蜜蜂和殺蟲劑
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Bees and insecticides 蜜蜂和殺蟲劑 Subtle poison 慢性毒藥 Evidence is growing that commonly used pesticides,even when employed carefully, are bad for bees 證據逐步表明，即使小心地噴施普通殺蟲劑，也會對蜜蜂構成危害 IN THE winter of 2006 beekeepers in America noticed something oddlots of their hives weredying for no obvious reason. 2006年冬，美國養蜂人注意到奇怪的現象，他們的蜜蜂成批死掉，原因不明。 As the months passed, reports of similar phenomena began coming in from their Europeancounterparts. 幾個月后，類似的現象也出現在歐洲同行的報告上。 Mystified scientists coined the label colony collapse disorderto describe what washappening. 困惑的科學家們給這個現象貼上了蜂群衰竭失調的標簽。 Since then, much brow-sweat has been expended trying to work out just what CCD really is. 自那時起，為揭開CCD的面紗，人們不知道多少次抹去額頭的汗水。 Dying bees are a problem, and not just for apiarists. 蜜蜂之死不僅令養蜂家頭痛。 Bees pollinate many of the world s cropsa service estimated to be worth 15 billion a yearin America alone. 蜜蜂給世界上的很多莊稼授粉，僅在美國，這種服務每年價值150億美元。 And there is no shortage of theories to explain the insects decline,Climate change, habitatdestruction, a paralysing virus, fungal infection and even a plague of parasitic mites haveall been proposed. 盡管對蜜蜂數量下降的原因提出了形形色色的理論，如氣候變化、棲息地遭破壞、麻痹病毒、霉菌感染，甚至還有寄生蟲肆虐。 But one of the leading ideas is that the bees are suffering from the effects of neonicotinoids, aclass of commonly used pesticides, introduced in the 1990s, which are toxic to insects butmuch less so to mammals. 但其中一個主導觀點是蜜蜂正在遭受新煙堿的侵害，二十世紀九十年代人們引入這種殺蟲劑，它對昆蟲有毒，但對哺乳動物的毒性較小，使用范圍廣泛。 Two papers published this week in Science lend weight to this idea. 本期科學雜志刊登的兩篇論文證實了這種觀點。 The first, from a group led by Penelope Whitehorn and David Goulson of the University ofStirling, in Britain, examined the effects these insecticides have on bumblebees, which areclosely related to honeybees. 第一篇出自英國斯特林大學Penelope Whitehorn 和 David Goulson 指導的團隊，他們檢驗了這些殺蟲劑給大黃蜂帶來的影響，大黃蜂和蜜蜂的關系密切。 Bumblebees are less studied than their honeybee cousins, but they also pollinate manycommonly eaten crops, including strawberries, raspberries and runner beans. 和同宗的蜜蜂比起來，對大黃蜂的研究要少一些。但它們給很多可食作物傳粉，如草莓、樹莓和紅花菜豆。 The two researchers and their colleagues raised 75 bumblebee colonies in their laboratory. 兩位研究人員和同事們在實驗室飼養了七十五個大黃蜂蜂群。 They exposed some, via contaminated pollen and sugar water, to high doses ofimidacloprid, a type of neonicotinoid insecticide. 他們用受污染的花粉、糖水將一些蜂群暴露在高劑量吡蟲啉的環境里， Others were exposed to low doses, or to no dose at all. 一些蜂群暴露在低劑量殺蟲劑的環境里，或者不加一點殺蟲劑。 Then, after two weeks of this treatment, the colonies were taken into the outside world andleft there for six weeks, to see how the bees did. 接著經過兩周的處理，把這些蜂群放在室外六周，觀察蜂的行動。 All of the doses of imidacloprid, both high and low, that Dr Whitehorn gave her bees weresublethalin other words, insufficient to kill the insects outright. 使用吡蟲啉的蜂群，無論劑量大小，Whitehorn博士把亞致死量用在她的蜜蜂上，換句話說，不足以徹底殺死昆蟲。 Firms that produce pesticides, and the authorities that regulate them, are aware of theimportance of bees to food production, and new products must be tested to make sure theyare not fatal to helpful insects. 殺蟲劑生產廠家和管理他們的機構意識到蜜蜂對食品生產的重要性，新產品要經過檢測，保證它們不會對有益的昆蟲造成致命傷害。 But Dr Whitehorn found that even non-lethal doses of pesticide were bad for bees. 但Whitehorn博士發現即使非致命性殺蟲劑也會對蜜蜂有害。 Both the high-dose and the low-dose colonies grew more slowly than the undosed ones,gaining 8-12% less weight on average. 受到高劑量和低劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群和沒有受殺蟲劑影響的同類比起來長得要慢。體重平均降低8-12%。 More importantly, the pesticides drastically inhibited the production of queens, which areneeded to establish new nests each spring. 最重要的是，殺蟲劑強烈地影響到春季筑造新巢所需的蟻后的生產。 The undosed colonies produced 13.7 queens, on average. 未受殺蟲劑影響的蜂群產生13.7個蟻后。 Those given a small dose of insecticide produced two. 受低劑量影響的蜂群產生兩個， Those given a high dose produced just 1.4. 受高劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群產生1.4個。 Worryingly, even colonies given the high dose may have got off lightly compared with theirwild brethren. 令人憂心的是，即便受高劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群可能要比它們在野外的同伴受到的危害低一些。
