【英语趣味课堂】生物入侵-Biological Invasion

Nick: In Australia, there’s a lot of snakes as well. Is there snakes in Guam?

 

Cheryl: Yeah, there’s plenty of snakes in Guam, one of which is very famous. It’s the brown tree snake. Now the brown tree snake was brought over to Guam a long time ago in cargo¹ ships when it hid in the cargo and the cargo was unloaded onto the docks of Guam. So when these brown tree snakes were accidentally released onto Guam’s soil, they subsequentlydestroyed most of Guam’s bird population. Can you believe that?

 

Nick: That’s amazing. Yeah. Introductions like that can cause disasters for wildlife.

 

Cheryl: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And because these brown tree snakes destroyed most of the bird life on Guam we’ve lost a lot of beautiful tropical birds that used to live on Guam. Another thing that I can think of that was introduced to Guam, but isn’t a wild animal, is a wild plant and we call it a Japanese Bonsai² Leaf, actually. And I believe Bonsai means suicide or something in Japanese but what these leaves do is they grow and grow and they look like vines so they cover loads and loads of trees and good wildlife that are out there. I mean, plant life and they keep these plant life from growing because they essentially³ ambush⁴ them and keep sunlight from ever reaching them.

 

Nick: That’s really interesting.

 

Cheryl: Yeah, so if you can imagine a building covered completelyin really thick vine, that’s how these Japanese Bonsai leaves work. They completely shroud⁵ and cover all of the good plant life that we have on Guam. So we’ve lost a lot of good plant life, beautiful different types of leaves, and bushes, flowers. So in addition to losing all of our bird life, we’ve also lost a lot of our plant life to this introduction of a foreign plant species in Guam.

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

accidentally

 

 imageTree snakes were accidentally released.

 

In English, we often use the word "accidentally" to talk about mistakes. If we do something that was unplanned and a mistake, we say it was "an accident" or we "accidentally" did it. Notice the following:

I accidentally left the air-conditioner on.

We accidentally sent your letter to the wrong address.

subsequently

 

 imageThey subsequently destroyed the bird population.

 

When something happens 'subsequently', that means it happens as a result of something else or because of something else. The adverb 'subsequently' is very close in meaning to the adverb 'therefore'. Notice the following:

 

I ate pizza every day and subsequently gained a lot of weight.

He cheated on his wife. Subsequently, she divorced him.

essentially

 

 imageThe vines essentially ambush the plants and cover them.

 

Here the word 'essentially' means 'basically' or 'simply'. We use the word 'essentially' to express a simple idea for a more difficult concept. Notice the following:

 

Because he was always joking around at work, he made the boss angry and 'essentially' lost his job.

If you never save any money, you are 'essentially' risking your future.

ever

 

 imageThey keep sunlight from ever reaching them.

 

We use the word 'ever' to mean any time or at any time in the past, present or future. The word 'ever' is often not needed in the sentence but is used to add emphasis. Here are some samples.

 

I don't ever buy the newspaper anymore. (don't ever = never)

If you drink this soup, it will keep you from ever getting sick.

completely

 

 imageCan you imagine a building covered completely in thick vine?

 

The word 'completely' is used to mean 100% or totally. Below are some samples:

 

I completely agree with you.

My shoes were completely ruined by the rain.

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

2 bonsai   

n.盆栽，盆景

参考例句：

• It's a bonsai tree for your new apartment.这是一颗盆栽，祝贺你迁新居。
• The dish looks like a bonsai flower.这道菜看上去像一盆花。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 ambush   

n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击

参考例句：

• Our soldiers lay in ambush in the jungle for the enemy.我方战士埋伏在丛林中等待敌人。
• Four men led by a sergeant lay in ambush at the crossroads.由一名中士率领的四名士兵埋伏在十字路口。

5 shroud   

n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏

参考例句：

• His past was enveloped in a shroud of mystery.他的过去被裹上一层神秘色彩。
• How can I do under shroud of a dark sky?在黑暗的天空的笼罩下，我该怎么做呢？