字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Plastic Pollution Perturbs Oyster Offspring 塑料污染影響牡蠣後代

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/voas…/2016/20160216sa_earth.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：
As many as 12 million tons of plastic waste end up in the world's oceans every year, according to a 2015 estimate in the journal Science. Over time, wind and waves grind and chew that plastic trash into tiny bits of what's called "microplastic"— which happen to be about the same size and shape as the micro algae that filter feeders like oysters snack on. Meaning oysters can ingest it.
根據2015年《科技》雜誌估計，每年有1200萬的塑料垃圾投擲到世界海洋。隨著時間的推移，風和海浪的研磨、咀嚼，這些塑料垃圾就變成了極小的“微塑 料”——而這些微塑料的大小以及形狀和牡蠣這些濾食性動物所食用的微型海藻的大小相同。這也就意味著牡蠣可以消化這些微型塑料。

To find out the effects of consuming the debris, researchers at the French Institute for Ocean Studies raised oysters in water polluted with plastic microbeads, in concentrations similar to those observed in field studies. The shellfish sucked up the six-micrometer-wide plastic particles extremely efficiently—as they evolved to do with the tiny algae.
為了研究牡蠣消化這些塑料殘骸的影響，法國海洋研究所的研究人員用被塑料粒子污染過的水飼養牡蠣，污水中塑料粒子的濃度和現場研究的濃度相似。這些貝類能非常有效的消化吸收這些6微米寬的塑料粒子——因為牡蠣利用這些微小的藻類進化。

Two months later, the oysters exposed to microplastics produced half as many eggs and slower swimming sperm than did oysters that fed on algae alone. Perhaps, the researchers say, because plastic interferes with the oysters' energy uptake. And the offspring of the plastic- eaters were also smaller and slower-growing than the progeny of control oysters. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
兩個月後，與僅食用藻類的牡蠣相比，食用微型塑料的牡蠣產生的卵子數量減半，同時精子的游動速度減慢。研究人員稱，或許是因為塑料影響了牡蠣吸收能量。因此，這些塑料食客的後代體積變小，同時游泳速度減慢。該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》。

The scientists say oysters will probably survive in spite of plastic pollution—they're still prolific reproducers. But until we clean up our act, there's no question we're giving them a raw deal.
科學家稱儘管遭遇塑料污染，牡蠣仍然能夠存活——它們仍然保持多產。即使人類改正了自己的行為，毫無疑問，牡蠣仍遭遇了不公正的待遇。