背景介绍

【背景】

南极被人们称为第七大陆，是地球上最后一个被发现、唯一没有土著人居住的大陆。南极大陆的总面积为1390万平方公里，相当于中国和印巴次大陆面积的总和，居世界各洲第五位。整个南极大陆被一个巨大的冰盖所覆盖，平均海拔为2350米。南极洲蕴藏的矿物有２２０余种。

摘自百度贴吧

英文原文

【英文原文】

Sometimes the biggest finds are the smallest finds. Researchers examining a segment of siltstone taken from ground along the Beardmore glacier in Antarctica found something unexpected. They found a fly.

Well, not exactly a fly. They found a fly fossil–it’s a segment of the exoskeleton, the protective shell, of a fly larva. While the larvae are still growing, they are protected by a thin shell. And where there’s larval shell, there are flies. So what are flies doing in Antarctica? It’s much too cold there for flies. And the closest fly-friendly location, South America, is thousands of miles away.

Part of the answer is that the fly fossil is ancient–it was found with a number of other fossilized things that have been dated between three million and seventeen million years old. It’s possible that the fly lived during a period when sea levels were much lower there than they now are. Lower sea levels means wider continents –think of standing on the edge of a beach and having the water pull back. And wider continents means its more likely that living things might travel across the gap.

Or maybe not. Maybe flies are much older than anyone thought. We know that what we now call Antarctica was once connected to both South America and Australia. But that was around eighty million years ago, and flies aren’t thought to be that old.

Whatever the answer is, something in our understanding of the continents, the seas, or fly evolution has to be fixed. That’s one of the best things about science–a really big change can come from the discovery of something really small.

【词汇】Well, not exactly a fly.

not exactly

在理解这句话的意思之前，我们先来看一下 exactly 这个词。通常情况下，exactly 指的是“确切，精确”的意思，等同于 precisely。在英文当中我们有这样的表达，not exactly“不完全如此”“不全对”。

譬如：
A：Do you mean that he’ll refuse us? 你的意思是说他会拒绝我们?
B：Not exactly. 不完全如此。

not really也是相同的意思，表示轻微的否定，打个比方，当别人询问我们忙不忙的时候，我们可以说：

A：Are you busy now? 你现在忙吗?
B：Oh, not really. Why? 哦，不怎么忙，有什么事吗?

文章当中的 Well, not exactly a fly. 指的就是“说它是个苍蝇并不确切”。

在这里，大家要特别注意一点，当我们表示语气很强的否定的时候。我们一般用not really,譬如：

A：Did you watch the news on TV last night? 你昨晚看电视新闻了吗?
B：Not really. 确实没有。

在这里，not really 表达的是“真的没有”“的确没有”这样的意思

(可可英语版权所有,未经允许请勿转载)