听力文摘：澳大利亚的兔子

Rabbits Down Under

澳大利亚的兔子

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.

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。

By 1900, Austin was dead but his unwanted legacy² lived on in the form of a rabbit infestation³ that spread throughout the entire Australian continent. Desperate landowners scrambled⁴ to capture over two million rabbits per year, but this hardly made a dent⁵ in the rabbit population. Rabbits, it seemed, had taken up permanent residence down under.

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”。

With its long ears, twitching⁶ nose, and adorable hopping⁷ ability, the individual rabbit is fairly cute. Multiply that bunny by millions, however, and they begin to seem entirely⁸ sinister⁹. The great Australian rabbit infestation was ecologically devastating¹⁰. The buck-toothed creatures helped extinguish nearly one-eighth of Australia’s native mammal species and led to the extinction¹¹ of countless¹² numbers of plants, leading to widespread soil erosion.

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。

The Australian government tried to corral the rabbits by building so-called rabbit-proof fences across vast stretches of land. Undaunted, the rabbits burrowed¹³ under. Finally, in the 1950s, the Australians resorted to chemical warfare¹⁴, 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.

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。

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.

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。

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 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 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。

4 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。

6 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》

7 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。

8 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。

9 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。

10 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。

11 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。

12 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。

13 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

14 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。