英语听力文摘 English Digest 495、鱼儿如何相亲

Fish Blind Dates

There are plenty of examples in nature of females being attracted to the biggest males. This is especially true for a species of fish called the Atlantic Mollie.

The Mollie wants to be as big a fish as possible, because the females show more interest in big fellows than little ones. What’s interesting, though, is what happens with Mollies that live in caves.

Why should they be any different?

Because the caves in question are pitch black. None of the female Mollies can see any of the male Mollies. That could be Arnold Schwarzen-Mollie swimming up next to you, or it could be Mini-Me Mollie; you can’t tell by looking. So which males do you think the female Mollies spent most time around?

I guess they will be random¹.

That's surprise. When researchers at Hamburg University in Germany studied sexual preference in Mollies that lived in caves, they found the same pattern as in Mollies living outside caves–the females preferred the larger males.

But how did the fish know?

Researchers aren’t sure yet. A good guess, though, is that the cave-dwelling Mollies use organs that sense water displacement². Possibly first involve help them find food. Arnold Schwartzen-Mollie displaces more water than Bill Gates-e-Mollie, so he’ll do better–even on blind dates.

 

自然界中有很多雌性动物被体积最大的雄性动物吸引的例子。这真实体现在一种叫做大西洋摩利的鱼身上。 

摩利鱼想变得尽可能庞大，因为雌性摩利鱼对大的雄性鱼比小的更感兴趣。然而，有趣的是穴居的摩利鱼身上所发生的事。

为什么他们会与众不同呢？

因为所谈及的洞穴是漆黑一片。没有一只雌性摩利鱼能看见任何雄性摩利鱼。游到你身边的可能是阿诺德.施瓦岑摩利鱼，也可能是迷你小鱼，你不可能通过视觉辨认。所以你认为雌性摩利会花更多时间在哪只雄性摩利身边呢？

我猜它们会随机选吧。

真让人吃惊！当德国汉堡大学的研究者们研究穴居的摩利鱼的性偏好时，他们发现这些摩利鱼和洞外的摩利鱼有相同的取向——雌性摩利偏爱体积更大的雄性鱼。

但鱼是怎么知道（哪只鱼更大）的呢？

研究者还不确定。但是有一种较好的猜测认为穴居的摩利鱼是使用器官来感知排出的水。也许还包括帮它们找到食物。阿诺德.施瓦岑摩利能比比尔.盖茨摩利排出更多的水。所以它们能做的更好，即使是相亲。

 

1 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

2 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。