字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Sick Ants Seek Out Medicinal Food 螞蟻也吃藥!
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
3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，是單字沒背過，還是單字發音不熟。
4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20150910sa_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：

We humans take medicine when we're sick. As do our primate cousins. Chimps, for example, snack on a bitter African shrub to combat intestinal worms. But the habit extends even to invertebrates. Take fruit flies—which sip alcohol to ward off parasitic wasps. Or wood ants, which line their nests with antifungal, antibacterial tree sap. Now researchers in Finland report that ants there that have encountered a pathogenic fungus appear to fight the infection by eating foods high in free radicals. Those are molecules with a talent for causing cell damage, in this case, to the cells of the fungus. That's according to a study in the journal Evolution.
我們生病的時候，會吃藥。靈長類的親戚也是這樣。例如，黑猩猩，它們會吃一種很苦的非洲灌木來抵抗腸道內的寄生蟲。同樣，無脊椎動物也有這樣的習慣。就說 果蠅吧——它們會吸酒精來抵禦寄生蜂。或是紅褐林蟻，將自己的巢穴建在抗真菌抗細菌的樹汁旁。現在芬蘭的研究人員們報導說螞蟻們遭遇到 病原性真菌的時候會通過吃含有富含自由基的食物來對抗真菌的感染。這些自由基分子 可是非常能夠損害細胞的，此種情況下，可是主要針對真菌的。

The researchers collected some 400 wild ants. They exposed some to the fungus, and left the rest alone. Then they offered up a sort of eggy custard—either plain, or laced with free radicals—in the form of hydrogen peroxide. Uninfected ants didn't want anything to do with the radical-rich food. Which makes sense.
研究人員們收集到大約400只野生螞蟻。它們有的被放在有真菌的環境裡，有的就單獨放著。然後研究人員們又提供給它們一種含有蛋液的奶凍——不是原味的就 是含有自由基的——自由基的口味就是添加了過氧化氫。沒有受到真菌感染的螞蟻並沒有表示想要吃含有自由基豐富的食物，這還是挺靠譜的。

「Exactly, I mean we don't take painkillers on a daily basis, or we don't take antimicrobial agents on a daily basis. Because that would have really severe side effects on the organism." Dalial Freitak, an insect immunologist at the University of Helsinki.
沒錯，我的意思是我們沒必要每天都吃止痛藥及便是沒有任何疼痛，或者我們沒必要每天都吃抗生素也是如此。因為那樣的話真的會對有機生命體 有十分嚴重的負作用。Dalial Freitak 是赫爾辛基大學的一名昆蟲免疫學家。

Sick ants, on the other hand, preferred the peroxide diet—even before developing a full-blown infection. And the medicine upped their odds of survival some 30 percent. "I would definitely go for it!"
生病的螞蟻，在另一方面，比較偏好吃過氧化的食物—— 即便是在出現完全感染的症狀前。並且這些藥物提升了它們 約30% 的存貨概率。如果是如此的話，我也會毫不猶豫的選擇吃藥!

As for free radicals in the wild? Dalial says ants might get them from the honeydew substance that aphids produce. Or decomposing corpses—another ant favorite. No word on whether they sometimes seek out antioxidants.
至於說在野外環境下從哪裡獲得自由基這個問題嗎?Dalial 說，螞蟻們也許會從蚜蟲製造的蜜汁底物中獲得吧。或者分解屍體——這是螞蟻們的另一項愛好。不知道是否它們哪天又要找抗氧化的藥了呢。