为什么海龟喜欢吃塑料垃圾(1)（The Economist）

Turtles have an unfortunate habit of devouring plastic objects floating in the sea. These then get snared in their alimentary canals, cannot be broken down by the animals' digestive enzymes and may ultimately kill them.

     海龟有一个坏习惯，就是吞食漂浮在海里的塑料制品。然后这些东西会陷入消化道，无法被动物的消化酶分解，并最终可能致死。

Tips：

unfortunate habit坏习惯

devour：v. 吞食；毁灭

With that combination the fire exploded into a monster, devouring acres that had not burned in 40 years. (from CNN) 

这样的组合使火灾活像一个怪物, 吞噬40年来从未失火的土地。

YouTube videos on his campaign website show him expressing his love of learning and his desire to “devour your bloody library”. (From The Economist)

在他竞选网站连接的发布在YouTube网上的视频里，他说自己热爱学习，渴望“吞下整个图书馆”。

Snare：

n. （捕鸟、兽的）陷阱；圈套，**；（绷在小鼓下鼓皮的）响弦；（勒除息肉和增生）勒除器

v. 设陷阱（或罗网、套子）捕捉；诱捕（某人），使……上当

The charges may yet snare Ms Sasikala. (From The Economist) 

Ms Sasikala女士也可能陷入指控当中。

Still, for the unwary investor, Russia is a snare. Even old hands can be caught out. (From The Economist)

不过，对于粗心的投资者来说，俄罗斯是个陷阱。即使是老手也会遭遇不测情况。

I wanted to play snare drum in the Foxboro High School Marching Band, and it was a dream that I just had to accomplish. (From TED) 

我想要在校军乐队（Foxboro福克斯波罗高中）里打军鼓，十分想要实现这个梦想。

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. (From Psalms) 他必救你脱离捕鸟人的网罗和毒害的瘟疫。

alimentary：adj. 滋养的；食物的

alimentary tract/canal 消化道

alimentary system 消化系统

Which means that somewhere along the alimentary canal, the beetles dropped their bombs. (From Scientific American) 这表明甲虫在消化道的某个位置引爆了**。

canal：

n. [水运] 运河；隧道；管道；灌溉渠

n. (Canals)人名；(西、法)卡纳尔斯

v. 在…开凿运河

alimentary canals消化道

he Panama/Suez Canal 巴拿马╱苏伊士运河

an irrigation canal 一条灌溉渠

The canals take water to the fields.水渠把水送到田里。

break down 分解；发生故障；失败；毁掉；**

digestive enzymes消化酶

 It is widely assumed that this penchant for plastics is a matter of mistaken identity. Drifting plastic bags, for instance, look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat.

     人们普遍认为，这种对塑料的嗜好是一种错误的识别。例如，漂浮的塑料袋看起来就像许多海龟喜欢吃的水母。

Tips：

It is widely assumed that人们普遍认为

penchant：n. 嗜好；倾向

She has a penchant for champagne. 她酷爱香槟酒。

The President's personal aide, once a YouTube viral video star with a knack for trick throws of footballs and a reported penchant for online gambling, was sent packing soon after, but he landed a new gig at the Trump 2020 campaign. (From TIME)

不久之后，总统的私人助理，曾经的YouTube网红，能够把足球玩儿地天花乱坠，据说也是****的强烈爱好者，也被撵走了，但他还是在***2020竞选活动中找到了一份新职业。

mistaken identity错误的识别

jellyfish：n. 水母；[无脊椎] 海蜇；软弱无能的人

     Yet lots of plastic objects that end up inside turtles have no resemblance to jellyfish. Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida therefore suspects that something more complicated is going on.

     然而，海龟体内的许多塑料制品却与水母毫无相似之处。因此，佛罗里达大学的Joseph Pfaller怀疑，更复杂的事情正在发生。

Tips：

have no resemblance to 与......毫无相似之处

a striking/close/strong resemblance 明显的/不小的/显著的相似之处

family resemblances 亲缘相似

     As he writes in Current Biology, he thinks that the odour of marine micro-organisms which colonise floating plastic objects induces turtles to feed. The idea that the smell of plastic flotsam might lure animals to their doom first emerged in 2016.

