How can flies walk on walls and ceilings? 苍蝇如何具有贴壁功？

 

课文朗读

 

课文讲解

 

繁體中文譯本

 

Tyler’s friend Genevieve has just tried to swat a fly:  泰勒的朋友吉妮芙挥手打苍蝇：

 

G: Ahh! Missed! Darned dirty fly!

啊！没打中！死苍蝇，脏死了。

 

T: Dirty indeed. A fly carries almost two million bacteria on its body.

确实很脏，一只苍蝇身上带了近两百万个细菌。

 

G: Two million! Yuck! Well, I wish they’d stay in the air and stop leaving unhygienic reminders of their terrestrial adventures on my walls.

两百万个！真恶心！真希望牠们只在空中飞，不要停在我墙上，留下牠们在地上到处探险后所残余下的肮脏痕迹。

 

T: Those marks they leave are actually their footprints. Flies can only hang on with the help of a thin film of fluid secreted from the soles of their feet.

牠们留下的那些痕迹其实是牠们的脚印，靠着脚底分泌液体形成的薄膜，帮助牠们攀附在物体上。

 

G: I always thought that it was the hairs on their feet which gave them traction.

我一直以为是牠们脚上的毛，让牠们有吸力。

 

T: The hairs help. But the hairs serve mainly to give them more surface contact.

脚毛也有帮助，但脚毛主要是让牠们有更大的接触面积。

 

G: So when they press their foot down, the hairs spread out and fill every microscopic crack and divot of the landscape they’re scaling?

所以当牠们爬行在平面上，脚往下压时，脚毛展开，就把脚底下极微小的缝隙小凹洞都填满了？

 

T: That’s right. The hairs give them almost perfect contact with the surface beneath them, and the adhesive fluid gives them their sticking power.

没错。脚毛使牠们与所接触的表面之间没有缝隙，而胶状液体赐予牠们黏着力。

 

G: Being so light must help.

体重轻也有帮助。

 

T: It does. In terms of weight compared to volume, they don’t weigh much.

确实是。就体重和体积相比，牠们不重。

 

G: So, they require very little force to keep from falling.

所以啊，牠们只要花很少的力气，就不会掉下来了。

 

T: Yep. And, unless somebody figures out a way to keep flies’ feet dry, we’re stuck with them for a while

就是嘛。所以，除非有人想出了办法让苍蝇的脚维持干燥，否则我们暂时是拿牠们没办法的。

 

－by Francoise Raunet

 

Vocabulary

单词发音

 

swat [swɑt] v. 猛击；拍打

darned [dɑrnd] adj. 该死的；可恨的；要命的

yuck [jʌk] interjection 感叹词【非正式】呸！啐！讨厌！〔表示强烈的厌恶〕

unhygienic [͵ʌnhaɪdʒɪˋɛnɪk] adj. 不卫生的；不健康的

terrestrial [təˋrɛstrɪəl] adj. 地球的；陆地的

secrete [sɪˋkrit] v.【生理】分泌

sole [sol] n. 脚底；鞋底

traction [ˋtrækʃən] n. 摩擦力; 牵引力

crack [kræk] n. 裂缝，裂痕

divot [ˋdɪvət] n.（击球时削起的）一块草皮

adhesive [ədˋhisɪv] adj. 黏的；黏着的；有黏性的

be stuck with someone: 与...纠缠不清;  无法摆脱...  to be unable to get rid of someone

 

 

Sentence of the Day

We're all flies on the wall.

我们都可能是隐身未现的第三者。

 

fly on the wall  隐蔽的或不引人注意的观察者