时差N小时 男性的未来

Yael:What's the matter, Don? You look worried.

雅艾尔：发生什么事了，唐？你看起来很担忧。

Don:Well, Yael, you know how people are always predicting that one day women will be able to have babies without men? It turns out that some species of the Whiptail lizard¹ have figured out how to do this and completely eliminated the male sex.

唐：嗯，雅艾尔，人们通常预测，如果有一天没有男人，女人也可以自己生孩子，你知道是怎么回事吗？事实证明鞭尾蜥蜴已经做到这一点，并将雄性蜥蜴完全消灭掉了。

Yael:You mean that the species is all female?

雅艾尔：你是说所有的鞭尾蜥蜴都是雌性？

Don:Exactly. The females have the ability to lay eggs that hatch and grow into healthy lizards² without needing to be fertilized³ by a male. The offspring are exact and complete genetic⁴ duplicates of the mothers.

唐：正是这样。雌性鞭尾蜥蜴能不通过受精就产卵并孵化出健康的小蜥蜴。而其后代的基因与母亲的基因完全一致。

Yael:So the females are cloning themselves.

雅艾尔：那么说雌性蜥蜴是在克隆自己。

Don:That's right. And if that weren't enough, the female lizards take turns role-playing. They perform a mating ritual in which one lizard acts like the male, and the second lizard acts like the female. The ritual causes the lizard acting⁵ as the female to ovulate and lay her eggs. Then, a few weeks later, the two lizards switch roles and repeat this process so that the second female will be able to ovulate and lay her eggs.

唐：说得对。如果那样还不够的话，雌性蜥蜴会轮流进行角色扮演。她们进行一个交配仪式，其中一个扮演雄性，另一个扮演雌性。这种仪式会引起扮演雌性角色的蜥蜴排卵并产卵。然后过几个星期，两只蜥蜴再交换角色，重复这种交配仪式，这样另一只雌蜥蜴就可以排卵，产卵了。

Yael:That is strange.

雅艾尔：太奇怪了。

Don:And it raises a lot of interesting questions. For example, it's not clear how well an all-female species can evolve and adapt to environmental changes. A species' survival depends in part on variation among its members. If all the members of a species are identical, chances are greater that something like a change in the climate or a disease will wipe them all out.

唐：这也引发了许多有趣的问题。例如，对于这种全雌物种如何更好地进化以适应环境变化目前还不清楚。一个物种的生存要部分依靠成员的变异。如果所有的成员基因都一模一样，那么一遇到气候变化或者灾害，她们全军覆没的机会就很大。

Yael:So it might be a little early to do away with males.

雅艾尔：所以排除雄性还为之过早。

Don:Well, you know what they say. You can't live with them.

唐：嗯，你知道她们是怎么说的。你没办法和他们一起生活。

Yael:You can't live without them.

雅艾尔：但你的生活不能没有他们。

1 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

2 lizards   

n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards. 在庞培城里除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫和蜥蜴外，没有别的生物。 来自辞典例句
• Can lizards reproduce their tails? 蜥蜴的尾巴断了以后能再生吗？ 来自辞典例句

3 Fertilized   

v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
• Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。

4 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。