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Why do corpses float but living bodies sink? 尸体为什么会浮出水来？

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课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

Marie has invited her friend Darren to her lakefront home to swim in her heated pool:  玛丽邀请她的朋友戴伦到她面湖的家里的温水游泳池游泳：

D: Wow! It’s lovely and warm — say, can you float on your back?

哇呜，天气很棒很温暖耶──欸，你可以仰着漂浮吗？

M: No — never could; I always sink like a corpse!

不──绝不可能；我总会像具尸体一样沈下去！

D: Don’t you mean like a stone? Dead men don’t sink.

你的意思是像颗石头吧？死人是不会沈的。

M: That’s true; I wonder why not—they weigh as much as when they were alive, right?

那倒是真的；我不懂为什么──它们不是跟活着的时候一样重吗？

D: Actually, bodies generally do sink at first—they resurface later.

事实上，一般说来尸体最初是会沈下去的──后来才会浮出水面。

M: Is it the “zombie” effect? Are they rising up from their watery graves to become the undead?

那是不是死尸复活啊？它们是不是溺毙后又浮上来，变成不死的僵尸？

D: What a grisly thought! No, corpses become more buoyant as they decay; putrefactive gases cause them to bloat.

真是可怕的想法！不是这样，尸体腐烂以后的浮力会变大；腐烂的气体致使它们膨胀。

M: And thus to float—I get it. But what if a stiff were wearing heavy boots or something?

所以会浮起来──我懂了。但如果是一具穿着很重的靴子或什么的尸体呢？

D: It’d remain submerged for a time but float up eventually. The real determiner of how long a corpse stays underwater is temperature.

他们会沈在水里一阵子，但最后还是会浮起来。真正决定一具尸体留在水里多久的因素是温度。

M: Let me guess: the more frigid the water, the longer the submersion – because it slows decomposition right?

我猜猜看：水越冰冷，尸体在水里的时间就越久──因为尸体在冰水中腐烂得慢，对不对？

D: Right you are. And in a lake like the one out there—one of the deepest and coldest around—a body may never surface.

答对了。比方说，如果在外面那座湖──这附近最深最冷的湖中，尸体可能永远浮不上来。

M: That gives me the heebie-jeebies! Now I’m even more glad we’re swimming in this pool and not in that lake!

那让我浑身起鸡皮疙瘩！现在，我很庆幸我们是在这池子里游，不是在那座湖里头！

－by Sonya Roy

Vocabulary

单词发音

corpse [kɔrps] n. 尸体

say [se] int. 感叹词  喂，哎呀

zombie [ˋzɑmbɪ] n. 殭尸；木讷呆板的人

grisly [ˋgrɪzlɪ] adj.〔通常因涉及死亡﹑腐朽﹑破坏而〕令人极其厌恶的; 可怕的

buoyant [ˋbɔɪənt] adj. 有浮力的；能浮起的

decay [dɪˋke] v. 腐朽，腐烂

putrefactive [͵pjutrəˋfæktɪv] adj. 致腐败的；腐败的

bloat [blot] v. 膨胀；肿起

stiff [stɪf] n.【俚】死尸

submerge [səbˋmɝdʒ] v. 把……浸入水中，淹没

for a time  短时间内; 暂时

determiner [dɪˋtɝmɪnɚ] n. 因子

submersion [səb`mɝʃən] n. 没入水中﹐浸没﹐ 淹没

decomposition [͵dikɑmpəˋzɪʃən] n. 分解, 腐败, 变质

heebie-jeebies [ˋhibɪˋdʒibɪz] n.【非正式】使某人神经紧张﹐ 使某人坐立不安

Sentence of the Day

It left them dead in the water.

那使他们动弹不得。

dead in the water 不能起作用的，不能移动的 Unable to function or move.