万物简史 第528期:丰富多彩的生命(24)

 Most living things are small and easily overlooked. 大多数生物很小，容易被忽略。

In practical terms, this is not always a bad thing. 实际上，这不总是一件坏事。

You might not slumber¹ quite so contentedly² if you were aware that your mattress³ is home to perhaps two million microscopic⁴ mites⁶, 要是你知道你的床垫是大约200万个只有在显微镜下才看得见的螨虫的家园，

which come out in the wee hours to sup on your sebaceous oils and feast on all those lovely, crunchy flakes⁷ of skin that you shed as you doze⁸ and toss. 它们在凌晨一两点钟钻出来，一小口一小口地喝着你的皮脂，美美地吃着你在打盹儿或翻身时掉下来的又香又脆的皮屑，你也许不会睡得那么香。

Your pillow alone may be home to forty thousand of them. 光你的枕头上就可能生活着4万个微生物。

(To them your head is just one large oily bon-bon.) （对于它们来说，你的头只是一块油汪汪的大软糖。）

And don't think a clean pillowcase will make a difference. 别以为换了个干净枕套会起什么作用。

To something on the scale of bed mites, the weave of the tightest human fabric⁹ looks like ship's rigging. 在床上螨虫大小的东西看来，人类织得再紧密的物品看上去也只是像船上的索具。

Indeed, if your pillow is six years old — which is apparently¹⁰ about the average age for a pillow, 要是你的枕头已经用了六年——这显然大约是一个枕头的平均寿命，

it has been estimated that one-tenth of its weight will be made up of "sloughed¹¹ skin, living mites, dead mites and mite⁵ dung," 据估计，用一位计算过的人的话来说，它十分之一的分量来自“脱下来的皮屑、活的螨虫、死的螨虫和螨虫的屎”。

to quote the man who did the measuring, Dr. John Maunder of the British Medical Entomology Center. 那个人是英国医学昆虫学中心的约翰·蒙德博士。

(But at least they areyour mites. Think of what you snuggle up with each time you climb into a motel bed.) （但是，至少它们是你身上的螨虫。想像一下，每次你爬进一家旅馆的床铺，你会跟什么依偎而睡。）

These mites have been with us since time immemorial, but they weren't discovered until 1965. 这些螨虫自古以来就和我们在一起，但是直到1965年才被发现。

We are actually getting worse at some matters of hygiene¹². 实际上，我们的有些卫生条件越来越差。

Dr. Maunder believes that the move toward low-temperature washing machine detergents¹³ has encouraged bugs¹⁴ to proliferate¹⁵. 蒙德博士认为，使用低温洗衣机洗涤剂的趋势，已经鼓励了虫子的繁殖。

As he puts it: "If you wash lousy clothing at low temperatures, all you get is cleaner lice." 他指出：“要是在低温下洗脏衣服，你得到的是比较干净的虱子。”

If creatures as intimately associated with us as bed mites escaped our notice until the age of color television, 要是像床里的螨虫这样的与我们关系密切的动物直到彩色电视时代才引起我们的注意，

it's hardly surprising that most of the rest of the small-scale world is barely known to us. 我们对大多数别的小生物几乎不了解，这是不足为怪的。

 

1 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。

2 contentedly   

adv.心满意足地

参考例句：

• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe.父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。
• "This is brother John's writing,"said Sally,contentedly,as she opened the letter.

3 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

4 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

5 mite   

n.极小的东西；小铜币

参考例句：

• The poor mite was so ill.可怜的孩子病得这么重。
• He is a mite taller than I.他比我高一点点。

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 flakes   

小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人

参考例句：

• It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
• It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。

8 doze   

v.打瞌睡；n.打盹，假寐

参考例句：

• He likes to have a doze after lunch.他喜欢午饭后打个盹。
• While the adults doze,the young play.大人们在打瞌睡，而孩子们在玩耍。

9 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

10 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

11 sloughed   

v.使蜕下或脱落( slough的过去式和过去分词 )；舍弃；除掉；摒弃

参考例句：

• Responsibilities are not sloughed off so easily. 责任不是那么容易推卸的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The scab has sloughed off. 痂脱落了。 来自辞典例句

12 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。

13 detergents   

n.洗涤剂( detergent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Such detergents do not yellow the wool as alkali tends to do. 这种洗涤剂不会象碱那样使羊毛发黄。 来自辞典例句
• Development of detergents has required optimization of the surfactants structure. 发展洗涤剂时，要求使用最恰当的表面活性剂结构。 来自辞典例句

14 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》

15 proliferate   

vi.激增，(迅速)繁殖，增生

参考例句：

• We must not proliferate nuclear arms.我们决不能扩散核武器。
• Rabbits proliferate when they have plenty of food.兔子有充足的食物就会繁衍得很快。