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Bees and insecticides 蜜蜂和殺蟲劑 Subtle poison 慢性毒藥 Evidence is growing that commonly used pesticides,even when employed carefully, are bad for bees 證據逐步表明，即使小心地噴施普通殺蟲劑，也會對蜜蜂構成危害 IN THE winter of 2006 beekeepers in America noticed something oddlots of their hives weredying for no obvious reason. 2006年冬，美國養蜂人注意到奇怪的現象，他們的蜜蜂成批死掉，原因不明。 As the months passed, reports of similar phenomena began coming in from their Europeancounterparts. 幾個月后，類似的現象也出現在歐洲同行的報告上。 Mystified scientists coined the label colony collapse disorderto describe what washappening. 困惑的科學家們給這個現象貼上了蜂群衰竭失調的標簽。 Since then, much brow-sweat has been expended trying to work out just what CCD really is. 自那時起，為揭開CCD的面紗，人們不知道多少次抹去額頭的汗水。 Dying bees are a problem, and not just for apiarists. 蜜蜂之死不僅令養蜂家頭痛。 Bees pollinate many of the world s cropsa service estimated to be worth 15 billion a yearin America alone. 蜜蜂給世界上的很多莊稼授粉，僅在美國，這種服務每年價值150億美元。 And there is no shortage of theories to explain the insects decline,Climate change, habitatdestruction, a paralysing virus, fungal infection and even a plague of parasitic mites haveall been proposed. 盡管對蜜蜂數量下降的原因提出了形形色色的理論，如氣候變化、棲息地遭破壞、麻痹病毒、霉菌感染，甚至還有寄生蟲肆虐。 But one of the leading ideas is that the bees are suffering from the effects of neonicotinoids, aclass of commonly used pesticides, introduced in the 1990s, which are toxic to insects butmuch less so to mammals. 但其中一個主導觀點是蜜蜂正在遭受新煙堿的侵害，二十世紀九十年代人們引入這種殺蟲劑，它對昆蟲有毒，但對哺乳動物的毒性較小，使用范圍廣泛。 Two papers published this week in Science lend weight to this idea. 本期科學雜志刊登的兩篇論文證實了這種觀點。 The first, from a group led by Penelope Whitehorn and David Goulson of the University ofStirling, in Britain, examined the effects these insecticides have on bumblebees, which areclosely related to honeybees. 第一篇出自英國斯特林大學Penelope Whitehorn 和 David Goulson 指導的團隊，他們檢驗了這些殺蟲劑給大黃蜂帶來的影響，大黃蜂和蜜蜂的關系密切。 Bumblebees are less studied than their honeybee cousins, but they also pollinate manycommonly eaten crops, including strawberries, raspberries and runner beans. 和同宗的蜜蜂比起來，對大黃蜂的研究要少一些。但它們給很多可食作物傳粉，如草莓、樹莓和紅花菜豆。 The two researchers and their colleagues raised 75 bumblebee colonies in their laboratory. 兩位研究人員和同事們在實驗室飼養了七十五個大黃蜂蜂群。 They exposed some, via contaminated pollen and sugar water, to high doses ofimidacloprid, a type of neonicotinoid insecticide. 他們用受污染的花粉、糖水將一些蜂群暴露在高劑量吡蟲啉的環境里， Others were exposed to low doses, or to no dose at all. 一些蜂群暴露在低劑量殺蟲劑的環境里，或者不加一點殺蟲劑。 Then, after two weeks of this treatment, the colonies were taken into the outside world andleft there for six weeks, to see how the bees did. 接著經過兩周的處理，把這些蜂群放在室外六周，觀察蜂的行動。 All of the doses of imidacloprid, both high and low, that Dr Whitehorn gave her bees weresublethalin other words, insufficient to kill the insects outright. 使用吡蟲啉的蜂群，無論劑量大小，Whitehorn博士把亞致死量用在她的蜜蜂上，換句話說，不足以徹底殺死昆蟲。 Firms that produce pesticides, and the authorities that regulate them, are aware of theimportance of bees to food production, and new products must be tested to make sure theyare not fatal to helpful insects. 殺蟲劑生產廠家和管理他們的機構意識到蜜蜂對食品生產的重要性，新產品要經過檢測，保證它們不會對有益的昆蟲造成致命傷害。 But Dr Whitehorn found that even non-lethal doses of pesticide were bad for bees. 但Whitehorn博士發現即使非致命性殺蟲劑也會對蜜蜂有害。 Both the high-dose and the low-dose colonies grew more slowly than the undosed ones,gaining 8-12% less weight on average. 受到高劑量和低劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群和沒有受殺蟲劑影響的同類比起來長得要慢。體重平均降低8-12%。 More importantly, the pesticides drastically inhibited the production of queens, which areneeded to establish new nests each spring. 最重要的是，殺蟲劑強烈地影響到春季筑造新巢所需的蟻后的生產。 The undosed colonies produced 13.7 queens, on average. 未受殺蟲劑影響的蜂群產生13.7個蟻后。 Those given a small dose of insecticide produced two. 受低劑量影響的蜂群產生兩個， Those given a high dose produced just 1.4. 受高劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群產生1.4個。 Worryingly, even colonies given the high dose may have got off lightly compared with theirwild brethren. 令人憂心的是，即便受高劑量殺蟲劑影響的蜂群可能要比它們在野外的同伴受到的危害低一些。
