护它们远离危险的最好办法之一,特别是这样能避免黄蜂的伤害。



How and why?

如何以及为什么要这样做?



Let’s back up a bit. First, certain types of wasps prey 7 on fruit flies by injecting eggs inside fruit fly larvae 8. Unless an infected larva kills the wasp 5 egg, it hatches and the wasp larva eats its way out from inside the fruit fly larva, killing 9 it.

让我们来回顾一下。首先,特定类型的黄蜂会将卵注入果蝇幼虫中,以捕食果蝇。除非受感染的果蝇幼虫杀死黄蜂卵,否则当黄蜂卵孵化出来后,黄蜂幼虫将会由内而外吞噬果蝇幼虫,将其杀死。



One way for fruit fly moms to protect against this gruesome fate is to lay their eggs in an alcohol soaked environment, such as fermenting 10 fruit, when they see that parasitic 11 wasps are around. Although alcohol is toxic 12 to fruit flies, it’s even more toxic to wasps, which, unlike fruit flies, have not evolved a high level of alcohol tolerance 13. So if the larvae eat enough alcohol rich food, it can kill the wasp egg and keep it from hatching.

果蝇妈妈为防止幼虫遭受厄运的其中一种办法是,当看到寄生蜂的出现时,将卵产在酒精浸泡的环境之中,例如发酵的水果里。尽管酒精对果蝇有毒,但酒精对黄蜂的毒性更大。与果蝇不同,黄蜂还没有进化成对高浓度酒精的耐受性。所以如果果蝇幼虫吃了足够富含酒精的食物后,它就可以杀死黄蜂卵并使之不能孵化。



Protecting young

保护果蝇幼虫



Apparently, fruit flies are not the only fly species to use alcohol to protect their young. In fact, it seems that most flies that eat rotting fruit use the alcohol defense 14 against wasps. So fruit flies are not unique in this regard, but they’re still mighty 15 impressive.

很明显,果蝇并不是利用酒精来保护幼虫的唯一的蝇类。实际上,大部分的苍蝇都会食用腐烂水果,利用酒精来防御黄蜂。所以果蝇在这方面并不独特,但它们仍然令人印象深刻。



1 fetus
n.胎,胎儿
  • In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
  • No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。
2 literally
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
3 dousing
v.浇水在…上( douse的现在分词 );熄灯[火]
  • The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. 另外一个蜘蛛在冲刷第二遍时才被发现,是个活蜘蛛。 来自互联网
  • At this point, the specimen can be shattered by dousing it with sterilized warm saline. 此时,可以用浸入温暖的消毒盐水的方法粉碎标本。 来自互联网
4 apparently
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
5 wasp
n.黄蜂,蚂蜂
  • A wasp stung me on the arm.黄蜂蜇了我的手臂。
  • Through the glass we can see the wasp.透过玻璃我们可以看到黄蜂。
6 wasps
黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 ); 胡蜂; 易动怒的人; 刻毒的人
  • There's a wasps' nest in that old tree. 那棵老树上有一个黄蜂巢。
  • We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. 我们不仅生活在对象蜘蛛或黄蜂这样的小虫的惧怕中,而且生活在对诸如飞蛾这样无害昆虫的惧怕中
7 prey
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨
  • Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
  • The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。
8 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。
9 killing
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
10 fermenting
v.(使)发酵( ferment的现在分词 );(使)激动;骚动;骚扰
  • The fermenting wine has bubbled up and over the top. 发酵的葡萄酒已经冒泡,溢了出来。 来自辞典例句
  • It must be processed through methods like boiling, grinding or fermenting. 它必须通过煮沸、研磨、或者发酵等方法加工。 来自互联网
11 parasitic
adj.寄生的
  • Will global warming mean the spread of tropical parasitic diseases?全球变暖是否意味着热带寄生虫病会蔓延呢?
  • By definition,this way of life is parasitic.从其含义来说,这是种寄生虫的生活方式。
12 toxic
adj.有毒的,因中毒引起的
  • The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
  • There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。
13 tolerance
n.宽容;容忍,忍受;耐药力;公差
  • Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
  • Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。
14 defense
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
15 mighty
adj.强有力的;巨大的
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
学英语单词
AAP (analyst assistance program)
air operating electric light
airbrushed
albizzin
amberized
antiartillery
autobike
balancing procedure
basal cell carcinoma of face
bearing holder
Bogatyrëvo
boot-leg
British Accounting Association
Brocard point
bucephala islandicas
Camellia parafurfuracea
carbon circuit breaker
centrifugal tar extractor
cinnabar moths
computer literacies
creepage distance
cushioned-seat coach
Darcy law of resistance
denomination currency
diddlysquats
discretionary wiring machine
double break contact
ductile fracture
dynamic balance test
e and m leads
ectopocystis
esophageal sarcoma
feareth
filsting
for-loop block
French type machinist's hammer
full-point
fuselis
hexachaetous
high frequency feeder
home monitoring
honeybush
impracticalities
intrinsicates
jeans' radiation law
kerb-crawlers
Kopites
Kārvāndar, Rūdkhāneh-ye
liability to outsiders
Lumsum
made mountains of molehills
magnetic isoanomalous line
malakoplakia of genitourinary system
male - pattern baldness
Mboula
microdosimetricspectra
microfilariae
Mitsuze-tōge
nasty-looking
non-contact magnetic recording
non-hazardous area
nonsister chromatids
officery
on all sides
opercular fold
perseverances
Piliophen
piquant sauce
Plexus venosus vesicalis
postdiction
precision thermometer
Puccinia scleriae
pulsus aequalis
radio frequency energy
rag-and-bone
reductios
retractable bit
reviviscible
rigger brush
ringing generator
sambas
SearchMash
sequential testing
single-phase three wire system
skandas
solar spectrum
songvid
spatial disequilibrium
squarenesses
stared out
Tar River
td.
think ... up
transabled
translation operation
tubularian
u-shaped adapter
upthrust bearing
vitamin K-1
VSIP
wall gecko
water-rot