《《 語言學習始於聽力 》》
Speical English (慢速英語) 是 VOA(美國之音)為非英語國家的英語學習者推出的廣播節目,語速較慢,適合初級學習者模仿學習。
Transcript
Note: This may not be a word-for-word transcript
Cheryl Hayashibegan examining the body of a silver garden spider under her microscope. Usingtwo sets of tweezers, she soon found what she was looking for: hundreds of silkglands, the organs spiders use to make their webs.謝麗爾·林開始在顯微鏡下研究一隻銀色園蛛的身體。藉助兩套鑷子的幫助,她很快發現了她尋找的東西:數百個絲腺體,這是蜘蛛用來織網的器官。Eachgland lets a spider produce a different type of silk. They make so many kinds of silk! Hayashi said.That's just what boggles my mind.每個絲腺體會幫助蜘蛛產生一種不同的絲。林表示:"蜘蛛能產生好多種絲!而這就是困惑我的問題。"Hayashi's labat the American Museum of Natural History is studying the genes behind eachkind of silk. She has collected spider silk glands of about 50 species.林就職的實驗室隸屬於美國自然歷史博物館,該實驗室正在研究每種絲背後的基因。她收集了約50個物種的蜘蛛絲腺。The goal is tomake a kind of silk library, she said. The library could become animportant information resource for designing new products from space equipment toclothing.她說,目標是建造一個"蜘蛛絲圖書館"。這一圖書館可能成為重要的信息來源,用於設計涵蓋從太空設備到服裝等各個領域的新產品。However, thelibrary's work is far from complete. There are more than 48,000 spiderspecies known worldwide.然而,圖書館的工作遠未完成。目前全球已知的蜘蛛物種超過4。8萬種。Spider silksall start out in the same way: as a wet and sticky substance. It is likerubber cement or thick honey, as Hayashi describes it.蜘蛛絲的起源都是一樣的:一種又溼又黏的物質。根據林的描述,這種物質類似於橡膠膠水或黏稠的蜂蜜。Spiders makethe substance and store it in a gland until they want to make silk. Then,a short tube called a spigot opens.蜘蛛在絲腺中產生並儲存這種物質,直到其想製造蜘蛛絲。之後,短短的吐絲管開啟。As thesubstance flows out, it changes into a solid silk strand that joins with otherstrands coming from other spigots. Nobody knows how many kinds of spidersilks exist.隨著黏性物質的流出,其會變成一條結實的絲線,並與其它吐絲管中流出的絲線交織在一起。沒有人知道世上存在多少種蜘蛛絲。But, somespecies can produce many kinds. Orb-weaving spiders, for example, makeseven kinds.但是,有些蜘蛛物種可以產生許多種蜘蛛絲。比如,圓網蜘蛛能產生7種蜘蛛絲。Hayashi hasbeen studying spider silk for about 20 years. Only recently has improvedtechnology let scientists quickly study the genetic material, or DNA, ofspiders林研究蜘蛛絲已有20年的時間。直到最近,改進的技術才讓科學家得以迅速研究蜘蛛的遺傳物質或DNA,and producesynthetic spider silk in large amounts. Until recently, scientists had tofirst cut the glands' DNA into pieces.並大量生產人造蜘蛛絲。直到最近,科學家們還不得不先將絲腺的DNA切成碎片。They then useda computer to try to put the DNA back in order, like a jigsaw puzzle. Thetask is especially difficult for the DNA of spiders because their genes arevery long and repetitive.然後用電腦像拼圖一樣將DNA重新按序排好。就蜘蛛的DNA而言,這項任務尤其困難,因為蜘蛛的基因非常長,而且具有重複性。That is theproblem Sarah Stellwagen from the University of Maryland, Baltimore Countyfaced. She was studying genes, and DNA, related to spider silk.這是美國馬裡蘭大學巴爾的摩分校的莎拉·施特爾瓦根面臨的問題。她曾研究與蜘蛛絲有關的基因和DNA。She thought shecould do it quickly, but it took almost two years. Scientists have torecover the full gene to truly copy natural silk, she said.她本以為她能很快完成研究,但實際上她花費了近兩年的時間。她說,科學家必須還原完整的基因才能真正地模仿天然蛛絲。If they try toproduce silk from only part of a gene or something produced in alaboratory, it's not as good as what a spider makes, Stellwagen said.施特爾瓦根表示,如果他們嘗試僅用一個基因的一部分或實驗室製造的某種不完全版本來製造人造蜘蛛絲,"那就無法像蜘蛛產的絲那樣好"。It was onlylast year that a research group was able to make a small amount of silk thatperfectly matched the kind of silk that an orb-weaving spider danglesfrom. But that was only one kind of silk from one species.直到去年,一個研究小組才得以製造出少量與圓網蜘蛛吐出的絲完全吻合的人造蜘蛛絲。但這只是一種蜘蛛產生的一種蜘蛛絲。Hayashi asked:What about the other 48,000? As technology has improved, researchers cannow map genes much better without first chopping them up.林問道:"那其他4。8萬種呢?"隨著技術的進步,現在研究人員可以在不用先將基因切碎的情況下更好地了解基因。And companieshave gotten closer to successfully recreating spider silks. Now, the taskremains to discover the secrets of the thousands of other spider silks outthere, which is not easy.多家公司已經離成功重現蜘蛛絲越來越近。現在的任務依然是:探索其他數千種蜘蛛絲的秘密,而這項任務並不容易。But hey, youknow, we all have goals, Hayashi said. I'm John Russell.林說:"但是,嘿,我們都有目標。"約翰·拉塞爾報導。
第十六季 往期回顧
為上海中學生提供英語解決方案