英文原版对话1000个:1054 1054 Pest Protection

 　　Ray: I remember watching a television documentary in the United States a few years ago that at one point they brought up the subject of these toads² that live in Australia that supposedly have some substance that is for humans a hallucinogenic, does that ring any bells with you?

 

　　Shirley: Well, I don’t know about those ones specifically but I know that in Australia for example we have a huge Cane³ Toad¹ problem. Cane toads are very big toads they are about the size of a small cantelope probably, and someone brought them in at the turn of the 20th century and they got loose in northern Australia and now there’s thousands and thousands and thousands of hectares covered with Cane toads and every year it costs the government a huge amount of money trying to control them and they’ve become a pest. And that’s one of the reasons why we have such strict quarantine regulations.

 

　　Ray: That makes sense. Of course, I guess we all know about the rabbits.

 

　　Shirley: Yes, rabbits were first brought into Australia from Britain, and probably just as someone’s pet and one got out …

 

　　Ray: You weren’t on duty that day

 

　　Shirley: I wasn’t on duty that day probably because it was maybe about a hundred years ago

 

　　Ray: You did say “previous life” so

 

　　Shirley: That’s true. Anyway, the rabbits got loose and there was periods in Australian history where there were millions and millions of rabbits and huge control programs and one of the things that they did to control them, which I think eventually did control them was they gave them a disease called “myxomatosis” which doesn’t kill the rabbit but makes them go blind … so they get infected with it. I think that it’s transmitted by a small flea⁴ and they go blind and I think, rather horribly, they either starve to death or they, you know, they just can’t survive. And that was what controlled them in the end.

 

　　Ray: Uh huh, until they come up with an immunity⁵ to it.

 

　　Shirley: Yeah, they don’t seem to have done that. I mean they’re still around a little bit, but not in the numbers, not in the plague numbers that they used to be in the past.

 

　　Ray: So now it’s toads that are the big problem.

 

　　Shirley: Yeah well, there’s other things as well but … yeah, toads are an ongoing⁶ problem.

1 toad   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆

参考例句：

• Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
• Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。

2 toads   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All toads blink when they swallow. 所有的癞蛤蟆吞食东西时都会眨眼皮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Toads have shorter legs and are generally more clumsy than frogs. 蟾蜍比青蛙脚短，一般说来没有青蛙灵活。 来自辞典例句

3 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

4 flea   

n.跳蚤

参考例句：

• I'll put a flea in his ear if he bothers me once more.如果他再来打扰的话，我就要对他不客气了。
• Hunter has an interest in prowling around a flea market.亨特对逛跳蚤市场很感兴趣。

5 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

6 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。