     他在《Current Biology》中写道，海洋微生物附着在漂浮的塑料物体上，它们的气味诱使海龟进食。塑料垃圾的气味可能会导致动物灭亡的想法最早出现在2016年。

Tips：

odour n. 气味；声誉

Residents and medical staff report the smell of a foul odour as helicopters passed overhead. (From BBC)

当地居民和医务人员报告称，在直升机飞过头顶时，他们闻到了难闻的气味。

marine micro-organisms海洋微生物

colonise：

n. 殖民地化；移植

vt. 在…开拓殖民地；移于殖民地

vi. 开拓殖民地；移民于殖民地

So who did manage to colonise the South Pacific? (From BBC纪录片)那么究竟是哪些生物成功地占据了南太洋呢？

Curiously, some freshwater fish also spawn at sea and use the sea to help their larvae colonise rivers. (From BBC纪录片)

奇怪的是有些淡水鱼也在海中产卵，利用海洋帮助把它们鱼苗送到新的河流。

The whole thing will be capped off with the largest contest yet seen of " The Settlers of Catan" , in which 1,000 people will compete to colonise a fictional wilderness. (From The Economist)

整个游戏节将以迄今为止最大的比赛“卡坦岛”作为结束，到时将有1000人角逐殖民虚构荒野。

And through exposure to lots of things in our environment – that's family, pets, dirt and so on – young babies meet different bacteria for the first time which colonise – or live and grow in – their guts. (From BBC)

通过与周围环境中各种事物的接触，包括家人、宠物、尘土等等，幼婴会初次接触各种细菌，这些细菌以后将统治他们的肠道系统，也就是在其肠道中生存繁殖。

induce ：vt. 诱导；引起；引诱；感应

The agent is thus induced to work hard to find good clients. (From The Economist)这样，代理人就受到了努力发掘好客户的诱惑。

Increased uncertainty can induce a higher discount of those returns. (from CNN)

市场的不确定性增加可以引发更高的折扣回报。

But they would presumably not respond as rapidly as they do to the inducement of surge fares. (From The Economist)

但是他们对于需求的反应可能没有对价格上涨的诱惑反应快。

flotsam：n. 废料；（遇难船的）漂流货物；浮货；零碎物；无家可归者；失业流浪者

the human flotsam of inner cities 市中心贫民区无家可归、失业流浪的人

Now investigators are poring over a battered piece of flotsam that washed ashore on a beach on the island of Reunion. (From NPR音讯)

现在调查人员正在仔细研究被冲到留尼汪岛海滩上的一块毁损严重的漂浮物。

lure：

n. 诱惑；鱼饵；诱饵；诱惑物

vt. 诱惑；引诱

They are lured by grocers with the promise of savings, only to be fleeced. (From The Economist) 消费者被杂货商以省钱的许诺引诱，结果却被骗。

Few can resist the lure of adventure. 很少有人能抵御历险的诱惑力。

doom ：

n. 厄运；死亡；判决；世界末日

vt. 注定；判决；使失败

n. (Doom)人名；(泰)伦

The 300 people below deck were doomed. (From TED)

船舱里的300人在劫难逃。

All the schemes and intrigues are doomed to failure.

一切阴谋诡计都是注定要失败的。

In general, our infrastructure saves some animals and dooms others. (From TED)

总的来说，我们的基础设施拯救了一些动物，也毁灭了另一些动物。

Those who do not publish history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them. (From The Economist）那些不公布历史错误的人注定要重蹈覆辙。

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide, which are released into the air by micro-organism-colonised plastics, are those which many seabirds sniff to track down food.

加州大学戴维斯分校(University of California, Davis)的研究人员注意到，某些化学物质，尤其是由微生物定植的塑料释放到空气中的二甲基硫化物，是许多海鸟用来寻找食物的。

Tips：

certain chemicals某些化学物质

dimethyl sulphide二甲基硫化物

micro-organism-colonised plastics微生物占领的塑料

Seabird海鸟

track down查出；找到；追捕

She had spent years trying to track down her parents. (From BBC)

她已经花了多年试图找到她的父母。

The suspect left Germany soon after the incident, but was tracked down.

该嫌疑人在作案后不久就离开德国，但后来被追捕到了行踪。

Mr Sample also tracked down many of those involved, including Mr Higgs. (From The Economist)

桑普尔还追踪了许多有关人士，包括希格斯。

It's difficult to track down the trafficking because everything happens in the dark, she said. (From VOA) 很难追查到贩卖的线索，因为一切都是在暗中交易的。

     These chemicals mark good places to hunt because they indicate an abundance of the algae and bacteria that lie at the bottom of marine food chains. The researchers also found that birds which pursue their food in this way are five or six times more likely to eat plastic than those which do not. Since turtles are known to break the surface periodically and sniff the air when navigating towards their feeding areas

