(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American 60-second Science, I'm Lucy Huang.
"Snakes.... Why did it have to be snakes?"
Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Snakes on a Plane and even Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets have all relied on the fear of snakes to build suspense and anxiety. About a third of all people are at least a bit phobic about snakes.
Some of the distress when it comes to the slithering serpents comes from their unpredictable movement patterns. But the fear also stems from knowing that, well, snake bites do kill a lot of people—perhaps as many as 94,000 people annually.
But not all snake venom is created equal. Some snakes have venom only strong enough to kill a couple of mice. On the other hand, there's "the inland taipan in Australia, which is incredibly venomous. It has enough potent venom to kill about 50 adults. Humans."
Kevin Healy, a lecturer in zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
He wanted to know why snake venom toxicity varied so much, so he and his team looked at 102 different venomous snakes species. They examined how much venom the snakes had as well as what they ate and what kind of habitat they lived in. The key finding:
"Bigger snakes have more venom, in general. But the amount of the increase of that venom increases basically according to how much energy you burn per second, not how big your prey is, as you'd expect."
The study was in the journal Ecology Letters.
The researchers also found snakes that inhabited three-dimensional environments that include things like trees and water had less venom than snakes that live two-dimensionally—that is, on the ground.
"Our guess is that that comes back to encounter rate. So if you live in a 3D environment, just the pure physics of living in a 3D environment means you will bump into more things. And so what that means is you might not need this really large reservoir of venom to kind of ensure that if you miss a prey item, that you have something for the next time because you're not going to get to encounter individuals that often."
Whereas the 2D-dwelling snakes need to make sure that when they get a chance for a meal, their venom will pack a punch. Of course, only about a quarter of all snake species have venom at all. Keeping that in mind may make it possible to be braver than Indiana Jones—when it comes to snakes, at least. You should still be very scared to crawl under a moving truck.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American 60-second Science, I'm Lucy Huang.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是露西·黄。
“蛇……为什么偏偏是蛇呢？”
像《夺宝奇兵》、《航班蛇患》甚至《哈利波特与密室》这样的电影都依靠人们对蛇的恐惧来制造悬念和焦虑。大约三分之一的人都至少对蛇有点恐惧。
谈到蜿蜒滑行的蛇，一些危险来自于它们不可预知的行动模式。但是恐惧也源于我们知道蛇咬伤的确杀死了很多人——可能每年会造成多达9.4万人死亡。
但并不是所有蛇毒都一样。有些蛇的毒液只够杀死几只老鼠。但是，也有“澳大利亚内陆太攀蛇这样毒性极强的蛇。它的毒液足够杀死约50个成年人。没错，是人类。”
爱尔兰高威国立大学的动物学讲师凯文·希利说到。
他想知道为什么蛇毒的毒性差别如此之大，因此他和团队观察了102种毒性不同的毒蛇。他们研究了这些蛇有多少毒液，以及它们的食物和栖息地。关键发现是：
“一般来说，体型较大的蛇毒液也更多。但毒液的增加量基本上是依据每秒消耗的能量，而不是你们认为的猎物体型大小。”
这项研究发表在《生态学通讯》期刊上。
研究人员还发现，生活在树上和水中等3D环境的蛇，其毒液比生活在2D环境即地面上的蛇要少。
“我们猜这又回到了遭遇率问题。如果你生活在3D环境中——纯物理意义上的3D环境——意味着你会碰到更多东西。这意味着你可能不需要储存那么多的毒液，不用确保在错过一个猎物后还有毒液来捕捉下一个猎物，因为你不会那么频繁地与猎物进行交锋。”
而生活在2D环境的蛇，则需要确保在有机会捕食时，它们的毒液能“击出一记重拳”。当然，在所有蛇类中只有约四分之一有毒液。记住这一点可能会让你比印第安纳·琼斯更勇敢——至少在遇到蛇时是这样。不过，你应该仍然十分害怕从移动的卡车下爬过去。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是露西·黄。
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. rely on 依赖；依靠；
The industry relies on the price of raw materials remaining low.
这一产业靠的是原料便宜，不涨价。
2. stem from 起源于；来自；由…造成；
All my problems stem from drink.
我所有的问题都源于酗酒。
3. bump into 偶然遇见；意外碰到；
I happened to bump into Mervyn Johns in the hallway.
我在走廊里意外碰见了默文·约翰斯。
4. be scared to do sth. 惊恐的；恐惧的；害怕的；
I had white rugs on the floor, but people were scared to tread on them in case they marked.
我在地板上铺了白色小地毯，但大家都不敢往上踩，以免在上面留下脚印。
