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VOA慢速英语2012 SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - 'The Map of Life'; Ancient Dogs; Golden Gate at 75

时间:2012-06-27 03:41:04

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - 'The Map of Life'; Ancient Dogs; Golden Gate at 75

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we tell about a project called “The Map of Life.” We also tell about a study of modern dogs and their ancestors. And we tell about a major anniversary for the world famous Golden Gate Bridge.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Suppose you would like to catch a muskellunge. Where in the world would you go to find that fish species? Where can you take a picture of the rare Giant Petrel bird? Or where would you find fields of calaloo?

If you have an Internet connection, you may get the answers to such questions with a new map. It shows the natural habitat, or living spaces, of about twenty-five thousand species. They include all land animals with backbones1, animals that live on land and water, and most of the fresh water fish in North America.

You can test a version of this new technology tool at Mappinglife.org. Information is being continually added. And, perhaps best of all, the information is free. You do not pay to use the service.

BARBARA KLEIN: The new map was described recently in the journal Trends in Ecology and Environment. Its creators say the map will provide the first interactive2, two-way path to information about biodiversity – the many living creatures found on Earth. Users will be able over time to add or change information about species.

Walter Jetz is a conservation biologist at Yale University in Connecticut. He was lead writer of the report. He says information used in the map comes from several sources. They include workers with the United States National Park Service, field guides, and observations from individual scientists. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility in Denmark also supplied information. The center made available more than three hundred million records of plant and animal locations.

The information is in different colors and shapes so it is easy to recognize what areas you want to research.

Mr. Jetz says, “The map is the where and the when of a species. The hope is for this to include hundreds of thousands of animals and plants and show how much or how little we know of their whereabouts.” 

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Robert Guralnick of the University of Colorado is another member of the mapping team. He says the online map will help governments and scientists decide how to use land and plan conservation efforts. And, it may also provide information about climate change and about diseases passed between animals and people. 

The researchers say the success of the project will depend on the help of other scientists, environmental groups and people with knowledge of the subject. 

Mr. Guralnick says the next step is to provide ways for anyone, anywhere to find animal and plant distributions with mobile or wireless3 technology. He says it is even possible that people could learn their chances of making contact with a wildlife species. He adds that the “Map of Life” project is following the examples of other banks of knowledge.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Modern dogs may look like the animals painted on the walls of ancient Egyptian buildings. But a new report says many centuries of cross-breeding make it hard to learn about the ancestry4 of man’s best friend. The report appears in the scientific journal Proceedings5 of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Scientists say it is wrong to call some modern dog breeds “ancient.” That includes what are said to be ancient breeds, like the Shar-Pei, the Akita and the Afghan hound. The new report says those animals are not closer to the first domesticated6 dogs than any other modern breed. Earlier research suggested that their genetic7 structure was similar to ancient breeds.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Dogs were the first animals to become domesticated. Experts say dogs stopped being wild about fifteen thousand years ago. Domestication8 involved changes in the make-up, or structure, of genes9. Over time, dogs became work animals. For example, some breeds were very good at protecting and guiding farm animals. But others were not house-trained and were not kept as pets until about two thousand years ago.

The international team of scientific researchers based their results on a study of ancient and modern dogs. They worked with one thousand three-hundred seventy-five animals. The animals represented thirty-five dog breeds. 

BARBARA KLEIN: The researchers examined the genetic structure of one hundred twenty-one breeds. Then they compared that information with a worldwide archeological study of the remains10 of the earliest dogs. They also studied the genes of nineteen wolves. Earlier research suggested that modern dogs may have developed first from the grey wolf. 

The researchers say human movement is another reason for the genetic difference between ancient and modern dog breeds. Historic events like the two world wars also affected11 the dog population.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Greger Larson of Durham University in England was lead writer of the report. Professor Larson says dogs have followed humans everywhere. And he notes, “We really love our dogs, and they have accompanied us across every continent.”

The researchers say some of the findings about what are considered “ancient” breeds seem opposite of what you might think. For example, none of the oldest breeds came from areas where the oldest archeological remains have been found. 

