(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
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.
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.
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.
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.
参考译文
2015年《科技》杂志估计世界上每年有1200万的塑料垃圾流入海洋。
而随着时间的推移，风和海浪的侵蚀及不断冲刷会将这些塑料垃圾变成极小的微塑料—而这些微塑料的大小及形状又恰巧和牡蛎等滤食动物食用的微型海藻相同。
这就表示牡蛎能够将这些微塑料消化。
为了探究牡蛎消化这些塑料造成的影响，法国海洋研究所的研究人员使用被塑料微粒污染过的水饲养牡蛎，这种环境和现场观察到的研究类似。
由于是通过进食这些微小的藻类进化，因此这些贝类非常快速的就将这些直径6微米宽的塑料粒子消化吸收。
2个月后，相比仅以藻类为食的牡蛎，进食微塑料的这种牡蛎产生的卵子数量减半，同时精子的游动速度减慢。
研究人员表示或许是因为塑料对牡蛎吸收的能量产生了影响。
因此这些以塑料为食牡蛎的后代们体积变的更小，同时也减慢了增长速度。
这项研究已在《美国国家科学院院刊》上发表。
科学家们表示尽管面临塑料污染，但牡蛎仍能存活—这种动物仍然多产。
即使人类改变自己的行为，但毋庸置疑牡蛎仍遭遇不公正的待遇。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
1.end up 结束,完事
例句:If you don't know what you want, you might end up getting something you don't want.
如果你不知道自己想要什么，到头来你可能得非所愿。
2.according to 根据
例句:They will swap posts in a year's time, according to new party rules which rotate the leadership.
根据轮流担任领导的新政党章程，他们在一年后会轮换职位。
3.happen to 碰巧
例句:Did you happen to see her leave last Wednesday?
上周三你有没有碰巧看见她离开？
4.find out 找出
例句:It is very unnerving to find out that someone you see every day is carrying a potentially deadly virus.
发现朝夕相处的人竟携带着一种可能致命的病毒是一件令人很不安的事情。
