【英语时差8,16】蚂蚁突袭

Imagine this. You’re coming home to your gated community after a long day of work. As you stop to show the guard your ID, a mugger jumps out from behind a bush and grabs you by the mouth. Okay, that last part sounded a little weird¹, but that’s pretty much the way it happens to sweat bees. These are the little metallic-looking critters who live in nests burrowed² into the ground. Some bees go out foraging³, but one stands by the entrance to the nest. She doesn’t let anyone in unless he can identify himself using a chemical tag. The returning bee is most vulnerable when it’s waiting for the ID check. Sure enough, entomologists have observed another species attacking at just that moment. Ectatomma ruidum–ants. E. ruidum charges the waiting bee, grabs its mouthparts, hauls it away and kills it–now somebody else will be bringing home a little snack. What’s a bee to do? Two French researchers have recently spotted⁴ sweat bees changing their flight paths when an ant is lurking⁵ by the hole. According to the study, bees have been seen pulling up at the last minute and later try coming in from a different direction. Others land far away from the hole and then dash in on foot. Researchers found that even a dead ant with its odor removed is enough to spook the bees. This is an impressive feat⁶, showing that sweat bees are somehow able to understand the danger posed by ants. But it’s also eye-opening to realize how much strategy and counterstrategy is involved in the daily lives of even the smallest insects.

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 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

3 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句

4 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

5 lurking   

潜在

参考例句：

• Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的，想干什么？
• There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。