美式发音 适合精听
阳光、空气,开花、结果,蜜蜂、蝴蝶。
这些都是多么美好的东西,随处可见,而且分文不取。但如果说,有一天,这些美好可能会不再唾手可得、理所当然,你会说这是天方夜谭吗?
现在,全球各地都在讨论全球变暖,我们不得不承认阳光和空气可真要出状况了。如今又说,一直籍籍无名、无私奉献的小蜜蜂也面临危机了,我们还能坐得住吗?
It’s a tiny animal making big headlines. The honeybee. It’s a 1)cornerstone of the environment, essential to our food supply. But around the world, the honeybee is disappearing.
November 2006. David Hackenberg opened his hives to find 70% of his bees had vanished. David rushed several dying colonies to Pennsylvania’s acting state beekeeper, Dennis van Engelsdorp.
By early spring, the phenomenon has a name—Colony 2)Collapse Disorder, CCD.
As CCD wipes out hives across the U.S., reports of similar mass bee losses pour in from overseas. Bees vanish in Italy, Poland, Portugal, in Central and South America.
The case of the vanishing bees is at the 3)forefront of a much larger crisis. Not just bees, but all 4)pollinating animals have been disappearing for decades.
Bees and butterflies don’t usually make the headlines. But scientists warn that the steady decline in bees and other pollinators could trigger a crisis bigger and more immediate than global warming.
Dennis and his team conduct 5)forensic 6)autopsies on up to 100 bees a day. Right from the beginning, they’re stunned by what they discover. The investigations lead to another stunning 7)revelation—fungi growing in the bees’ tissue are similar to samples found in humans with suppressed 8)immune systems. It could be that bees have been weakened by an insect virus similar to AIDS.
9)Pesticides are another key suspect in the CCD investigation. And one country in Europe provides a perfect case study into how bees are affected by these 10)controversial chemicals.
The French battle over pesticides began in the early ’90s, when farmers used a new brand of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Not long afterward, the bees began to disappear.
Studies have proven that many pesticides are highly toxic to bees. But even in areas where no pesticides are sprayed, bees are still disappearing.
小动物要成为大新闻了。那就是——蜜蜂。蜜蜂是环境的基石,是粮食供应的根本。但在全球各地,蜜蜂却日渐消失。
2006年11月,大卫·哈肯贝格打开蜂箱,竟发现7成的蜜蜂消失无踪。大卫赶紧将若干垂死的蜂群送交宾夕法尼亚州蜂农协会代理主席丹尼斯·范·恩格斯多尔普。
到了初春的时候,这个现象有了一个名称——蜂群衰竭失调症(CCD)。
CCD横扫美国蜂群期间,海外也传来大批蜜蜂消失的类似报告。意大利、波兰、葡萄牙和中南美洲也有蜜蜂消失。
蜜蜂消失的案例揭开了更为重大的危机的序幕。不只是蜜蜂,各种授粉动物也在这数十年间逐渐消失。
蜜蜂和蝴蝶很少成为新闻头条。但科学家们警告,蜜蜂和其他授粉昆虫数目的持续减少,会引发比全球暖化更为重大、更为迫切的危机。
丹尼斯及其团队每天对多达100只蜜蜂进行解剖化验。在实验之初,他们就对研究的发现深感震惊。调查还有另一项惊人发现,蜜蜂体内组织里生长的真菌与人类免疫系统不全病患体内的真菌十分相似。蜜蜂体弱多病可能是由一种类似于艾滋病毒的昆虫病毒所引起的。
杀虫剂是CCD调查中的另一个重大嫌疑对象。对于这些具争议性的化学物质如何危害到蜜蜂,有一个欧洲国家可以提供一个绝佳的研究范例。
法国的这场杀虫剂大战起于上世纪90年代初,当时农户使用一种叫做“新烟碱类杀虫剂”的新型杀虫剂。不久之后,蜜蜂就开始消失了。
1) cornerstone [5kC:nEstEJn] n. 墙角石，基础
2) collapse [kE5lAps] n. 崩溃，虚脱
3) forefront [5fC:frQnt] n. 最前部，最前线
4) pollinate [5pɒlIneIt] v. 对……授粉
5) forensic [fE5rensIk] a. 法院的，适于法庭的
6) autopsy [5C:tɒpsI] n. （为查明死因而做的）尸体解剖，验尸
7) revelation [7revI5leIFEn] n. 显示，揭露
8) immune [I5mju:n] a. 免疫的
9) pesticide [5pestIsaId] n. 杀虫剂
10) controversial [7kɒntrE5vE:FEl] a. 争论的，争议的
Andalusia, Spain. Spain has the highest number of commercial beekeepers in Europe, with the most businesses at risk from CCD.
