在线英语听力室

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-12

时间:2016-08-16 08:57:28

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(单词翻译)

Walk through Times Square—you're bombarded with advertising1. And it turns out, a bumblebee might have a similar feeling, buzzing through a field of flowers. "So these flowers are these billboards2, they're advertising a good, this delicious nectar reward, and bees are very picky shoppers." Anne Leonard, a pollination3 biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

走过纽约时报广场——广告不断地烦扰着你的生活。并且事实证明,熊蜂在嗡嗡地飞过花的海洋时,可能会有类似的感觉。“因此,这些花朵就像那些广告牌一样,它们在为这些美味的花蜜打广告,蜜蜂就是那些非常挑剔的消费者。雷诺内华达大学授粉生物学家,安妮·伦纳德说道。

She describes a flower field as a sort of pollination marketplace. And one way bees choose where to visit? "Bees are nectar experts. They are really good at assessing even really small differences in the sugar concentration of nectar." They also scope out flower shape and size, color and scent4. And now Leonard and her colleagues have discovered that bumblebees are pollen5 aficionados6, too.

她把花的海洋描述为一个授粉市场,蜜蜂选择去哪里采集花蜜的方法是什么?“蜜蜂是花蜜的专家。它们很擅长对花蜜进行评估,即使是花蜜糖的浓度存在微小的区别。”它们还能确定花的形状、大小、颜色和气味。现在伦纳德和她的研究团队发现熊蜂也是花粉爱好者。

They found that out by lacing batches7 of cherry pollen with either table sugar or bitter quinine. And to display the pollen to bees, "We got really into it—we started 3-D printing flowers in our lab." And for the anther—the male flower part, which presents the pollen—pipe cleaners. "So we bought out Michael's craft store supplies of these pipe cleaners and used them in our experiments."

他们通过给不同批次分别含有甜蔗糖、苦奎宁的樱桃花粉系上标签,并向蜜蜂展示来进行研究。“我们真的深入到这项研究中——我们开始在实验室3-D打印这些花朵。对于呈现出花粉的花药——花的雄性部分,我们使用清管器。因此我们买下了迈克尔工艺品店的清管器并在我们的实验中使用它们。

Turns out bees would return again and again to the same color flower that dispensed8 sweet pollen, and spend more time collecting there. But when confronted with the bitter pollen? They sought a different colored flower for their very next stop. All of which suggests that, in addition to savoring9 nectar, bees taste pollen too—and judge flowers by it. The results are in the journal Biology Letters. [Felicity Muth, Jacob S. Francis and Anne S. Leonard, Bees use the taste of pollen to determine which flowers to visit]

实验证明,蜜蜂会在相同颜色含有甜蔗糖花粉的花朵间重复往返,并且花费更多的时间来采集。但当遇到含有苦奎宁的花粉时呢?它们在下一次停留时将会寻找一种与之不同颜色的花朵。所有这一切表明,除了品味花蜜,蜜蜂也会品尝花粉的味道——并且通过花粉来判断花朵。该研究结果刊登在《生物学快报》(Biology Letters)杂志上。

The finding means that plants have to find a happy medium: "So can you make your pollen attractive enough that the bees will collect it, but distasteful enough that they won't collect too much of it?" And that balancing act, of carefully calibrated10 chemistry—it's just one of the many transactions that plays out in the buzzing pollination marketplace. Where the object is to make a sweet profit.

该发现意味着植物必须找到一个折中的办法:“所以你只有让你的花粉有足够的吸引力,蜜蜂才会进行采集,但不合口味的花粉,它们不会采集太多?”并且这一精确校准化学的自然运作——只是在嗡嗡地授粉市场中所表现出的众多交易中的一种。在该市场中,蜜蜂们旨在获得甜蜜的“利润”。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
2 billboards 984a8d026956f1fd68b7105fc9074edf     
n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
  • Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上,却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号
3 pollination FOGxH     
n.授粉
参考例句:
  • 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 scent WThzs     
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉
参考例句:
  • The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
  • The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。
5 pollen h1Uzz     
n.[植]花粉
参考例句:
  • Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
  • He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
6 aficionados 54e9eaccecb5f096c86d6db20d07e644     
n.酷爱…者,…迷( aficionado的名词复数 ); 爱看斗牛的人
参考例句:
  • West Coast aficionados of postwar coffee-shop architecture(Karal Ann Marling) 西海岸战后咖啡店式建筑的狂热追随者(卡拉尔安马林) 来自互联网
  • Clay developed a radical style which appalled boxing aficionados. 克莱发展出一种震惊拳击迷的全新风格。 来自互联网
7 batches f8c77c3bee0bd5d27b9ca0e20c216d1a     
一批( batch的名词复数 ); 一炉; (食物、药物等的)一批生产的量; 成批作业
参考例句:
  • The prisoners were led out in batches and shot. 这些囚犯被分批带出去枪毙了。
  • The stainless drum may be used to make larger batches. 不锈钢转数设备可用来加工批量大的料。
8 dispensed 859813db740b2251d6defd6f68ac937a     
v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 );施与;配(药)
参考例句:
  • Not a single one of these conditions can be dispensed with. 这些条件缺一不可。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage. 他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
9 savoring fffdcfcadae2854f059e8c599c7dfbce     
v.意味,带有…的性质( savor的现在分词 );给…加调味品;使有风味;品尝
参考例句:
  • Cooking was fine but it was the savoring that he enjoyed most. 烹饪当然很好,但他最享受的是闻到的各种味道。 来自互联网
  • She sat there for a moment, savoring the smell of the food. 她在那儿坐了一会儿,品尝这些食物的香味。 来自互联网
10 calibrated 6ac8922cd7bfd487c7dd1bd65d0f6191     
v.校准( calibrate的过去式和过去分词 );使标准化;使合标准;测量(枪的)口径
参考例句:
  • Power pesticide dusters can be calibrated and used to apply pertilizer. 动力杀虫剂可以调整用来施肥。 来自辞典例句
  • The flexible diaphragm is connected to a plat cantilever-calibrated spring. 柔韧的膜片一扁平的悬臂校正弹簧相连。 来自辞典例句

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