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科学美国人60秒 SSS 无犁也来把田耕

时间:2017-07-06 06:17:36

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(单词翻译)

Field Study: Worms Leave 'Til No-Till 无犁也来把田耕

Charles Darwin is, most famously, the author of The Origin of Species. But the last book he ever wrote gets far less attention today. It's called The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms. And earthworms were a passion: he wrote about their habits, their soil-tilling abilities, and even kept pots of worm-filled soil in his study.

查尔斯·达尔文是著名书籍《物种起源》的作者。然而,他写的最后一本书在当今却不那么引人注意。这本书名为《腐殖土的形成和蚯蚓的作用》。蚯蚓于他是一种激情:他在书中描述它们的习性、它们的耕作能力、甚至还在研究中培育了许多盆满是蚯蚓的泥土。

But his fascination1 was met with ridicule2 by some. "There's a famous cartoon where Darwin as an old man is in the middle. He evolves from monkeys and the monkeys evolved from earthworms."

但他对此的痴迷却遭到了一些人的嘲笑。“有一幅著名的漫画,漫画中达尔文被描绘成一个老人。他从猴子进化而来,而猴子则是从蚯蚓进化而来的。”

Olaf Schmidt is a soil ecologist at University College Dublin. And not among those who would criticize Darwin for his interests. "I love earthworms, earthworms are brilliant. They're our friends, they're really important."

奥拉夫·施密特是都柏林大学的一名土壤生态学家。他没有因达尔文对蚯蚓的兴趣而批判他。“我喜欢蚯蚓,蚯蚓很聪明。它们是我们的朋友,而且它们真的很重要。”

One particularly interesting group of worms, he says, are the so-called "anecic" worms: the deep soil dwellers3. "They live all their life in a single vertical4 channel in the soil. And at night they surface," looking for food—manure, straw, stuff like that, "and they pull it into their channels."

他说,有一种被称为“anecic”的蚯蚓特别有趣:它们居住在深层土壤中。“它们一生都生活在土壤中的一个垂直的通道里。到了晚上,它们才会出来,”寻找稻草之类的肥料食用,“它们还会把食物拉到自己居住的通道里。”

They're big boys. Which makes them especially vulnerable to the plow5. "Because they're so big, so they're chopped, exposed to birds, and their channels are destroyed."

它们个头都比较大。这使得它们特别容易被耕地的犁伤到。“因为它们太大了,所以会被砍被斩,并暴露给以它们为食的鸟类,它们居住的通道也会被毁。”

Schmidt and his colleague Maria Briones analyzed6 the relationship between tilling and the health of a dozen species of earthworms. They looked at 65 years'-worth of farm field studies, spanning the globe.

施密特和他的同事玛利亚·布里奥尼斯(Maria Briones)分析了耕作与十多种蚯蚓的健康之间的关系。他们研究了全球范围内耕作价值可达65年的耕地。

And they found that in heavily plowed7 fields, half the earthworms had disappeared. But when farmers switched to no-till or conservation agriculture, worm populations wriggled8 back to normal numbers after about a decade. The study is in the journal Global Change Biology.

他们发现在耕作量大的土地中,一半蚯蚓都消失了。但是当农民们转向实行免耕或保护性农业时,约十年后蚯蚓的数量就会回到正常数量。这项研究发表于《全球变化生物学》杂志。

"The plow," Darwin wrote, "is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms." And, Schmidt says, just as the worms look after the soil, the flip9 side's true, too. "If you look after the soil, you also look after the earthworms. So it is a good-news story."

“犁,”达尔文写道,“是人类最古老且最有价值的发明之一。但是,在它还未存在之前,土地就已经被蚯蚓定期地耕作了,而且这种耕作还会继续下去。”施密特说,就像蚯蚓照料土壤一样,反之亦然。“如果你照料了土壤,那你同时也照料了蚯蚓。所以这是件双面利好的事。”


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 fascination FlHxO     
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋
参考例句:
  • He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
  • His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。
2 ridicule fCwzv     
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄
参考例句:
  • You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
  • Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。
3 dwellers e3f4717dcbd471afe8dae6a3121a3602     
n.居民,居住者( dweller的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 vertical ZiywU     
adj.垂直的,顶点的,纵向的;n.垂直物,垂直的位置
参考例句:
  • The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
  • Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。
5 plow eu5yE     
n.犁,耕地,犁过的地;v.犁,费力地前进[英]plough
参考例句:
  • At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
  • We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后,我们将马上耕田。
6 analyzed 483f1acae53789fbee273a644fdcda80     
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析
参考例句:
  • The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程,因为对他来说,爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 plowed 2de363079730210858ae5f5b15e702cf     
v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 );犁耕;费力穿过
参考例句:
  • They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
  • He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土,然后播种。 来自辞典例句
8 wriggled cd018a1c3280e9fe7b0169cdb5687c29     
v.扭动,蠕动,蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 );(使身体某一部位)扭动;耍滑不做,逃避(应做的事等)
参考例句:
  • He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
9 flip Vjwx6     
vt.快速翻动;轻抛;轻拍;n.轻抛;adj.轻浮的
参考例句:
  • I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书,看来似乎很有趣。
  • Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

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