關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章閱讀
關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章閱讀
鳥(niǎo)信仰是中國(guó)原始社會(huì)先民的主要信仰之一。在原始社會(huì),東夷、百越、荊楚等民族都信奉鳥(niǎo)圖騰,對(duì)鳥(niǎo)類抱有特殊的崇拜和信仰。本文是關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章，希望對(duì)大家有幫助!
關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章篇一
Fossil feathers
羽毛化石
Not just for the birds
并非鳥(niǎo)類獨(dú)有
A trove of fossils sheds light on the evolution of feathers
珍貴羽毛化石的發(fā)現(xiàn)能夠更好地闡釋羽毛的進(jìn)化過(guò)程
THE fossil record is, famously, full of holes.
眾所周知，化石記錄總是漏洞百出。
One such lacuna has been the absence of well-preserved feathers from the Cretaceous-the period between 145m and 65m years ago that ended with the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.
一個(gè)漏洞就是由于人們無(wú)法找到白堊紀(jì)時(shí)期保存完好的羽毛，因而該時(shí)期羽毛化石的記錄一直處于空白狀態(tài)。白堊紀(jì)是距今1.45億年到6500萬(wàn)年的一段時(shí)期，末期發(fā)生了導(dǎo)致恐龍消失的物種大滅絕。
Now, this gap has been partly filled.
如今，這段空白得到了部分填充。
In this week's Science, a team led by Ryan McKellar from the University of Alberta report the discovery of eleven feathers preserved in amber from the latter part of the Cretaceous, about 70m-85m years ago.
本周，瑞安?麥凱樂(lè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究小組在《科學(xué)》雜志上發(fā)表報(bào)告稱，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了11種白堊紀(jì)后期(距今約7000至8500萬(wàn)年)封存在琥珀里的羽毛。
Intriguingly, not all of them seem to come from birds.
有趣的是，這些羽毛并不都屬于鳥(niǎo)類。
The origin of feathers is a mystery.
羽毛的起源一直是個(gè)謎。
The earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx, lived during the Jurassic, the period before the Cretaceous.
人類所熟知的最古老鳥(niǎo)類始祖鳥(niǎo)生活在白堊紀(jì)時(shí)期之前的侏羅紀(jì)時(shí)期。
But fossils from China suggest the precursors of feathers-simple, filament-like structures possibly used for insulation-evolved in land-lubbing dinosaurs and were only later adapted for flight.
中國(guó)出土的化石表明羽毛的前身呈簡(jiǎn)易的絲狀結(jié)構(gòu)，可能具有隔離熱量的功用，這些簡(jiǎn)易絲狀羽毛在陸地恐龍身上不斷進(jìn)化，直至后來(lái)才具備了飛行功能。
The top picture shows similar filaments discovered by Dr McKellar and his team, suggesting flightless dinosaurs sporting such protofeathers were still around in the late Cretaceous.
上圖所示為麥凱樂(lè)博士及其研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)的類似絲狀的羽毛，表明長(zhǎng)有這些原生羽毛的“非鳥(niǎo)”恐龍?jiān)诎讏准o(jì)后期仍然存活著。
Not all the feathers found by Dr McKellar were so primitive, though.
不過(guò)，McKellar博士發(fā)現(xiàn)的羽毛并不都是遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代的。
The second picture shows one similar in shape to those sported by modern birds.
第二幅圖顯示的羽毛形狀與現(xiàn)代鳥(niǎo)類羽毛相似。
Modern feathers consist of thousands of fibres held together by tiny hooks.
現(xiàn)代鳥(niǎo)類羽毛由成千上萬(wàn)束靠細(xì)鉤聚攏在一起的纖維構(gòu)成。
The details of that design can be tweaked to change a feather's characteristics, offering waterproofing, insulation, streamlining and so on.
通過(guò)改進(jìn)羽毛構(gòu)造的細(xì)節(jié)可改變它的特性，如防水、隔熱、流線造型等功能。
The third picture shows feathers that have just such a specialisation: coiling reminiscent of that seen in the feathers of modern divers.
