2019年经济学人 伪造犀牛角(1)

 

Rhinoceros² horns are big business. Traditional Chinese medicine uses them to treat rheumatism³ and gout,

犀牛角是大生意。中医用它们来治疗风湿病和痛风，

even though they have no actual pharmaceutical⁴ properties beyond placebo⁵.

尽管它们除了充当安慰剂之外没有任何实际的药效。

And Yemeni craftsmen⁶ carve them into dagger⁷ handles. A kilogram can thus command as much as $60,000,

也门工匠将它们雕刻成匕首柄。一公斤可买到6万美元，

so there is tremendous incentive⁸ for poachers to hunt the animals.

所以偷猎者有巨大的动机去猎杀这些动物。

Since almost all rhinoceros populations are endangered, several critically, this is a serious problem.

由于几乎所有犀牛都濒临灭绝，一些种类更为危急，这是一个严重的问题。

Some conservationists therefore suggest that a way to reduce pressure on the animals might be to flood the market with fakes.

因此，一些环保人士建议，减少动物压力的一种方法或许是让假货充斥市场。

This, they hope, would reduce the value of real horns and consequently the incentive to hunt rhinos⁹.

他们希望借此降低真犀牛角的价值，从而减少猎杀犀牛的动机。

That would require the fakes to be good. But Fritz Vollrath, a zoologist¹⁰ at Oxford¹¹ University, reckons his skills as a forger¹² are up to the challenge.

这就要求赝品必须是高质量。但牛津大学动物学家弗利兹·沃拉斯认为，他的伪造技能可以应付这一挑战。

As he writes in Scientific Reports, he and his colleagues from Fudan University, in Shanghai,

正如他在《Scientific Reports》中所写，他和他来自上海复旦大学的同事

have come up with a cheap and easy-to-make knock-off that is strikingly similar to the real thing.

已经想出了一个廉价且易于制造的仿制品，与真品惊人地相似。

The main ingredient of Dr Vollrath's forged horns is horsehair.

沃拉斯博士伪造犀牛角的主要材料是马毛。

Despite their differing appearances, horses and rhinos are reasonably closely related. Horses do not have horns, of course.

虽然它们外面不相同，但马和犀牛有着相当密切的关系。当然马是没有角的。

But, technically¹³, neither do rhinos. Unlike the structures that adorn¹⁴ cattle and bison, which have cores made of bone,

但是，从技术上讲，犀牛也没有。和装饰牛和野牛的结构不同，它们都有由骨头组成的髓部，

the "horns" of rhinoceros are composed of hairs bound tightly together by a mixture of dead cells.

但犀牛的‘角’是由死细胞紧密结合在一起的毛发组成的。

Examination under a microscope showed that hairs collected from horses' tails

显微镜下的检查表明从马尾中收集的马毛

had similar dimensions and symmetry to those found in the horns of rhinos.

和犀牛角中发现的有着相似的尺寸和对称性。

They also shared a spongy core structure. Horse hairs had a scaly¹⁵ layer that was absent from those of the rhino¹,

它们还有着同样的海绵核心结构。马毛上有一层鳞片，这是犀牛没有的，

but the researchers were able to strip this away with a solution of lithium bromide.

但研究人员可以溴化锂溶液将其除去。

1 rhino   

n.犀牛，钱, 现金

参考例句：

• The rhino charged headlong towards us.犀牛急速地向我们冲来。
• They have driven the rhino to the edge of extinction.他们已经令犀牛濒临灭绝。

2 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

3 rheumatism   

n.风湿病

参考例句：

• The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism.潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。

4 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

5 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

6 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

7 dagger   

n.匕首，短剑，剑号

参考例句：

• The bad news is a dagger to his heart.这条坏消息刺痛了他的心。
• The murderer thrust a dagger into her heart.凶手将匕首刺进她的心脏。

8 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

9 rhinos   

n.犀牛（rhino的复数形式）

参考例句：

• There are many reports of people taming and even training Indian rhinos. 有许多关于人们驯养甚至训练印度犀牛的记载。 来自辞典例句
• The rhinos had fed during the night in the rice fields of these villagers. 犀牛夜里在这些村民的庄稼地里也已吃饱了。 来自辞典例句

10 zoologist   

n.动物学家

参考例句：

• Charles darwin was a famous zoologist.查尔斯达尔文是一位著名的动物学家。
• The zoologist had spent a long time living with monkeys.这位动物学家与猴子一起生活了很长时间。

11 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

12 forger   

v.伪造；n.（钱、文件等的）伪造者

参考例句：

• He admitted seven charges including forging passports.他承认了7项罪名，其中包括伪造护照。
• She alleged that Taylor had forged her signature on the form.她声称泰勒在表格上伪造了她的签名。

13 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

14 adorn   

vt.使美化，装饰

参考例句：

• She loved to adorn herself with finery.她喜欢穿戴华丽的服饰。
• His watercolour designs adorn a wide range of books.他的水彩设计使许多图书大为生色。

15 scaly   

adj.鱼鳞状的；干燥粗糙的

参考例句：

• Reptiles possess a scaly,dry skin.爬行类具有覆盖着鳞片的干燥皮肤。
• The iron pipe is scaly with rust.铁管子因为生锈一片片剥落了。