字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Lizard Picks Best Color--to Stand against  我的色彩我做主

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…/2016/20160308sa_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：
Chameleons have it easy. If they need to hide from a predator they just change their appearance, and disappear against whatever they happen to be standing on. Surrounded by leaves? Turn green. Tree trunk? Brown it is.
變色龍過的很悠閒。需要躲避捕食者時，他們只需要改變自己外表的顏色，融入它所處的環境就可以了。位於樹葉附近?那麼就變成綠色。位於樹幹處?那麼就變成灰色。

But Aegean wall lizards have a different strategy. They live on the Greek Islands. And instead of changing their appearance, they find a safer spot. That is, they’re really good at picking out just the right background to minimize the chances that they’ll be spotted by a hungry crow or raptor.
但是愛琴海牆蜥蜴則有著不同的策略。它們生活在希臘島嶼上。與變色龍不同，這些蜥蜴在遇到危險時，不會改變外表顏色，而是會尋找一個更加安全的地方。也就是說呢，它們善於挑選自己被饑餓的烏鴉或猛禽發現、弱化自己被捕幾率的恰當的場所。

That’s according to a new study in the journal Scientific Reports.
該結論來自於雜誌《科學報導》的一項最新的研究。

Birds can perceive both visible and ultraviolet light, so researchers snapped regular and UV photos of lizards basking on rocks to figure out how the lizards look to birds. The scientists discovered that the lizards’ camouflage is precisely tuned to avian eyeballs, helping them seem to disappear. Lizards with darker backs hang out on darker rocks. Lighter ones choose lighter rocks. It’s the first time that wild animals have been recorded explicitly choosing the best background to enhance their own camouflage.
鳥類能夠感知可見光和紫外線，所以研究人員拍攝了蜥蜴在岩石上曬太陽的常規照片和紫外線照片，以研究蜥蜴外觀對鳥的影響。科學家發現，蜥蜴的偽裝色準確的 跟隨鳥類的眼球顏色而變化，這能幫助蜥蜴偽裝自己。背部顏色較深的蜥蜴趴在深顏色的石頭山，而淺顏色的則選擇淺色的石頭。這是人們第一次記錄野生動物會準 確選擇最佳背景提高自己的偽裝幾率。

Another observation: when lizards aren’t under the constant threat of death, they’re less picky. “On the island with the lower risk this kind of background choice, to improve their level of camouflage, is much less evident than on the island with high predation risk.”
另一項研究表明：蜥蜴在沒有死亡威脅的情況下，就不會那麼挑剔了。“在被捕食風險高的島嶼上，蜥蜴的偽裝的水準要高於被捕幾率低的島嶼上的蜥蜴。”

University of Cambridge zoologist Kate Marshall, lead researcher of the study.
劍橋大學動物學家凱特•馬歇爾，負責此項研究。

To pick out the right rocks, Aegean wall lizards must have an awareness of what color they are. But how do they know? “It’s a big puzzle, and I’m fascinated by the answer. Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer yet, and hopefully this study will inspire future research into it.”
為了能選擇恰當的石頭避難，這些愛琴海牆蜥蜴們都知道自己的顏色。但是它們是如何知道的呢?“這是一個難題，我也被問題的答案吸引了。但不幸的是，我仍舊不知道答案是什麼，希望此項研究會激勵未來的研究探索此問題。”