Keith Dobney from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland also worked on the research team. He said, “We still have some way to go to understand how, where and when the dog became man’s best friend.” 

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Finally, the Golden Gate Bridge is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. The bridge opened to vehicle traffic on May twenty-eighth, nineteen thirty-seven. Since then, more than two billion vehicles have crossed the world famous structure between San Francisco and Marin County, California. As many as one hundred twelve thousand cars make the trip each day.

The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension span in the world, at the time it was built. The suspended roadway stretches one thousand two hundred eighty meters between the bridge’s two tall towers. Today it still rates among the top ten longest bridge spans in existence.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mary Currie works for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. She says the bridge is one of the most extraordinary engineering projects of all time.

MARY CURRIE: “The Golden Gate Bridge is an engineering marvel12 certainly, and it gets award after award after award for what it means in civil engineering and structural13 engineering. It’s also a place where things happen first. For example, we were the first suspension bridge to have to change the roadway deck.” 

The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the Golden Gate Strait. That narrow passage of water connects the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge project. Work began in nineteen thirty-three. The project took four years to complete.

BARBARA KLEIN: The bridge is two thousand seven hundred eighty-eight meters long from one end to the other. It is twenty-seven meters wide. Two large cables pass over the top of the bridge’s towers. These structures stand two hundred twenty-seven meters above water and one hundred fifty-two meters above the road. Each cable holds more than twenty-seven thousand five hundred strands14 of wire.

Two hundred fifty pairs of vertical15 suspender ropes connect the support cables to the suspension bridge. This is part of what enables the bridge to move up and down by nearly five meters.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The Golden Gate Bridge weighed eight hundred eleven million five hundred thousand kilograms when it was completed in nineteen thirty-seven. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper called the finished project, “a thirty-five million dollar steel harp16!”

Architect Irving Morrow gets credit for the bridge’s bright orange color. The Navy wanted the bridge painted in yellow and black. The Air Force had suggested red and white.

MARY CURRIE: “But we were fortunate that Irving Morrow knew that that color would blend with the environment, it would contrast with the ocean and the air above, and it would also allow the art deco styling to really stand out.”

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and June Simms, who was also the producer. I’m Barbara Klein.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. You can find transcripts17, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at www.voanews.cn. And you can find us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 backbones c4c409c030b485ea5d90968a63228387     
n.骨干( backbone的名词复数 );脊骨;骨气;脊骨状物
参考例句:
  • Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨? 来自辞典例句
  • Simply adding bandwidth to the Internet backbones is not an answer. 只是简单的在互联网骨架上增加带宽是应付不了的。 来自互联网
2 interactive KqZzFY     
adj.相互作用的,互相影响的,(电脑)交互的
参考例句:
  • The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
  • This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。
3 wireless Rfwww     
adj.无线的;n.无线电
参考例句:
  • There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
  • Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。
4 ancestry BNvzf     
n.祖先,家世
参考例句:
  • Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
  • He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。
5 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
6 domesticated Lu2zBm     
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》
7 genetic PgIxp     
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。
8 domestication a412c94ddc4dddbce0e57281001e9ede     
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
9 genes 01914f8eac35d7e14afa065217edd8c0     
n.基因( gene的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因,所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪
10 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
11 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
12 marvel b2xyG     
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事
参考例句:
  • The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
  • The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。
13 structural itXw5     
adj.构造的,组织的,建筑(用)的
参考例句:
  • The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
  • The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。
14 strands d184598ceee8e1af7dbf43b53087d58b     
n.(线、绳、金属线、毛发等的)股( strand的名词复数 );缕;海洋、湖或河的)岸;(观点、计划、故事等的)部份v.使滞留,使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 vertical ZiywU     
adj.垂直的,顶点的,纵向的;n.垂直物,垂直的位置
参考例句:
  • The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
  • Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。
16 harp UlEyQ     
n.竖琴;天琴座
参考例句:
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
  • He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。
17 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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