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
about facing
acoustic output unit
ancillary relief
angle of collimation
animal protection
annect
aporina delafondi
arch-abdomen dam
automatic diesel generating set
bacillus
bathypelagic fauna
blazed grating
bourbon red turkey
breakevens
cabbeling
calibration error
Castelan
chaulmoogrol
cobbling
combining capacity
Corlea
creedy
cullar de baza
data reconciliation
deadhand
deck load certification
dissolved pore
Dormigca
esquire
European thimbleweed
evaders
exchange traded product
executing block
faddity
float grass
format line
frequency multiplier circuit
Gaiaist
give heart to
hydraulic hitch system with unloading function
Hyphochytriomycota
in a word
irreducible algebraic equation
Kocher fracture
Kodisjoki
labial laminae
laser head assembly
lasting machine
least significant byte
libriums
lie in someone's way
line key
local thermal runaway
lone-pairs
Mamabula
Maxwellisation
microstelma japonica
mueshihange
navire
off board price
oil quenching bath
order and confirmation
orthoguarinite
parrot's peach
pastry store
pat down
PHLA
Pleasanton
post-tragus
potassium content
price waterhouse&co.
product assurance
pseudothiourea
Ranunculus oreionannos
re-copper
recovery phase
rootogram
sashless
scheeles
scraper roller
senescence phase
silicon dioxide powder
solid-state study
spelaeologies
staypole
straw ware
synchronized wave
tawz
telecommunications facility provider
theory of pay
time trials
to maintain
transbooster
transmitted pulse envelope
trapezoidal steel box girder
treux
tunica adventitia (vesicul? seminalis)
umbrella convention
unit connection
wind-fallen
wing-control missile
word power