万物简史 第527期:丰富多彩的生命(23)

 Moreover, much of taxonomists' time is taken up not with describing new species but simply with sorting out old ones. 而且，分类学家的许多时间不是用于描述新的物种，而是完全用于整理旧的物种。

Many, according to Godfray, "spend most of their career trying to interpret the work of nineteenth-century systematicists: 据戈弗雷说，许多人“把大部分职业生命用来解释19世纪分类学家的成就：

deconstructing their often inadequate¹ published descriptions or scouring² the world's museums for type material that is often in very poor condition." 拆析他们已经发表的、往往是很不充分的描述。或者跑世界上的博物馆寻找资料，而那些资料又往往处于很糟糕的状态”。

Godfray particularly stresses the absence of attention being paid to the systematizing possibilities of the Internet. 戈弗雷尤其强调对使用互联网来分类的可能性不够重视。

The fact is that taxonomy by and large is still quaintly³ wedded⁴ to paper. 实际情况是。总的来说，分类学仍按老一套停留在纸上。

In an attempt to haul things into the modern age, in 2001 Kevin Kelly, cofounder of Wired magazine, 为了使事情跟上时代，《连线》杂志两位主办人之一凯文·凯利于2001年发起成立一个组织，

launched an enterprise called the All Species Foundation with the aim of finding every living organism and recording⁵ it on a database. 名叫“所有物种基金会”，旨在发现每一种生物并把它记录在数据库里。

The cost of such an exercise has been estimated at anywhere from $2 billion to as much as $50 billion. 据估计，这么搞一下的费用从13亿到高达300亿英镑不等。

As of the spring of 2002, the foundation had just $1.2 million in funds and four full-time⁶ employees. 到2002年春，这个基金会只有75万英镑资金，4名全职人员。

If, as the numbers suggest, we have perhaps 100 million species of insects yet to find, and if our rates of discovery continue at the present pace, 这些数字表明，要是有l000万种昆虫尚待发现，要是发现的速度还是停留在现在的水平，

we should have a definitive⁷ total for insects in a little over fifteen thousand years. 要确切搞清全都昆虫的种类就需要l5000多年。

The rest of the animal kingdom may take a little longer. 要搞清动物界的其他部分则需要更长的时间。

So why do we know as little as we do? 那么，我们为什么只掌握那么一点儿情况呢？

There are nearly as many reasons as there are animals left to count, but here are a few of the principal causes: 原因差不多与有待清点的动物数量一样多，下面列出几个主要原因。

 

1 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

2 scouring   

擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤

参考例句：

• The police are scouring the countryside for the escaped prisoners. 警察正在搜索整个乡村以捉拿逃犯。
• This is called the scouring train in wool processing. 这被称为羊毛加工中的洗涤系列。

3 quaintly   

adv.古怪离奇地

参考例句：

• "I don't see what that's got to do with it,'said the drummer quaintly. “我看不出这和你的事有什么联系，"杜洛埃说道，他感到莫名其妙。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• He is quaintly dressed, what a strange one he is. 他一身的奇装异服，真是另类！

4 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

7 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。