2021考研英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day61

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着聚创考研网小编每天学一点英语，一起为考研筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

燃眉之急

Ecology is a complicated thing. Given the facts that elephant damage often kills trees and bush fire soften kill trees,it would be reasonable to deduce that acombination of the two would make things worse.Counter-intuitively, though, as research just published in Biotropica,by Benjamin Wigley of Nelson Mandela University in South Africa shows,if a tree has already been damaged, fire can actually help to make things better.One common way in which elephants harm trees is by stripping them of their bark.Dr Wigley, who did indeed start from the obvious assumption,set off to find out how much worse bush fires would make the effects of this bark stripping.

译文

生态是一个复杂的东西。鉴于大象的破坏以及丛林大火经常会导致树木死亡的事实，我们有理由推论两者的结合会让事情变得更加糟糕。但万万没想到，南非曼德拉大学的本杰明·威格利发表于《Biotropica》的一项研究表明如果一棵树木已经遭到毁坏，火其实可以帮助事情变得更好。大象伤害树木的常见方法之一是剥去它们的树皮。威格利博士确实是从一个明显的假设开始的，他开始研究丛林大火会对剥树皮造成多大的影响。

To this end he set up a study in the Kruger National Park, a reserve on South Africa's border with Mozambique.Since 1954, the Kruger has been the site of experiments in which plots of land have been burned at intervals,to discern the effects of fire on savannah ecology.Dr Wigley tapped into these experiments by looking at trees in three different zones.In one of these the vegetation was burned every year. In the second it was burned every other year.The third zone, by contrast, was actively shielded from fire.To keep things consistent, he looked at the fate of a single tree species, the marula, in all three zones.He picked marulas because they are particular victims of elephant activity.Their fruit are delicious, and prized by elephants and people alike. But elephants also seem to enjoy eating their bark.

译文

为此他在克鲁格国家公园开始了一项研究，克鲁格国家公园是一个位于南非与莫桑比克边境的保护区。自1954年起，克鲁格一直都是实验的试点，在这些实验中，研究人员每隔一段时间就焚烧一小块土地，以观察大火对草原生态的影响。威格利博士通过观察三个不同区域的树木进行了这些实验。其中一个区域中的植被每年被烧一次。第二个区域的植被每隔一年烧一次。而第三个区域的植被则被积极地保护起来不受大火灼烧。为了保持一致，他观察的是三个区域中同一种树木的命运—马鲁拉树。他选择马鲁拉树是因为它们是大象活动的特殊受害者。它们的果实很美味，深受大象和人类的珍视。但大象似乎喜欢吃它们的树皮。

In July 2016 he and his colleagues identified 20 marulas in every zone and used a hammerand a soil corer to remove from each of them a circular section of bark 5cm in diameter.Having inflicted this damage, they monitored the wounds over the course of the following two years, to see what would happen.To their surprise, they discovered that the wounds of trees in fire zones recovered far better than those of trees that had seen no fires at all.Wounded trees in the annual burn zone regrew 98% of their lost bark during the two years of the study.Those living in the biennial burn zone regrew 92% of it. But those in the zone where fires were suppressed regrew only 72%.

译文

2016年7月，他和他的同事在每个区域内确认了20棵马鲁拉树并用锤子和土壤去心器从每棵树上取下直径5厘米的圆形树皮。在造成这种破坏之后，他们在接下来的两年里对伤口进行了监测，看看会发生什么。让他们惊讶的是，他们发现火灾区树木的伤口恢复得比那些没经历过火灾的树木要快。在两年的研究中，年度火灾区中的受伤树木98%的树皮都重新长了出来。那些两年一次火灾区中的树木的树皮重生了92%。但防火区的树木仅生长出了72%。

The researchers also found something else when they were measuring the trees' wounds: ants.Ten of the 20 trees in the fire-suppression zone developed ant colonies in their wounds.The ants in question were a species that is known to damage trees and is presumed to impairtissue healing.By contrast, only five trees in the biennial burn zone and three in the annual zone developed ants' nests in their wounds.It looks, therefore, as if bush fires are cauterising trees' wounds by killing ants that might otherwise infest them.Though such fires are surely harmful to healthy trees,it seems, in an example of two negatives making a positive, as if they are actually helpful to sick ones.

译文

当测量树木伤口时，研究人员还发现了一些其他的东西：蚂蚁。20棵防火区的树木中，有10棵的伤口上长出了蚁群。这些蚂蚁是一种已知的会损害树木的物种，据推测会损害组织愈合。相比之下，两年一次的区域和年度区域中分别仅有5棵和3棵树的伤口中长出了蚁巢。因此，似乎丛林大火是在通过杀死可能感染树木的蚂蚁来烧灼树木的伤口。虽然这样的大火对健康树木无疑是有害的，但在这个负负得正的例子中，似乎它们实际上对生病的树木是有益的。

注释

1.deduce 推论；推断

Alison had cleverly deduced that I was the author of the letter.

艾莉森已经聪明地推断出那封信就是我写的。

2.strip off脱去；剥落

He stripped off his wet clothes and stepped into the shower.

他脱掉湿衣服走进浴室。

3.discern 觉察；了解

He discerned a certain coldness in their welcome.

他觉察到他们的欢迎有点冷淡。

4.shield from庇护使免受...

The interior was shielded from the curious gaze of passersby.

屋子内部被挡住了，以防路人好奇地张望。

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