英语听力文摘 English Digest 377、人兔大战——生生不息

Rabbits Down Under

In 1859, an unassuming Australian landowner named Thomas Austin got the hunting bug¹. Eager for something to shoot, he released twenty-four wild rabbits onto his property and had a jolly time tracking them down. Unfortunately, some of the rabbits managed to escape and, as rabbits are known to do, began to breed like…well, rabbits.

By 1900, Austin was dead but his unwanted legacy lived on in the form of a rabbit infestation² that spread throughout the entire Australian continent. Desperate landowners scrambled to capture over two million rabbits per year, but this hardly made a dent³ in the rabbit population. Rabbits, it seemed, had taken up permanent residence down under.

With its long ears, twitching⁴ nose, and adorable hopping⁵ ability, the individual rabbit is fairly cute. Multiply that bunny by millions, however, and they begin to seem entirely⁶ sinister⁷. The great Australian rabbit infestation was ecologically devastating⁸. The buck-toothed creatures helped extinguish nearly one-eighth of Australia’s native mammal species and led to the extinction⁹ of countless¹⁰ numbers of plants, leading to widespread soil erosion.

The Australian government tried to corral the rabbits by building so-called rabbit-proof fences across vast stretches of land. Undaunted, the rabbits burrowed¹¹ under. Finally, in the 1950s, the Australians resorted to chemical warfare¹², injecting several rabbits with myxoma, an experimental virus known to target and kill rabbits. The virus spread, and the rabbit population dropped from six-hundred million to one-hundred million.

But that’s still a lot of rabbits, and those with a natural resistance to the virus began breeding with a fury. And so, the rabbit wars carry on still.

 

 

 

澳大利亚的兔子

 

1959年，澳大利亚一位默默无名的地主——Thomas Austin在打猎上碰到了瓶颈。在强烈的打猎欲望的催使下，他在自家的土地上放生了24头野兔。一时之间，他的一大乐趣便是找出那些兔子。可偏偏就有那么一些兔子逃了出去，做着我们所知兔子该做的事——生殖繁衍。

1900年，Austin去世了。但是他那些让人头疼的“遗产”却已然遍布整个澳大利亚大陆，它们成群结队地袭击着一个个的庄园，让人头疼不已。农场主们别无他法，只能大量地捕兔子。每年，农场主们能捕到超过两百万只兔子，可是，这只能算是冰山一角，区区两百万对兔子这一群体不够成任何影响。就这样，兔子俨然已成澳大利亚的“常住居民”。

乍看上去，长长的耳朵，抽动的鼻子和蹦蹦跳跳的可爱姿势，兔子真的是可爱得不行。当然，这只是针对一只兔子而言。如果是上百万只兔子聚在一起，那简直就是灾难。澳大利亚兔子的“横行霸道”从生态学上来看简直就是毁灭性的。这些长着小龅牙的生物“帮助”澳大利亚八分之一的土著哺乳动物走向灭绝，顺道再让不计其数的植物从此消逝，最后的结果便是，澳大利亚严重的大面积水土流失。

澳大利亚政府也曾圈出大片土地，围上所谓的防兔围栏，试图将兔子都赶到一个地方。可是，这些兔子是毫无畏惧的，它们从地底挖了洞，就这样就逃了出来。到后来的20世纪50年代，澳大利亚人终将化学药物投入了人兔大战中。人们将粘液瘤注入兔子体内，粘液瘤是一种用来杀兔子的实验用病毒。随着该病毒的传播，兔子数量从6亿只急速减至1亿只。

但是，1亿仍是一个很大的数目。而且有些兔子天生就对这种病毒有抗体，接着这些兔子开始迅猛繁殖。因而，直至今天，在澳大利亚这片土地上人兔大战仍在进行着。

Notes:   down under    澳大利亚
 

 

1 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

2 infestation   

n.侵扰，蔓延

参考例句：

• The premises were treated for cockroach infestation.因蟑螂成灾，这些房屋集中进行了灭蟑活动。
• Parts of California are suffering from an infestation of oriental fruit flies.加利福尼亚的部分地区正遭受东方果蝇的大肆侵袭。

3 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

4 twitching   

n.颤搐

参考例句：

• The child in a spasm kept twitching his arms and legs. 那个害痉挛的孩子四肢不断地抽搐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My eyelids keep twitching all the time. 我眼皮老是跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

7 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

8 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

9 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

10 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

11 burrowed   

v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 )；翻寻

参考例句：

• The rabbits burrowed into the hillside. 兔子在山腰上打洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She burrowed her head into my shoulder. 她把头紧靠在我的肩膀上。 来自辞典例句

12 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。