(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
You wouldn't think studying lizards is a particularly dangerous profession. Until, that is, sheriffs approach you with their guns drawn. "We get the cops called on us sometimes."
Bree Putman, a behavioral ecologist at U.C.L.A. and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Her colleague at the museum, Greg Pauly, really did end up on the wrong side of a gun once, and here's why:
"A lot of times we're doing work at night in people's neighborhoods and we're like using flashlights to look for geckos on the sides of people's houses. And so sometimes people will think we're criminals or burglars or something."
The museum's solution was neon orange shirts with the museum logo. "And we call these shirts the 'don't shoot me' shirts." But the bright orange left Putman with a concern: that the color would spook the very animals they were trying to study.
So she devised an experiment. "I basically designed a study to show to the museum staff that these shirts were not going to be good for research, and that's what I found."
In her trials, Putman wore tank tops of various colors—red, gray, light blue, dark blue—and then attempted to approach and capture western fence lizards in public and private parkland in L.A. And she found that when wearing dark blue, she could get twice as close to the lizards, compared to when she wore red. And she was about twice as likely to catch a lizard too, while wearing dark or light blue, compared to red or gray. The study appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
Putman thinks that the lizards may be more tolerant of blue hues, because they most closely resemble the blue patches males have on their bellies—a sexual signal. Other studies have shown that birds with orange and red plumage are similarly less creeped out by orange and red clothing. And though she's not ready to issue a dress code to hikers just yet.
"You know for a scientist or biologist working with wild animals, you want to make sure either that you're wearing the same outfit every time you're going to do animal behavior, whatever. Or you want to randomize what you wear."
As for those museum shirts, "I actually wear the orange shirt. I don't wear a blue shirt." Because studying wildlife in urban areas, you never know when you might encounter that other species: gun-toting Homo sapiens.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
你不会认为研究蜥蜴是个特别危险的职业。直到警长拿着枪来找你。“有时候警察会来找我们。”
加州大学洛杉矶分校和洛杉矶自然历史博物馆的行为生态学家布瑞·帕特曼说道。她和博物馆的同事格雷格·保利真的经历过一次枪口历险，原因是：
“我们经常夜间在小区里工作，用手电筒在他人房子的墙上寻找壁虎。所以有时人们会以为我们是罪犯或窃贼之类的。”
博物馆提出的解决方案是让他们穿上印有博物馆标志的萤光橙色衬衫。“我们称这些衬衫是‘不要向我开枪'衬衫。”但是这种萤光橙色却让帕特曼感到担忧：这种颜色会吓到他们正试图研究的动物。
所以她设计了一个实验。“我设计了一项研究，目的是向博物馆工作人员展示这些衬衫不利于研究，而这是我的发现。”
在她的试验中，帕特曼分别穿了红色、灰色、浅蓝色、深蓝色等各种颜色的背心，然后试图在洛杉矶公共和私人开阔地接近并捕捉西方强棱蜥。她发现，当她身穿深蓝色背心时，她接近蜥蜴的距离是穿红色背心时的两倍。而且，当她身穿深蓝色或浅蓝色背心时，抓到蜥蜴的概率大约为穿红色或灰色背心时的两倍。这一研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》期刊上。
帕特曼认为蜥蜴可能更能忍受蓝色调，因为蓝色调最接近雄蜥蜴腹部的蓝色斑点，那是它们的求爱信号。其他研究表明，有橙色和红色羽毛的鸟类同样也不太会被橙色和红色的衬衫吓到。虽然她还没准备好为徒步旅行者发布着装要求。
但是，“要知道，对于和野生动物打交道的科学家或生物学家来说，每次研究动物行为时，你都希望确保要么穿同一身衣服。要么随便穿。”
至于那些博物馆的衬衫，“我的确穿了橙色的衬衫。我没有穿蓝色的衬衫。”因为在城区研究野生动物时，你不知道何时会遇到另一种生物：拿枪的人类。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. end up 最终；结果；到头来；
例句：If they take this game lightly they could end up with egg on their faces.
如果他们对这场比赛掉以轻心，结果很可能会出丑。
2. compared to 与…相比；和…比起来；
例句：The cost was peanuts compared to a new kitchen.
与建新厨房相比，那笔费用微不足道。
3. be ready to do sth. 愿意的；乐意的；情愿的；甘愿的；
例句：She's ready to start anew.
她准备重新开始。
4. as for 至于…；
例句：As for the hero's fate, I will hold it over for my next book.
关于主人公的命运问题，我将留到下一本书中再谈。
