英语听书《海底两万里》第309期 第23章 珊瑚王国(6)

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　　It's in this last that precious coral belongs, an unusual substance that, at different times, has been classified in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms.  珊瑚属于珊瑚科，是一种奇怪的东西，曾经先后被分人矿物、植物和动物类。

　　Medicine to the ancients, jewelry¹ to the moderns, it wasn't decisively placed in the animal kingdom until 1694, by Peysonnel of Marseilles. 在古代它是治病的药方，在近代是装饰的珍宝，一直封1694年：，马赛人皮桑尼尔才明确地把它们作为动物分类。

　　A coral is a unit of tiny animals assembled over a polypary that's brittle² and stony³ in nature.  珊瑚是一群聚集在易碎的和石质伪珊瑚树上的微生物的总体。

　　These polyps have a unique generating mechanism⁴ that reproduces them via the budding process, and they have an individual existence while also participating in a communal⁵ life.  这些珊瑚虫有一种独特的繁殖力，像枝芽滋生一样，它们有自己本身的生命，同时又有共同的生命，

　　Hence they embody⁶ a sort of natural socialism.  所以这种情形好像是一种自然的社会主义；

　　I was familiar with the latest research on this bizarre zoophyte 我知道最近关于这种奇怪的植虫动物的研究结果，

　　which turns to stone while taking on a tree form,  照生物学家的很正确的观察，

　　as some naturalists⁷ have very aptly observed-and nothing could have been more fascinating to me than to visit one of these petrified⁸ forests that nature has planted on the bottom of the sea. 珊瑚虫在分支繁殖中就起矿化作用，对我来说，去参观大自然种植在海底下的一处石质森林，实在是最有兴趣不过的了。

　　We turned on our Ruhmkorff devices and went along a coral shoal in the process of forming, which, given time, will someday close off this whole part of the Indian Ocean.  兰可夫探照器使用起来，我们沿着正在形戌的珊瑚层走去，这些珊瑚脉经过相当的时间，有一夭将要把印度洋的这一部分海面封闭起来。

　　Our path was bordered by hopelessly tangled⁹ bushes, formed from snarls¹⁰ of shrubs¹¹ all covered with little star-shaped, white-streaked flowers.  路旁尽是错杂的小珊瑚树所形成的混乱的珊瑚树丛，枝权上遮满白光闪闪的星状小花。

　　Only, contrary to plants on shore, these tree forms become attached to rocks on the seafloor by heading from top to bottom. 不过，跟陆地上的植物正相反，固定在海底岩石上的珊瑚树的枝权，全是从上到下发展的。

　　Our lights produced a thousand delightful¹² effects while playing over these brightly colored boughs¹³.  灯光在色彩很鲜艳的枝叶中间照来照去，发生无穷的美丽迷人的景象。

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