在线英语听力室

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-16

时间:2016-08-16 08:59:35

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(单词翻译)

Sometimes a snout full of snot can be just what the doctor ordered. At least if you’re a dolphin. Because a new study shows that a little bit of mucus helps these marine1 mammals generate the rapid-fire stream of clicks they emit and use for echolocation.

医生叮嘱,至少如果你是只海豚,鼻子里要充满鼻涕。因为一项新的研究表明,一点粘液可以帮助这些海洋哺乳动物产生急速连续的咔哒声并利用回声进行定位。

First off, let’s just get this out of the way. Dolphins do not actually sound like this. [Flipper2 laugh sound] That’s a made-for-TV giggle3 that some say is actually the doctored call of a bird: the Australian kookaburra.

首先声明,海豚实际上并不能发出这样的声音。那种咯咯的笑声出自一部电视电影,有人说实际上是用鸟叫声来伪造的——澳大利亚笑翠鸟。

Real dolphins, like these bottlenoses, sound more like this. [Bottlenose sounds] They use their clicks, chirps4 and whistles to navigate5, communicate and to catch their next meal. The high-frequency clicks, in particular, help Flipper and his kind locate and track fish dinners.

真正的海豚,像这些宽吻海豚,听起来更像这样。它们通过发出的咔哒声、啾啾声、口哨声来进行导航、通讯和捕食。尤其是高频的咔哒声,可以帮助Flipper和它的同类进行定位,追踪晚餐。

Dolphins make these sounds by forcing air through a nasal passage just beneath the blowhole. In this nasal region are liplike flaps of tissue called dorsal6 bursae that vibrate and collide to produce dolphin talk.

海豚们迫使空气通过通气孔下方的鼻道,从而发出这种声音。鼻区有唇形片状瓣膜,被称为背黏液囊,通过振动和碰撞使海豚能够“讲话”。

Now, a team of researchers has created a simplified model that can reproduce this characteristic dolphin chatter7. And they found that the secret ingredient is snot.

现在,一组研究人员已经建立了一个简化的模型,可以重现海豚语这一特征。并且他们发现的秘密成分是鼻涕。

While looking through the literature, oceanographer Aaron Thode stumbled across a model that represented vocal8 cords as masses connected by springs—which store and release energy—and dampers, which dissipate that energy. This model successfully replicated9 the essential characteristics of the system, like the frequency of vocal cord vibration10.

在看文献时,海洋学家Aaron Thode偶然发现了一个模型:将声带看作由弹簧相连的集块——储藏和释放能量以及消散能量的阻尼器。这个模型很好地契合了发声系统的基本特征,如声带振动的频率。

So Thode enlisted11 his father Lester, a retired12 nuclear physicist13 from Los Alamos National Lab, to help him fit the model to a dolphin’s nasal anatomy14. When the Thodes compared the simulated sounds produced by their model to a recording15 of actual dolphins, they found that the model mimicked16 both the loud thump17 and extended ring that are part of the natural click.

因此,Thode让他的父亲加入其中,帮助他使这个模型与海豚的鼻部解剖相符合。他的父亲是洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室退休的核物理学家。当他们将模型产生的模拟声音与海豚真实录音进行比较时,他们发现,模型模拟的撞击声和回声,是海豚原咔哒声的一部分。

The initial thud comes from when those dorsal bursae collide. And the reverberation18 results from the vibrations19 that linger when the tissues pull apart. But Thode the younger says the bursae have to be somewhat sticky for the clapping together and snapping apart to produce a noise with the correct loudness and pitch. That stickiness comes courtesy of the mucus. Thode vocalized the results at the meeting of the Acoustical20 Society in Salt Lake City.

最初的声音来自背部黏液囊的碰撞。而持续的混响来源于组织分离时产生的振动。不过 Thode认为,黏液囊必须要有足够的粘性,一下靠拢又分开,才能产生这种声音并达到正确的音量和音高。这种粘性来自粘液,Thode在盐湖城的声学学会上发布了该研究成果。

The match between the simulated sounds and the real deal is encouraging, and the Thodes plan to keep up their collaboration21 to refine their model. “Yeah, I guess some fathers and sons bond over football, but my dad and I, I guess we bonded22 over differential equations and writing this paper.”

