(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Eliene Augenbraun.
(CLIP: Loud bird call)
That incredibly loud song soaring over the quieter birds in the Amazon rain forest belongs to the male white bellbird. At 125 decibels, his short but startling songs are louder than a jackhammer.
"The white bellbird may be the loudest bird in the world. These birds are making extraordinarily loud noises. Noises that are so loud, they would be harmful to our hearing if you had to hear them up close."
Mario Cohn-Haft, curator of birds at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. He and his colleague Jeffrey Podos recorded the birds in their natural habitat. Their findings are in the journal Current Biology.
Birds like the kakapo and the Moluccan cockatoo have also laid claim to the loudness title. But the researchers think the new study has better instrumentation and data than most studies previously published in the scientific literature.
"Loud sounds are usually for long-distance communication. And then, when the listener... there was the potential listener, is up close, the volume is dropped way back down... so that nobody needs to call a lot of attention to themselves or blow out his hearing. But in the case of the white bellbird, the opposite seems to be true. The loudest sound they make is actually reserved for courting a female. When the female comes in close, they just switch to their loudest sound and do it right in her face."
The male displays another feature—an extendable wattle. It looks like a worm hanging from above the bird's beak.
"When they do their loudest song, which is this fast, two-note 'bong bong' that they do, the first bong looking away from the female with their back to her. And then swing around right into her face with that second note. And that wattle whips around, and I suspect that if she were too close, she would get it in the face."
Most birds have paper-thin abdominal muscles. But the half-pound bellbird, roughly the size of a common city pigeon...
"...had a washboard stomach—this incredible thick set of muscles rippling all along its abdomen."
The powerful muscles provide lots of singing power. But the mating song is short and sweet...
(Clip: Bong bong)
...because:
"A very loud sound like that has to be really short for the bird to be able to do it at all."
For Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Eliene Augenbraun.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人――60秒科学系列，我是艾琳·奥根布劳恩。
（音频剪辑：洪亮的鸟鸣声）
这个盖过亚马逊雨林中较安静鸟儿的极洪亮鸣叫声，是雄性白钟雀发出的声音。125分贝，它那短促但惊人的歌声比手提钻的声音还大。
“白钟雀可能是世界上叫声最大的鸟。这些鸟正在发出极其响亮的噪声。噪声大到，如果你不得不近距离听，那你的听力受到损害。”
亚马逊国家研究所的鸟类负责人马里奥·科恩·哈夫特说到。他和同事杰弗里·波多斯在白钟雀的自然栖息地记录了它们的叫声。他们的研究发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。
尖叫鹦鹉和摩鹿加凤头鹦鹉等鸟也曾获得“叫声嘹亮”的称号。但研究人员认为，这项新研究的仪器和数据比之前发表在科学文献上的大多数研究都要好。
“响亮的声音通常用于远距离通信。当潜在聆听者靠近时，音量就会大大降低，这样就不需要耗费太多精力，也不会损害听力。但白钟雀的情况似乎恰恰相反。它们发出的最响亮叫声实际上是为了向雌性求爱。当雌鸟靠近时，它们会切换到最大音量，在雌性面前大叫。”
雄鸟还展示了另一特征——可延长长的囊肉。看起来就像一条虫子悬在鸟喙上方。
“当雄性用最大声音唱歌时——就是这两个短促的‘嘡嘡’声——它们唱第一声时会把脸转过去，背对着雌性。唱第二声时再把脸转到雌性面前。肉囊也会猛甩过来，我想如果雌性靠得太近，肉囊会直接拍到它脸上。”
大多数鸟都有一层薄薄的腹肌。但半磅重、体型大概如普通城市鸽子的白钟雀……
“有着洗衣板一般的胃，那是沿着整个腹部排列的一组极厚肌肉。”
这些强壮的肌肉提供了大量唱歌的能量。但求偶叫声短促而甜蜜……
(音频剪辑：嘡嘡声)
……因为：
“这种响亮的声音就得短促，这样鸟儿才能发出声来。”
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是艾琳·奥根布劳恩。
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. belong to 属于；归…所有；
The pictures belong to an era when there was a preoccupation with high society.
这些画出自一个人人向往上流社会的时代。
2. lay claim to 声称拥有；
Five Asian countries lay claim to the islands.
5个亚洲国家声称对那些岛屿拥有主权。
3. blow out 爆裂；
"The SWAT team was able to blow out the window from the outside, so that the snipers could see what was going on inside, " Jahn says.
“特警队能从外面炸掉窗户，让阻击手看清里面的情况。”扬说。
4. be able to do sth. 可以…的，能够…的；
If only I could get some sleep, I would be able to cope.
要是能睡上一会儿，我就能应付了。