     这些化学物质标记了捕食的好地方，因为它们表明在海洋食物链的底部有大量的藻类和细菌。研究人员还发现，以这种方式捕食的鸟类比不以这种方式捕食的鸟类吃塑料制品的可能性要大5到6倍。众所周知，海龟在游向觅食区域时，会周期性地破开水面，并嗅空气中的气味。

Tips：

mark：既可以作动词，也可以作名词

污点；污渍；斑点；疤痕

（人或动物身上有助于识别的）斑点，记号，色斑

符号；记号；（显示质量、所有者等的）标记

（品质或情感的）标志，迹象，表示

成绩；分数；等级

（重要的）水平，标准点，指标

型号（机器；车辆）

燃气挡；温度刻度

目标；靶子

His comments mark a change from some of his recent statements. (From VOA)

他的评论与最近发表的一些言论有所出入。

A large purple scar marked his cheek. 他的面颊上有一块大紫疤。

The route has been marked in red. 路线用红色标明了。

This speech may mark a change in government policy.

这篇演讲表明government的政策可能会有变化。

The children left dirty marks all over the kitchen floor.

孩子们把厨房的地板弄得污渍斑斑。

a burn/scratch mark 一块灼伤的/抓伤的疤痕

He could also see the half healed puncture marks to his forearm. (From Harry Potter) 哈利也看到了前臂上蛇的牙齿刺穿的伤口好了些了。

Detectives found no marks on the body. 侦探没有在尸体上发现任何痕迹。

a horse with a white mark on its head 头上有块白斑的马

He was about six feet tall, with no distinguishing marks .

他身高约六英尺，没什么特别的记号。

punctuation marks 标点符号

Any piece of silver bearing his mark is extremely valuable.

带有他的印记的每一件银器都极有价值。

I put a mark in the margin to remind me to check the figure.

我在页边做了个记号来提醒我核对一下这个数字。

On the day of the funeral businesses remained closed as a mark of respect . 葬礼那天，各行业都停业以示敬意。

Such coolness under pressure is the mark of a champion.

在压力下仍能这样保持冷静，这就是冠军相。

to give ** a high/low mark 给某人高╱低分

Unemployment has passed the four million mark. 失业人数已突破四百万大关。

She was leading at the half-way mark. 赛程到一半时是她领先。

the Mark II engine II型发动机

Preheat the oven to gas Mark 6. 将烤箱预热到6挡。

Of the blows delivered, barely half found their mark. 仅有不到半数的出拳击中目标。

to hit/miss the mark 击中╱未中目标

an abundance of 大量的

Algae：n. [植] 藻类；[植] 海藻

bacteria：n. [微] 细菌

food chains食物链

Periodically：adv. 定期地；周期性地；偶尔；间歇

sniff：

vt. 嗅；闻；用力吸；发觉

vi. 嗅；嗤之以鼻

n. 吸，闻；嗤之以鼻；气味；以鼻吸气；吸气声

Now a pack of startups has sniffed a fresh opportunity. (From The Economist)

现在，一群创业公司已经嗅到了商机。

There are conservation detection dogs, trained to sniff out elusive and threatened species. (From VOA)

有些保护探测犬，是被训练用来嗅探那些难以捉摸的濒临灭绝的物种。

navigate：v. 导航；航行，驾驶；找到正确的应对方法；（在互联网上）浏览；（艰难地）走过；（尤指穿过人群）带人找路

The drugs navigate throughout all of your body. (From TED)

化疗的药物通过整个身体。

From there, customers are given a map to help navigate the store. (From VOA)

然后，游客们会获得一张地图，引导他们到处逛。

feeding areas 觅食区域

    Dr Pfaller theorised that they are following these same chemicals, and are likewise fooled into thinking that floating plastic objects are edible.

     因此，Pfaller博士推断，海龟也在遵循着这些相同的化学物质，而且同样会误以为漂浮的塑料物体是可以食用的。

Tips：

theorise：

vi. 建立理论

vt. 使理论化

Psychologists theorise that the well-documented tendency of humans to categorise almost every piece of information they come across is a survival mechanism that evolved to aid quick decision making. (From The Economist)心理学家推论，人类把遇到的几乎每条信息都进行分类并存档完好，这种倾向是一种生存机制，它的进化有助于快速作出决策。

be likewise fooled into thinking that误以为

edible：

n. 食品；食物

adj. 可食用的

Numerous other edible products have their regional names protected but why is it so important? (From BBC)

很多其他可食用的产品也保护了自己的原产地名，为什么这种保护很重要呢？

Let's face it, when there were so many other edible treats to enjoy, why eat boring veg? (From BBC) 面对现实吧，有那么多好吃的食物，为什么还吃那些难吃的蔬菜呢？