第三幅圖顯示的羽毛就具備這樣的特殊功能：螺旋造型與現(xiàn)代潛鳥(niǎo)的羽毛相似。
Such coiling allows a feather to absorb water, which streamlines and insulates the owner.
這種螺旋形狀的羽毛能夠吸水，并使該鳥(niǎo)類身形更加精巧同時(shí)起保溫作用。
These feathers, then, presumably adorned a diving bird-perhaps Hesperornis, a flightless North American diver from precisely this period.
這些羽毛想必當(dāng)時(shí)是歸潛鳥(niǎo)所有——也許是“黃昏鳥(niǎo)”，一種恰好生活在這一時(shí)期不會(huì)飛翔的北美潛鳥(niǎo)。
The final picture shows pigmentation preserved in a fossil feather.
最后一幅圖顯示了封存在羽毛化石里的色素沉著。
Different feathers have different patterns of colour, suggesting that Cretaceous dinosaurs-flying or otherwise-used their feathers for display.
不同的羽毛有不同的顏色樣式，這表明白堊紀(jì)時(shí)期的會(huì)飛恐龍和陸地恐龍都利用羽毛來(lái)炫示自己。
Charles Darwin once said that contemplating a peacock's tail made him sick, such was the difficulty of explaining its complexity.
查爾斯?達(dá)爾文曾說(shuō)過(guò)研究孔雀尾讓他有頭暈的感覺(jué)，可見(jiàn)想解釋清楚其復(fù)雜性有多難了。
Dr McKellar's finds suggest, at least, that that complexity began to evolve a long time ago.
不過(guò)，麥凱樂(lè)博士的發(fā)現(xiàn)至少表明這種復(fù)雜性在很久以前就開(kāi)始進(jìn)化了。
關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章篇二
禽虐與氣候變化 鳥(niǎo)類受害
Malaria among birds is becoming more prevalent
鳥(niǎo)類中的瘧疾感染越來(lái)越多
MOSQUITOES, which carry malaria parasites, like the warm and wet conditions that are expectedto become more common with climate change.
攜帶瘧原蟲(chóng)的蚊子喜歡溫暖潮濕的環(huán)境，由于氣候變化的影響這種環(huán)境可能會(huì)越來(lái)越普遍。
This has led many to reason that malarial infections will increase.
因此很多人推論，瘧疾感染將會(huì)增加。
Yet studies run into the unreliability of modelling future climatic effects and sometimes ignorechanges in land use and health care.
但是很多研究遇到了未來(lái)氣候效應(yīng)模型不可靠的問(wèn)題，而且有時(shí)忽視了土地使用和健康保健方面的變化。
However, a new analysis of the spread of avian malaria shows that for the birds, at least,there is a real worry.
然而，一項(xiàng)新的對(duì)禽虐傳播的分析顯示，至少對(duì)于鳥(niǎo)類而言，真正令人擔(dān)憂的狀況已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)。
Laszlo Garamszegi, of the Do?ana Biological Station in Spain, studied patterns of malarialinfections in birds to avoid confounding human factors in determining the epidemiology of aclosely related parasite.
在對(duì)一種有密切關(guān)系的寄生蟲(chóng)進(jìn)行流行病學(xué)鑒定時(shí)，為避免混入人為因素，西班牙多尼亞納生物站的喇撒?噶母賽棘研究了在鳥(niǎo)類中瘧疾感染的模式。
He looked at 43 previous studies that had carefully screened 3,000 bird species for malaria indifferent locations over the past 70 years.
他察看了以前的43份研究。這些研究仔細(xì)鑒別了過(guò)去70年來(lái)在不同地區(qū)的3000中鳥(niǎo)類感染瘧疾的情況。
He found that an increase in global temperatures of 1°C was accompanied by a two-tothreefold increase in the average prevalence of malaria in birds.
他發(fā)現(xiàn)，全球氣溫每增加1°C，鳥(niǎo)類平均瘧疾患病率隨之增加兩到三倍。
The most dramatic increases took place during the past 20 years.