模拟声与海豚原声的匹配度激励着人们,Thodes打算继续协作,完善他们的模型。“是的,我认为某些父子的亲情因为足球而更加深厚,而我和我父亲,我想是因为微分方程和撰写这篇论文。”


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 marine 77Izo     
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵
参考例句:
  • Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
2 flipper flipper     
n. 鳍状肢,潜水用橡皮制鳍状肢
参考例句:
  • The seal's flipper is homologous with the human arm. 海豹的鳍肢与人类的手臂同源。
  • It's almost like a flipper action as she kicks down. 她向下踢腿时有鱼鳍的效果。
3 giggle 4eNzz     
n.痴笑,咯咯地笑;v.咯咯地笑着说
参考例句:
  • Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
  • All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。
4 chirps 6a10ab5f46899527c1988cd37ebb3054     
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的第三人称单数 ); 啾; 啾啾
参考例句:
  • The linnet chirps her vernal song. 红雀吱喳鸣叫着她春天的歌。
  • She heard nothing but the chirps and whirrs of insects. 除了虫的鸣叫声外,她什么也没听见。
5 navigate 4Gyxu     
v.航行,飞行;导航,领航
参考例句:
  • He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
  • Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。
6 dorsal rmEyC     
adj.背部的,背脊的
参考例句:
  • His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.它的脊鳍朝下耷拉着,巨大的胸鳍大张着。
  • The shark's dorsal fin was cut off by the fisherman.鲨鱼的背鳍被渔夫割了下来。
7 chatter BUfyN     
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战
参考例句:
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
8 vocal vhOwA     
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目
参考例句:
  • The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
  • Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。
9 replicated 08069c56938bbf6ddcc01ee2fd848af5     
复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 ); 重复; 再造; 再生
参考例句:
  • Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
  • The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。
10 vibration nLDza     
n.颤动,振动;摆动
参考例句:
  • There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
  • The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。
11 enlisted 2d04964099d0ec430db1d422c56be9e2     
adj.应募入伍的v.(使)入伍, (使)参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 );获得(帮助或支持)
参考例句:
  • enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
  • He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
12 retired Njhzyv     
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
参考例句:
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
13 physicist oNqx4     
n.物理学家,研究物理学的人
参考例句:
  • He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
  • The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。
14 anatomy Cwgzh     
n.解剖学,解剖;功能,结构,组织
参考例句:
  • He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面,他有过许多发现。
  • The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。
15 recording UktzJj     
n.录音,记录
参考例句:
  • How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间?
  • I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
16 mimicked mimicked     
v.(尤指为了逗乐而)模仿( mimic的过去式和过去分词 );酷似
参考例句:
  • He mimicked her upper-class accent. 他模仿她那上流社会的腔调。 来自辞典例句
  • The boy mimicked his father's voice and set everyone off laughing. 男孩模仿他父亲的嗓音,使大家都大笑起来。 来自辞典例句
17 thump sq2yM     
v.重击,砰然地响;n.重击,重击声
参考例句:
  • The thief hit him a thump on the head.贼在他的头上重击一下。
  • The excitement made her heart thump.她兴奋得心怦怦地跳。
18 reverberation b6cfd8194950d18bb25a9f92b5e30b53     
反响; 回响; 反射; 反射物
参考例句:
  • It was green as an emerald, and the reverberation was stunning. 它就象翠玉一样碧绿,回响震耳欲聋。
  • Just before dawn he was assisted in waking by the abnormal reverberation of familiar music. 在天将破晓的时候,他被一阵熟悉的,然而却又是反常的回声惊醒了。
19 vibrations d94a4ca3e6fa6302ae79121ffdf03b40     
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动
参考例句:
  • We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
  • I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了,她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
20 acoustical acoustical     
adj. 听觉的,声学的,音响学的
参考例句:
  • This system can set up acoustical resonances. 这种系统能产生共鸣。
  • The relevance of acoustical principles is by no means limited to sound and hearing. 声学原理并不仅仅适用于声音和听觉。
21 collaboration bW7yD     
n.合作,协作;勾结
参考例句:
  • The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
  • He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。
22 bonded 2xpzkP     
n.有担保的,保税的,粘合的
参考例句:
  • The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
  • This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

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