字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Hippo Meat-Munching May Explain Their Anthrax Outbreaks / 河馬也吃肉

洪欣老師推薦：托福聽力最好的課外教材：60-Second Science

康康精選托福會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!

建議方法：

1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)

2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)

3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。

4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~

http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20161106sa_science.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：

Hippopotamuses. People usually think of them as massive, lumbering hulks of plant-eating muscle. Reports do crop up of hippos snacking on crocs or chowing down on a drowned wildebeest. Those anecdotes are often dismissed as aberrant behaviors—opportunistic protein snacks added to a diet made mostly of salad. But it turns out that hungry, hungry hippos intentionally seek out the sweet, sweet taste of animal flesh.

人們通常認為河馬是大型的食草性動物。也有關於河馬食用卡路馳或者咀嚼淹死羚羊的報導。但這些報導經常被當做異常行為而為人們所忽視——偶爾在沙拉中加一些蛋白質零食。但是事實證明，饑餓難耐的河馬會特意去尋找鮮美可口的肉食。

“We saw a bunch of wild dogs come and attack an impala, and the impala jumped into the water, tried to swim across the little lake, and the hippo killed it. Then a few minutes later, that hippo and a bunch of other hippos started eating on that impala.”

我們親眼看到一群野狗來攻擊黑斑羚羊，黑斑羚羊跳入河裡試圖遊過小湖，然後河馬將其殺害。幾分鐘之後，這只河馬和其他幾同類開始享受這頓盛宴。

University of Alaska research Joseph P. Dudley was in Zimbabwe studying elephants when he saw this scene play out more than 20 years ago.

阿拉斯加大學的研究員，Joseph P. Dudley20年前在辛巴威研究大象時，看到了上述的場面。

“About that time, the wild dogs caught and killed another impala right next to the edge of the water hole, and three hippos came out of the water and tried to take away the carcass of the impala, the antelope, from the wild dogs. As far as I had ever heard, hippos didn’t do either of these things.”

同時，那群野狗在湖邊捕殺了另外一隻羚羊，三隻河馬游出水中，試圖從野狗嘴中搶走黑斑羚羊的屍體。在這之前我沒聽過河馬會這樣。

We now know that carnivory is actually common among hippos. And meat-eating could explain what’s been a hippo public health mystery: anthrax outbreaks happen naturally among African herbivores, but the pattern of anthrax transmission in hippos has always puzzled researchers. Could their hankering for meat explain it?

現在我們知道，河馬主要以植物為食。但是食肉可以解釋河馬的健康之謎：炭疽熱在非洲的食草動物中爆發，但是河馬中炭疽的傳播途徑一直困擾著研究人員。河馬渴望肉食可以解釋這個謎團嗎?

Dudley’s latest research suggests that the hippos’ could owe their unique susceptibility to anthrax die-offs to their practice of eating meat that carries the infection—including the bodies of other dead hippos. The study is in the journal Mammal Review.

杜德利最新的研究表明，河馬易感染炭疽熱是因為它們經常食用攜帶病毒的肉食——如，其他河馬的屍體。該研究結果發表在《哺乳動物評估》雜誌上

And that means that humans who come into contact with hippo meat need to take care. At least 511 Zambians became infected, and five died, because they handled or consumed hippo meat during a 2011 anthrax outbreak among the amphibious mammals. That’s one advantage of being a vegetarian—for both hippos and humans.

這意味著，接觸到河馬肉的人員需要得到關注。至少511個尚比亞人感染，5人死亡。因為，在2011年，兩棲動物中爆發炭疽疫情時，這些人曾接觸或食用河馬肉。但是這也是素食性動物的，如人和海馬一大優點啊。