最急劇地增加是發(fā)生在過(guò)去的20年間。
Dr Garamszegi's work, published in Global Change Biology, found that the house sparrow(Passer domesticus) showed a malaria prevalence that was less than 10% before 1990 whenworldwide temperatures were cooler, but in recent years nearly 30% were infected.
噶母賽棘博士的論文發(fā)表在《全球變化生物學(xué)》雜志上，他發(fā)現(xiàn)，家雀(Passer domesticus)的瘧疾患病率在1990年以前不到10%，那時(shí)全球氣候比較涼爽，但是在最近的一些年里幾乎30%被感染。
The great tit (Parus major) presented a similarly worrying increase, with less than 3% infectedwith malaria before 1995 but closer to 15% in recent studies.
大山雀(Parus major)的患病率有類似令人擔(dān)憂的增加，1995年之前不到3%，而最近接近15%。
The blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), a migrant bird common in Europe that breeds in gardens, oncehad virtually no avian malaria but a study in 1999 showed nearly 4% had the disease.
黑頭鶯在歐洲一種常見(jiàn)的候鳥(niǎo)，它們生活在很多公園里，實(shí)際上它們?cè)?jīng)并沒(méi)有禽虐感染，但是1999年的一項(xiàng)研究顯示，幾乎4%的黑頭鶯感染了這種疾病。
The effects of warming on avian malaria were not universal.
氣候變暖對(duì)禽虐的影響并不普遍。
Birds in Asia, North America and South America suffered much less change in their levels ofinfection during warm years than did birds dwelling in Africa and Europe.
亞洲、北美和南美的鳥(niǎo)類，在氣候變暖的若干年里，其感染率的變化較小，而生活在非洲和歐洲的鳥(niǎo)類則受影響較大。
Such trends may not have any relevance to the malaria parasites that infect humans.
這種趨勢(shì)與感染人類的瘧原蟲(chóng)可能沒(méi)有任何關(guān)系。
But avian malaria is already ravaging the native birds of Hawaii and it is now wreaking havoc inNew Zealand, says Dr Garamszegi.
但是禽虐已經(jīng)毀掉了夏威夷的本地鳥(niǎo)類，它目前在新西蘭正造成著巨大的破壞，噶母賽棘博士說(shuō)。
Human beings may be able to mitigate the spread of malaria, but birds will need the help ofconservationists if some species are to survive.
人類也許已經(jīng)使瘧疾的傳播減緩，但是如果某些鳥(niǎo)類要幸存下來(lái)，就需要環(huán)境保護(hù)主義者們的幫助。
關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)的英語(yǔ)文章篇三
Birds' magnetic sense
鳥(niǎo)類的磁性感知能力
Columbarian Columbuses
禽類新發(fā)現(xiàn)
Birds can navigate by the Earth's magnetic field. How they do it is still a mystery
鳥(niǎo)類能夠利用地球磁場(chǎng)導(dǎo)航。機(jī)理尚不明確
WHERE would people be without magnetic compasses?
人類沒(méi)有指南針會(huì)怎樣?
The short answer is: lost.
很簡(jiǎn)單：迷失方向。
By giving human beings a sixth sense—an ability to detect the hitherto invisible magnetic fieldof the Earth—the compass proved one of the most important inventions ever.
指南針給了人類第6感，使人能辨別地球無(wú)形的磁場(chǎng)，成為最重要的發(fā)明之一。
It let sailors navigate without sight of the night sky.
海員不用觀察夜空便可以辨識(shí)方向。
And that led to the voyages of discovery, trade and conquest which created the political geography of the modern world.
人們用它進(jìn)行海上探索，海上交易，攻城掠地，進(jìn)而開(kāi)創(chuàng)了現(xiàn)代世界的政治版圖。
Imagine, then, what animals which had their own, built-in compasses could achieve.
有些動(dòng)物有自己內(nèi)嵌的指南系統(tǒng)?？梢韵胂蟮贸鲞@些動(dòng)物的能力。
They might spend their summers doing the English Season in Glyndebourne or Henley, and then overwinter in the warmth of Mombasa.
