【一起闲话英语】令人吃惊的事实—Amazing facts

Transcript: 

A: Hey, I’m reading this really interesting article about the human body.

B: Yeah? Well, we know all about that from biology lessons.

A: No, we didn’t learn much at all at school! They’re discovering loads more things all the time. Really amazing things! Did you know that only about one tenth of the cells in your body are really you? The rest are bacteria.

B: What? I’m not really me?

A: No, of course you are you, but you also have millions, or trillions, of bacteria in you.

B: Eeeeuuugh!

A: No, they’re mostly really helpful. Someone did an experiment to see if animals can live without bacteria, and he found that a lot of them died or had to have a special diet. Animals need bacteria to digest food, you see. So we’re better off with bacteria.

B: Unless the bacteria are bad.

A: Unless they are bad, but they’re nearly all good. Oh yeah, and going back to cells, do you know how many cells you have in your body?

B: Quite a lot, I’d say. A good few.

A: Yeah, but how many?

B: I don’t know. I’m not mathematical¹.

A: 7 octillion! That’s 7 plus 27 noughts².

B: I knew it was a lot.

A: OK, that’s an amazingly huge number, almost impossible to imagine. But the really weird³ thing is that most of the atoms are empty space, just air or nothingness. And if you took out the empty space, you could fit your body inside a tiny cube⁴ which measures one 500th of a centimetre on either side. That’s a box measuring 0.002 of a centimetre on each side. You’d be much too small to see.

B: Mmm, I can imagine that. It sounds like something that would happen in a really bad Hollywood movie. You know, a mad scientist goes: (funny voice) ‘I’m going to extract⁵ all the air from your body’. OK, enough facts for one day.

A: Don’t go! One last thing, did you know …

B: No.

A: Did you know that you probably have mites⁶ in your eyelashes?

B: Mites in my eyelashes? What are mites exactly anyway?

A: Yeah, they’re very small creatures, like insects, only not insects. They’re about a third of a millimetre long, so you can’t really see them. These particular mites live in eyelashes and eyebrows⁷.

B: But in mine?

A: Well, maybe not. Only about 50% of people have them, and more older people. So you might not have any. Anyway, they’re completely harmless⁸, they just eat dead skin.

B: Yeah, right, harmless. I really would have preferred not to know that.

A: Sorry.

B: I mean, really!

1 mathematical   

adj.数学的，数学上的

参考例句：

• The solution can be expressed by a mathematical equation.答案可用一个数学方程式来表示。
• Einstein was a mathematical genius.爱因斯坦是数学天才。

2 noughts   

零，无，没有( nought的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A million is written with six noughts. 一百万写出来有六个零。
• Using binary notation is in fact just manipulating ones and noughts. 使用二进制标号法实际上只运用1和0两个数。

3 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

4 cube   

n.立方体，立方形；立方；vt.使自乘两次

参考例句：

• The cube of 3 is 27.3的立方是27。
• A cube has six sides.立方体有6个面。

5 extract   

vt.取出，提取，获得，摘录；n.摘录，提出物

参考例句：

• The article was a choice extract from her writings.这篇文章是从她的著作中摘录出来的精粹。
• We can extract oil from olive.我们可以从橄榄中榨油。

6 mites   

n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨

参考例句：

• The only discovered animals are water bears, mites, microscopic rotifers. 能够发现的动物只有海蜘蛛、螨和微小的轮虫。 来自辞典例句
• Mites are frequently found on eggs. 螨会经常出现在蛋上。 来自辞典例句

7 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

8 harmless   

adj.无害的，无恶意的

参考例句：

• This experiment was harmless to the animals.这个试验不会对动物造成伤害。
• He was a harmless sort.他是一个不怀恶意的人。