英国新闻听力 法属波利尼西亚海岸发现大群鲨鱼

Now out of the clear blue seas off the islands of Polynesia where scientists have discovered an area teeming¹ with sharks,

在波利尼西亚群岛沿岸的湛蓝色海域，科学家们发现了一片鲨鱼的聚集区，

normally there is a naturally balance with lots of prey² and fewer predators⁴, but not so in this case.

正常情况下，大量猎物和少量捕食者是一种自然平衡，但在这里并非如此。

Our science reporter Jonathan Web told us how this discovery came about.

本台科学记者乔纳森·韦伯告诉我们这个发现是如何产生的。

Well, actually scientists went to this at all. And it is an usual little place.

其实科学家们真的去到了这里，这是一个不同寻常的小地方，

There is a channel running through the middle of it, quite a small channel only about thirty metres deep.

一条隧道贯穿其间，小隧道大概只有30米深。

They went there because a different type of fish not sharks in fact but a group of fish are known to spawn⁵ there.

科学家们此行据说是因为一种不同的鱼类——事实上不是鲨鱼——在此产卵。

They went there thinking they were gonna study those fish.

他们去的时候想着要研究这些鱼，

They ended up finding a huge concentration of grey reef sharks,

结果却发现了大群灰礁鲨在此聚集，

a higher concentration two or three times higher than it's been found anywhere else in the world.

密度是世界其他任何地方的二到三倍，

And so they said about trying to understand what was going on.

科学家们说要试图搞清楚这是怎么一回事。

They tagged some of the sharks. They did a sort of census⁶ of the channel.

他们对一些鲨鱼做了标记，对该隧道进行了种群调查。

Because that abundance of, sort of peak predator³ if you like,

由于顶尖捕食者众多，

something right at the top of the food chain is really hard to sustain.

食物链最顶端的生活极其难以维持。

Normally if you add up the biomass in a particular eco system,

正常情况下，将某一生态系统中的生物量加起来，

there'll be much much more of the things down the bottom,

最底层的生物和猎物应占据大多数，

lots and lots of prey and as you're saying not very many predators so…

就像你说的，捕食者不太多……

So why do they think this happened?

那科学家认为这种情况为什么会发生？

Yes, so they tried to work out exactly what was going on and it turns out that those spawning⁷ fish,

对，他们想弄清楚究竟发生了什么，

the ones that they went there to study in the first place were effectively giving a great big delivery.

那些他们最初想要研究的鱼产卵数量巨大，

Every winter time those fish would come just for a couple of months of the year from all around the area and spawn in that particular neighbourhood.

每年冬天，这些鱼会从附近各海域游过来，在这里度过几个月的时间，在那周围产卵。

Instead of running around to find their prey elsewhere,

鲨鱼不用四处游荡寻找猎物，

they will just hang out in the channel for even longer during the winter and feed on those abundant fish just who happened to be there spawning.

只需在隧道中游逛，冬天待得时间更长一些，以那些刚好在这里产卵的大量的鱼为食。

So it's an unusual way that the sharks have found to make the most of what's available and in effect kind of flip⁸ the usual food pyramid.

所以说这是鲨鱼为了充分利用资源找到的不寻常途径，事实上也掀动了平常的食物金字塔。

Our science reporter Jonathan Web.

本台科学记者乔纳森·韦伯报道。

Researchers say they hope the discovery of a new antibiotic⁹ found inside the human nose could herald¹⁰ a new age in the fight against superbugs.

研究人员称希望在人类鼻子里发现的新抗生素能够开启对抗超级病菌的新时代。

It follows a research carried out at the University of Tübingen in Germany which found the antibiotic was effective in treating superbug infections in mice.

早前，德国蒂宾根大学的一项调查发现，这种抗生素在治疗老鼠超级病菌感染方面有效。

New antibiotics¹¹ are desperately¹² needed as doctors face the growing challenge of infections that resist current drugs and could become untreatable.

传染病对现存药物有抗药性，而且将可能无法医治，这使得医生面临更大的挑战，因此急需新的抗生素。

Our science editor David Schuchman examines how significant this new discovery could be.

本台科学编辑大卫·舒克曼对此项新发现将来的重要性进行了调研。

It was back in the 1980s that the last major new type of antibiotic was introduced.

最后一批重要新型抗生素是在上世纪80年代引入的，

And since then several bacteria have built up resistance to the latest drugs.

自此，几种细菌对最新药物产生了抗药性。

1 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

2 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

3 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

4 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

6 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

7 spawning   

产卵

参考例句：

• Encounter sites have a small chance of spawning a "Commander" NPC. 遭遇战地区有很小的几率遇到NPC指挥官。
• Instantly revives your Champion at your Spawning Pool, 9 minute cooldown. 立即在出生地复活你的英雄，冷却时间9分钟。

8 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

9 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

10 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

11 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

12 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。