它們可以在戈林德伯恩或亨利鎮(zhèn)消暑，享受自己的英格蘭夏日。然后在溫暖的蒙巴薩島過(guò)冬。
They might strike out, like intrepid pioneers, from Angola to Anchorage.
它們可以像無(wú)畏的開(kāi)拓者一樣，從安哥拉獨(dú)闖安克雷奇。
They might even, if truly gripped by wanderlust and a hatred of the darkness, live in near-perpetual daylight by migrating from Pole to Pole.
假如它們?yōu)槁眯兴鶢拷O，為黑暗而煩惱，它們會(huì)穿梭于兩極之間，過(guò)著永遠(yuǎn)有光亮的生活。
And that is just what some birds do.
以上這些只是鳥(niǎo)類能力的一部分。
Swallows travel between Europe and Africa. Northern wheatears fly from Africa to Alaska, and back.
家燕在歐洲和非洲之間遷徙。石棲鳥(niǎo)在非洲和阿拉斯加之間遷徙。
Arctic terns each year make the journey from one end of the planet to the other.
每年，北極燕鷗都會(huì)從地球的一端飛到另一端。
And they can do it, at least in part, because they do have a magnetic sense denied to humans.
它們能這么做的原因之一便是鳥(niǎo)類可以感知磁性，而人類不行。
The most familiar avian navigation trick is that pulled off by homing pigeons.
人類最為熟知的鳥(niǎo)類導(dǎo)航技巧就是通過(guò)研究信鴿而得到的。
As a consequence pigeons have often found themselves at the sharp end of investigations about how bird navigation in general, and magnetic sense in particular, actually work.
鴿子便處在了人類研究的尖端。人們用它研究鳥(niǎo)類整體的導(dǎo)航機(jī)能，用它特別研究磁性感應(yīng)機(jī)制。
That pigeons have such a sense was shown more than 40 years ago, by William Keeton of Cornell University, in upstate New York, who attached magnets to pigeons to see if they could still home.
鴿子顯示出此種能力是在40年前。當(dāng)時(shí)，紐約州北部康乃爾大學(xué)的William Keeton把磁體系在鴿子身上，觀察它們是否能夠回家。
They could not, though birds fitted with non-magnetic dummies managed perfectly well.
結(jié)果是它們不能，但是那些帶有仿磁體的鴿子卻回家。
Since then, experiments on other species have shown magnetic sensitivity is common among birds. What these experiments have not shown, however, is how the birds manage it.
此后的實(shí)驗(yàn)表明，磁性感知能力是鳥(niǎo)類共有的，但并沒(méi)有解釋是如何操作的。
See it? Hear it? Smell it?
視覺(jué)?聽(tīng)覺(jué)?嗅覺(jué)?
There are two theories.
理論上的說(shuō)法有兩種。
One is that the magnetic sensors are grains of magnetite, a form of iron oxide which, as its name suggests, is easily magnetised.
一種是鴿子具有磁感應(yīng)器，這是一種以氧化鐵形式存在的磁鐵礦粒子。顧名思義，這種物質(zhì)極易磁化。
The other is that the Earth's magnetic field affects a particular chemical reaction in the retina in a way that reaches into the arcane depths of quantum mechanics.
另一種說(shuō)法認(rèn)為，地球磁場(chǎng)能對(duì)視網(wǎng)膜里特定的化學(xué)反映產(chǎn)生影響，在某種程序上可以達(dá)到神秘量子力學(xué)的深度。
The magnetite hypothesis concentrates on birds' beaks.
磁鐵礦假說(shuō)的焦點(diǎn)是鳥(niǎo)類的喙。
Magnetite grains are common in living things, and are known to be involved in magnetic sensing in bacteria. In birds they are particularly abundant in the beak.
磁鐵礦粒子是生物共有的，廣泛存在于鳥(niǎo)的喙中。
So last year David Keays of the Institute of Molecular Pathology, in Vienna, dissected the beaks of nearly 200 unfortunate pigeons, to find out more.
去年，維也納分子病理學(xué)研究所的David Keays對(duì)將近200只鴿子進(jìn)行了解剖，以期得到更多發(fā)現(xiàn)。
What he discovered was not encouraging.
