英语听力：自然百科 蛙类拯救阿根廷？
时间：2014-04-24 07:55:30
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（单词翻译）
In Argentina, the small city of San Luis is adopting the frog as its provincial1 hero. Frogs have been touted2 by some as the antidote3 to a dengue fever outbreak that's gripped Argentina. There have been over 20,000 cases recorded this year, including at least five deaths. Local Councilor Daniel Sosa says one frog can eat about 15,000 insects including mosquitoes in a single season. Mosquitoes are the carriers of the disease. He wants people to adopt the frog and forget the wildly used chemical controls.
What we want is a biological control, so the aero-toxins do not kill us. In the end, we will not be killed by the dengue, but we will actually be killed the aero-toxins. We will be killed by
aerosols4, by the
pesticides5. So, we have to begin to look for biological
mechanisms6 and the frog is one of them.
Sosa is giving them away, encouraging locals to put them in their gardens. While not everyone has been jumping at the
prospect7 of taking one home, local residents have been receiving them with amused curiosity.
The truth is that I do not want to take one to my house. I am impressed. But, well, if it is a way to prevent it, what else can I do?
Everything serves and its cost is zero, because the repellents are really expensive and not everyone has the money to buy them.
According to a local newspaper, a farmer in a nearby village had the original idea. He was convinced the repopulation of the
amphibians9 in the heavily forested area would provide a clean answer to the long-legged mosquito. He says that in contrast to the
toxic10 methods wildly used to combat the mosquito, a frog is a friend to the health of people.
The frog is a form of
defense11. That's the first thing and
secondly12 in my opinion, if I may say, all this chemical stuff and all that is a waste of place, because you know why, because when the insect gets the
scent13, it goes away from where there is the defense, and the mosquito is no more there. Only when he is a top, or is really caught with the spread, but other than that it doesn't provide anything. He's gone and keeps going. Do you get me? And everything I believe is all this chemical combination does nothing good for the health of the people as it contaminates the air.
A newer strain of the disease appears
resistant14 to the chemical controls, and the
amphibian8 population continues to decline. Despite the region having large numbers of frogs in the past, today there are very few as a consequence of changes in the natural habitat and years of
fumigation15. Some say the increased air travel as well as Argentina's recent agricultural expansions have played a role in the
epidemic16. Land clearing for food production has disrupted large parts of the country's
ecological17 balance. Despite the enthusiasm for biological controls, there are some words of caution.
In accordance with the
autonomous18 population here, it must not be misunderstood that we do not try to introduce species that are not natural to our region, because we have to take care with a representative number in each region, and we have to study them
previously19, because it just might be that they occupy the nests of the native species and with that we would produce a real ecological crisis.
Whether frog heroes or
pawns20 in a misguided plan, the amphibian residents of San Luis have been truly thrown into the
spotlight21.
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