美国有线新闻 CNN 美国将在佛罗里达释放转基因蚊子

Aedes aegypti is a type of what? Carnivorous plant, paper, hieroglyphics¹, or mosquito. This is a species of mosquito that can carry deadly diseases.

埃及伊蚊是什么？食肉植物、纸张、象形文字还是蚊子？埃及伊蚊是一种能携带致命疾病的蚊子。

The controversial plan is moving ahead to release genetically² modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys. More than 750,000 of the insects are set to be introduced there. Why? The aedes aegypti mosquito can carry dangerous diseases like the Zika virus, Dengue fever and yellow fever.

将转基因蚊子释放到佛罗里达群岛这项备受争议的计划正在推进。预计将有75万余只蚊子被释放到该地。为什么？埃及伊蚊会携带寨卡病毒、登革热和黄热病等危险疾病。

Officials are looking for new ways to kill off these insects without using pesticides³ and genetically modified mosquitoes might be a way to do this.

官员正在寻找新方法，在不使用杀虫剂的情况下杀死这些蚊子，而转基因蚊子可能是一种方法。

Only female mosquitoes bite people. The altered insects that are set to be released in Florida are male. They've been modified so that the female offspring they produce will die before they hatch from their eggs and grow big enough to bite people. And the company that developed these GMO mosquitoes says they've been very successful in controlling mosquito populations in Panama, Brazil and the Cayman Islands.

只有雌性蚊子会叮人。而将被释放到佛罗里达的转基因蚊子是雄性。经过改造后，它们交配后产生的雌性后代会在从卵里孵化出来之前死亡，不会生长到足以叮咬人的程度。研发这种转基因蚊子的公司表示，他们在巴拿马、巴西和开曼群岛进行了控制蚊子种群的实验，结果非常成功。

But there's strong opposition⁴ among people in Florida to releasing the altered mosquitoes there. One technology and food safety advocate called it a Jurassic Park experiment and said there's no way to know what could go wrong because government officials haven't done enough to review the risks.

但佛罗里达居民强烈反对在那里释放转基因蚊子。一名技术和食品安全倡导者称这是侏罗纪公园实验，并表示没有办法知道会出什么问题，因为政府官员没有进行足够的风险审查。

Environmental groups are also concerned about what could happen to the birds, mammals and other insects that eat the GMO mosquitoes. The altered insects are set to be released in the Florida Keys in the years 2021 and 2022.

环保组织也表示担心，因为不知道食用转基因蚊子的鸟类、哺乳动物和其他昆虫会发生什么。这种转基因蚊子将于2021年和2022年在佛罗里达群岛释放。

1 hieroglyphics   

n.pl.象形文字

参考例句：

• Hieroglyphics are carved into the walls of the temple. 寺庙的墙壁上刻着象形文字。
• His writing is so bad it just looks like hieroglyphics to me. 他写的糟透了，对我来说就像天书一样。

2 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

3 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。