但是，他發(fā)現(xiàn)的并不令人鼓舞。
There were, indeed, lots of magnetite grains.
大量鐵磁礦粒子確實(shí)存在。
But he had expected they would congregate in some sort of specialised sensory cell akin to the taste buds of the tongue or the hair cells of the ear.
他原以為鐵磁礦粒子會(huì)聚集成為專門(mén)的感覺(jué)細(xì)胞，類似于舌頭上的味蕾和內(nèi)耳毛細(xì)胞。
Instead, he found that the beak's magnetite is mostly in macrophages.
但是，他發(fā)現(xiàn)，喙部的鐵磁礦主要以巨噬細(xì)胞的形式存在，
These are cells whose job is to wander around amoeba-like, chewing up bacteria and debris from other body cells as they go.
這些細(xì)胞的職能是以游離細(xì)胞的形式對(duì)細(xì)胞殘片及病原體進(jìn)行噬菌。
Not, then, likely candidates as magnetic sensors.
因此，巨噬細(xì)胞不可能具有磁感應(yīng)功能。
Other experiments, though, do suggest the beak is involved.
其它的實(shí)驗(yàn)也包含了對(duì)喙的研究。
The nerve that connects it to the brain is known as the trigeminal.
聯(lián)結(jié)喙與腦的神經(jīng)叫三叉神經(jīng)。
When Dominik Heyers and Henrik Mouritsen of Oldenburg University, in Germany, cut the trigeminals of reed warblers the birds' ability to detect which way was north remained intact.
德國(guó)奧爾登堡大學(xué)的Dominik Heyers和Henrik Mouritsena切斷了葦鶯的三叉神經(jīng)，保留了它們辨別北方的能力。
They did, however, lose their sense of magnetic dip.
然而，這些鳥(niǎo)卻失掉了磁傾角的感應(yīng)力。
Dip indicates latitude, another important part of navigation.
磁傾角可以指示緯度，是導(dǎo)航的重要組成部分。
To confuse matters further, some people accept Dr Keays's interpretation of what is going on in the beak,
Keays對(duì)鳥(niǎo)喙解釋使情況更加復(fù)雜。但有些人還是接受了他的說(shuō)法。
but think that the relevant magnetite grains are elsewhere—in the hair cells of the ear, which are also rich in iron oxide.
但是這些人認(rèn)為鳥(niǎo)身體的其它部位也存在磁鐵礦粒子—內(nèi)耳毛細(xì)胞。氧化鐵也富含這種粒子。
If they are right, then from the birds' point of view they are probably hearing the magnetic signal.
假如這些人的假定正確，從鳥(niǎo)的角度來(lái)看，它們可能聽(tīng)得到磁信號(hào)。
The main alternative to the nasal-magnetite hypothesis, though, is not that birds hear magnetic fields, but that they see them.
鼻腔內(nèi)存在磁鐵礦的假說(shuō) 并不是鳥(niǎo)類可以聽(tīng)到磁場(chǎng)，而是能看到磁場(chǎng)。
One line of evidence for this is that part of a bird's brain, called cluster N, which gets its input directly from the eyes, seems to be involved in magnetic sensing.
關(guān)于此的證明是，鳥(niǎo)大腦中有一部分叫cluster N，可以直接得到眼部輸送的信息，好像跟磁場(chǎng)感應(yīng)有聯(lián)系。
Experiments Dr Mouritsen's team conducted on robins showed that destroying cluster N destroys a bird's north-detecting sense, and other experiments, on meadow pipits, show that cells in cluster N are far more active when the birds are using their magnetic sense than when they are not.
博士Mouritsen研究團(tuán)隊(duì)對(duì)知更鳥(niǎo)進(jìn)行了實(shí)驗(yàn)，得出推斷。實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示破壞知更鳥(niǎo)的cluster N，也就破壞了它們識(shí)別北方的能力。研究團(tuán)隊(duì)又對(duì)草地鷚進(jìn)行了實(shí)驗(yàn)。實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示，鳥(niǎo)類使用磁感應(yīng)能力的時(shí)候，cluster N細(xì)胞異?；钴S。
The problem with this idea is that birds' eyes do not have magnetite in them.