The Spanish team doesn’t believe the CCD investigation will isolate a single cause of the outbreak. They contend that a whole 11)conspiracy of forces, from pesticides to 12)parasites to poor nutrition, have created a 13)perfect storm, weakening the bees, leaving them vulnerable to 14)infection.
And back in New York, the CCD working group has had a breakthrough. DNA tests have isolated a single suspect. It’s a virus that until now was found only in Israel, called IAPV—Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. The group believes they’re found the 15)culprit.
Scientists will now begin working to understand the virus, and to develop a way to fight it. One plan is to use 16)aggressive “17)Africanized bees” to engineer a new breed of superbee, resistant to all kinds of disease.
Whatever methods they develop to fight the virus, scientists stress that bees are up against more than a single threat.
Although the bees’ future is uncertain, Colony Collapse Disorder has ensured that this extraordinary animal will no longer be taken for granted.
Diana Cox-Foster (Entomologist): I think we should be concerned, as a world, about what is happening. People are saying, “Well, we could get by, eating wheat and corn and that, ” but yes, but that, we would lose everything else that makes life so special.
许多研究都已经表明很多杀虫剂对蜜蜂都有很高的毒性。但有些地区即使没有喷洒杀虫剂,蜜蜂也在消失。
西班牙的安大路西亚。西班牙是欧洲商业蜂农最多的国家,那里因为受到CCD的影响而岌岌可危的行业也最多。
西班牙的研究团队认为CCD的调查结果显示其疫情的爆发并非是由单一的原因造成的。他们认为是多重因素共同作用的结果:从杀虫剂到寄生虫,再到营养不良,形成一场“终极风暴”,使得蜜蜂身体衰弱,容易受到感染。
而在纽约,CCD研究团队有了重大突破。DNA检验已经隔离出单一的可疑元凶。这种病毒名为IAVP(以色列急性麻痹病毒),此前只出现在以色列。此团队相信他们已经找到了元凶。
科学家们现在开始努力了解这种病毒,并研发抵抗此病毒的方法。其中一个方案就是用凶猛的“非洲化蜜蜂”来培育新品种的超级蜜蜂,以抵抗各种疾病。
但无论研发何种方法来抵御病毒,科学家们都强调蜜蜂绝不只是面临一种威胁。
虽然蜜蜂的前途难料,蜂群衰竭失调症却使这种非凡的动物不再被人认为是理所当然的。
戴安娜·考克斯-福斯特(昆虫学家):我想我们全世界的人都应该关注如今发生的这个问题。有人说:“噢,我们光吃小麦和谷类都可以过活。”话说的是没错,但那样的话,我们就会失去所有其他令生活如此美妙的东西。
11) conspiracy [kEn5spIrEsI] n. 共谋，阴谋
12) parasite [5pArEsaIt] n. 寄生虫，食客
13) perfect storm 指的是每一个孤立的坏情况并不至于影响大局，但碰巧所有坏情况同时发生，就会对大局产生严重影响。
14) infection [In5fekFEn] n. [医]传染，感染
15) culprit [5kQlprIt] n. 肇事者
16) aggressive [E5^resIv] a. 好斗的，侵略性的
17) Africanized bee 非洲化蜜蜂，又称“杀人蜂”，指非洲塞内加尔蜂与欧洲蜜蜂杂交产生的蜜蜂，其特点是繁殖力强、抵抗力强，但性情凶暴，好攻击。