时差N小时 如何保存肉类?(上)

On the way home from the grocery, you get delayed so much that the frozen meat you’ve bought thaws¹ out. The question for this Moment of Science is should you refreeze it? We’ve been told by reliable authorities that it’s not good to refreeze uncooked meat. Why not? If freezing the meat in the first place helps preserve it, why doesn’t this work the second time around? The answer to this question lies in the fact that all food has some bacteria in it, but normally not enough to hurt us. We freeze uncooked meat so that bacteria will not grow in it. But freezing does not kill all the bacteria that are already there, it just puts them in a kind of suspended animation². When the meat is thawed³ the bacteria come back to life and begin reproducing.

【参考译文】

从商店回家的路上，你的行程延误了，因为你刚买的冷冻肉开始融化。这今天的《科学时刻》的问题是我们是否应该再次冷冻肉？权威人士已经告我们再次冷冻肉，这种做法并不好。为什么呢？如果第一次冷冻肉能保存肉，为什么第二次冷冻就不行呢？问题的答案在于所有食物中都有细菌，但是细菌的数量还不至于伤害我们。我们将未煮过的肉冷冻，那样里面的细菌都不会生长。但是冷冻并不会杀死里面所有的细菌，只是抑制细菌暂停生长。当冻肉开始融化时，细菌又复活了，重新开始繁殖。

1 thaws   

n.（足以解冻的）暖和天气( thaw的名词复数 )；（敌对国家之间）关系缓和v.（气候）解冻( thaw的第三人称单数 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The sun at noon thaws the ice on the road. 中午的阳光很快把路上的冰融化了。 来自辞典例句
• It thaws in March here. 在此地化雪的季节是三月。 来自辞典例句

2 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

3 thawed   

解冻

参考例句：

• The little girl's smile thawed the angry old man. 小姑娘的微笑使发怒的老头缓和下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He thawed after sitting at a fire for a while. 在火堆旁坐了一会儿，他觉得暖和起来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》