【轻松英文阅读】被驯化的狐狸

Thanks to a couple of musicians from Norway and their popular song, “What Does a Fox Say?” a lot of people are thinking about foxes these days. And why not? They are famously clever. Moreover, they are cute and cuddly¹. It’s too bad we can’t keep them as pets.

 

Well, actually that last bit is no longer true. Thanks to an experiment in Russia that has been running for over 50 years, we now have domesticated³ foxes. It was the idea of Russian scientist, Dmitry Belyaev.

 

As a young man, Dmitry was intrigued⁴ by the domestication⁵ process and he developed various theories about it. In 1954, he set out to test his theories. His goal was to domesticate² the wild fox. He started with a group of 130. With each generation only the tamest ones were allowed to breed. Half a century later, there are almost 50,000 very human-friendly foxes.

 

The changes in the foxes have been dramatic. They are not at all aggressive towards humans like wild foxes. In fact, they love attention from humans. Basically, they behave like dogs. They have changed physically⁶ to look like dogs, as well. They have a variety of coat colors, many have floppy⁷ ears, and their skulls⁸ and noses are more rounded.

 

Dmitri predicted all of this. The only surprise for him was how little time the transformation⁹ took.

 

Are you ready for your own fox? Last year it was possible to adopt a fox from the research program for around $8,000 dollars. However, The Domestic Fox, the company working with the scientists in Russia recently closed their website, so you may have to wait a little longer.

1 cuddly   

adj.抱着很舒服的，可爱的

参考例句：

• The beautiful crib from Mom and Dad is so cuddly.爸爸妈妈送的漂亮婴儿床真舒服。
• You can't call a hedgehog cuddly.你不能说刺猬逗人喜爱。

2 domesticate   

vt.驯养；使归化，使专注于家务

参考例句：

• Many thousand years ago people learned how to domesticate animals.数千年以前人们就学会了饲养动物。
• If you domesticate this raccoon,it will have trouble living in the wild.如果你驯养这只浣熊，它生活在野外将会有困难。

3 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

5 domestication   

n.驯养，驯化

参考例句：

• The first was the domestication of animals. 第一个阶段是驯养动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In northwestern China, there is no evidence for endemic domestication of any animals. 在中国西北，没有任何当地动物驯化的迹象。 来自辞典例句

6 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

7 floppy   

adj.松软的，衰弱的

参考例句：

• She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
• Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗？

8 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

9 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。