热吻10秒 交换细菌8000万

 　　There is nothing as romantic as two lovers sharing a kiss.

　　恋人之间相互接吻是一件多么美妙浪漫的事情啊。

　　But scientists have come up with an evolutionary¹ explanation which perhaps threatens to kill the passion.

　　但是科学家们最近根据进化理论做的一项研究结果可能会让接吻听起来没有那么浪漫了。

　　Academics think that kissing helps partners share bacteria, shoring up their immune systems and enabling them to better fight disease.

　　科学家们发现接吻有助于双方分享细菌，增强免疫力，并能够帮助双方更好地抵御疾病。

　　As many as 80 million bacteria are transferred during a ten-second kiss, according to Dutch biologists.

　　荷兰的生物学家称，仅仅接吻10秒钟就能传播8000万个细菌给对方。

　　Humans carry trillions of bacteria in the body, which together make up a ‘microbiota’ – a complex mix of bugs² which play a crucial role in digesting food and warding⁴ off infections.

　　其实我们每个人体内都携带有数以万计的细菌，这些细菌组合在一起就形成了“菌群”，这些“菌群”在消化系统和免疫系统中发挥着至关重要的作用。

　　Remco Kort, from the Netherlands Organisation⁵ for Applied⁶ Scientific Research - or TNO - said his team set out to discover the evolutionary reason for kissing.

　　荷兰应用科学研究组织的雷姆科·科尔特和他的团队已经开始从进化论方面探索接吻的原因。

　　After testing 21 couples, they think kissing helps form a shared microbiota, a similar mix of bacteria living in the body.

　　在对21对情侣进行测试以后，科尔特他们发现接吻有助于双方在各自体内形成一个共同的“菌群”。

　　He said: ‘Intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva⁷ exchange appears to be a courtship behaviour unique to humans and is common in over 90 per cent of known cultures.

　　他说：“包括舌头接触和唾液交换的亲密接吻似乎是人类独有的一种求爱行为，接吻在目前所知的90%的文化中都很常见。”

　　‘Interestingly, the current explanations for the function of intimate kissing in humans include an important role for the microbiota present in the oral cavity, although to our knowledge, the exact effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota have never been studied.

　　“有趣的是，目前的研究发现人类的亲密接吻对口腔中的微生物有重要作用，而就我们目前所知，还没有人研究过接吻对口腔微生物群的确切影响。”

　　‘We wanted to find out the extent to which partners share their oral microbiota, and it turns out, the more a couple kiss, the more similar they are.’

　　“因此，我们想研究情侣间口腔微生物群的相似程度，事实证明，情侣间接吻越多，他们的菌群越相似。”

　　The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Microbiome, found that couples who share nine intimate kisses a day had a very similar microbiota, meaning they would be better prepared to deal with similar infections and digest similar food.

　　发表在《微生物》杂志上的该项研究结果指出，每天热吻9次的情侣间存在非常相似的微生物群，这意味着他们能更好地应对相同感染、消化相同的食物等。

　　Scientists have long warned that modern obsession⁸ with hygiene⁹ and cleanliness has driven a boom in allergies¹⁰ and health problems.

　　科学家们一直警告称，现代人的过度“洁癖”正是导致过敏等诸多健康问题的主要原因。

　　According to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, increasing prevalence of allergies such as asthma¹¹ are caused because we are not exposed to enough germs in our daily life.

　　根据“卫生假说”理论，现代人之所以哮喘等过敏疾病高发，都是因为我们在日常生活中与细菌接触不够。

　　Professor Graham Rook, an immunologist at University College London, has gone so far as to say that picking food off the floor, buying a dog and regularly kissing your relatives are some of the best ways to ward³ off allergies.

　　伦敦大学的免疫学家格雷厄姆·鲁克教授甚至表示，想要避免过敏，可以把掉到地上的食物捡起来照吃不误、或者可以养狗、经常跟伴侣接吻等。

　　Speaking at Cheltenham Science Festival earlier this year, he advised that when a baby spits out its dummy¹², a mother should lick it clean and put it back in the infant’s mouth.

　　在今年年初举行的切尔滕纳姆科学节上，鲁克教授还建议，当婴儿吐出奶嘴后，母亲应该舔干净并直接塞回婴儿嘴里。

　　He said the problem is that the modern body is at a ‘constant state of alert’ because it is not used to living with germs.

　　他称因为现代人的身体不适应和细菌共存，所以一直处于高度戒备状态。

　　‘When the immune system is not needed it should get turned off completely,’ he said.

　　“当人体不需要免疫系统的时候，它就应该完全关闭。”

　　‘What happens these days is that often it is on a constant state of alert and it is not turned off completely.

　　“但现在，我们的身体经常处于戒备状态，免疫系统从没休息过。”

　　‘It will do something completely pointless like attacking grass pollen¹³ wafting¹⁴ past in the breeze, or attacking the neighbour’s cat when it happens to walk past, then you are going to have allergic¹⁵ problems.’

　　“因此，它就会做出一些毫无意义的防卫，比如攻击风中的花粉，或者攻击碰巧走过的邻居家的猫，这样就导致了过敏问题。”

1 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

2 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

4 warding   

监护，守护（ward的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Magina channels a powerful warding magic damping the negative effects of spells. 敌法师用守护魔法来抵御负面法术的攻击。
• Indeed, warding off disruption is the principal property of complex systems. 的确，避免破损解体是复杂系统主要的属性。

5 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

6 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

7 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

8 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

9 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

10 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

11 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

12 dummy   

n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头

参考例句：

• The police suspect that the device is not a real bomb but a dummy.警方怀疑那个装置不是真炸弹，只是一个假货。
• The boys played soldier with dummy swords made of wood.男孩们用木头做的假木剑玩打仗游戏。

13 pollen   

n.[植]花粉

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。

14 wafting   

v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• But that gentle fragrance was clearly wafting from the window. 但那股淡淡的香气，却分明是从母亲的窗户溢出的。 来自互联网
• The picture-like XueGuo, wafting dense flavor of Japan, gives us a kind of artistic enjoyment. 画一般的雪国，飘溢着浓郁的日本风情，给人以美的享受。 来自互联网

15 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。