此種假說(shuō)的問(wèn)題在于鳥(niǎo)類的眼部沒(méi)有磁鐵礦。
If they do house magnetism detectors, those detectors must be something else.
假如它們真的起到了磁探測(cè)器的作用，那么肯定另有他物。
That something, according to a hypothesis advanced by Klaus Schulten, who works at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a type of retinal protein called a cryptochrome.
在伊利諾斯大學(xué)香檳分校工作。據(jù)Schulten，這種他物是一種名為cryptochrome的尿視黃醇蛋白。
When hit by light, a cryptochrome produces pairs of molecules called free radicals that are electrically neutral but have unpaired electrons in them.
當(dāng)受到光照時(shí)，就產(chǎn)生名為自由基的分子對(duì)。這種自由基呈電中性，其中含有未配對(duì)電子。
Electrons are tiny magnets, so they tend to attract each other and pair up in a way that neutralises their joint magnetic fields.
電子就是微小的磁性體。因此，當(dāng)它們的聯(lián)合磁場(chǎng)中合之時(shí)，電子就會(huì)相互吸引，就會(huì)形成組對(duì)。
Unpaired electrons, however, remain magnetic, and thus sensitive to the Earth's field.
但是，那些不成對(duì)電子仍具磁性，對(duì)地球磁場(chǎng)很敏感。
Moreover, because the unpaired electrons in the free radicals were originally paired in the molecule that split to form the radicals, quantum mechanics dictates that these electrons remain entangled.
因?yàn)樽杂苫械哪切┎怀蓪?duì)電子最初存在于分裂成為自由基分子之中，量子力學(xué)規(guī)定這些電子依然是絞纏的。
This means that however far apart they move, what happens to one affects the other's behaviour.
也就是說(shuō)，無(wú)論雙方離得有多遠(yuǎn)，一方的行為會(huì)影響另一方。
Calculations suggest the different ways the two radicals feel the Earth's field as they separate is enough to change the way they will react with other chemicals—including ones that trigger nerve impulses, and that, via entanglement, they can transmit this information to each other, and thus affect each other's reactions.
此種假設(shè)表明，當(dāng)兩種自由基分離時(shí)，它們感知地球磁場(chǎng)的相反作用足夠能夠改變它們與其它化學(xué)物質(zhì)相互反應(yīng)的方式――包括那些能產(chǎn)生神經(jīng)脈沖的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。同時(shí)，通過(guò)絞纏，它們彼此能互相信息，從而產(chǎn)生相互影響。
This, the calculations indicate, would be enough for a bird's brain to interpret the magnetic field.
此種假設(shè)表明，這足可以讓鳥(niǎo)腦識(shí)別磁場(chǎng)。
It would probably see a pattern of spots before its eyes, which would remain stationary as it scanned its head from side to side.
鳥(niǎo)眼可能會(huì)看到眼前有某種樣式的斑點(diǎn)圖案，當(dāng)鳥(niǎo)類對(duì)其識(shí)別之時(shí)，眼睛是固定的。
And some birds do, indeed, scan their heads this way when assessing the direction of magnetic north.
其實(shí)，當(dāng)鳥(niǎo)類辨別地磁北極之時(shí)，確實(shí)能夠用此法掃描頭部。
It is possible, of course, that both hypotheses are right, and that birds have two magnetic senses, with one perhaps concentrated on north detection and the other on detecting dip.
當(dāng)然，兩種假說(shuō)都有正確的可能。鳥(niǎo)類也有可能有兩套磁感應(yīng)能力，一種集中在北方，另一種集中于磁傾角。
But there is something particularly poetic about the idea that even part of this mysterious sixth sense depends on a still-more-mysterious quantum effect—one that Einstein himself described as spooky action at a distance.
這種神秘的第六感覺(jué)依賴于更加神秘的量子力學(xué)效應(yīng)。對(duì)此還有一種詩(shī)意般的解釋，即愛(ài)因斯坦自己說(shuō)的鬼魅般的超距作用。
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