2012年英语六级阅读:科学证实人有第六感

 　　It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen.

　　一直以来，第六感也被称为超感知觉、蜘蛛感应，也就是预知未来事物的能力。

　　But now scientists have proved  that human really do have a sixth sense - that lets them detect magnetic fields.

　　但现在科学家已证实人类确实有第六感，正是这第六感让人类能够感应到磁场。

　　Tests have shown that mankind may have the same innatesense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.

　　试验表明，人类可能像其他动物一样拥有能够感知地球磁场的先天感应力，而动物的这一感应力在很久以前就被证实了。

　　By putting a protein from the human retinainto fruit flies, researchers noticed that the insect modified its flight path just as if its eye had not been altered.

　　通过将人类视网膜的一粒蛋白质植入果蝇的眼中，研究人员注意到，果蝇调整了它的飞行路线，就像眼睛没有做过手脚一样。

　　This suggests that the 'sixth sense' does exist in humans but we might not be aware of it.

　　这表明，人类确实存在“第六感”，只是我们可能没有意识到。

　　Animals use such sight to navigatelong distances during migration² or, in the case of birds, to ‘see’ where they are going.

　　动物在长途迁徙过程中利用这一感应力给自己导航，鸟类则凭借这一感应力“看到”前方飞行的方向。

　　The complex tests involved examining the process by which light goes through a bird’s eye, which has intriguedthe scientific  community fomore than 30 years.

　　这些复杂的试验包括观察光进入鸟的眼睛的过程，科学界在这方面已经研究了30余年。

　　In the late 1970s, the physicist³ Klaus Schulten concluded that birds navigate¹ by relying on geomagnetically sensitive biochemical reactions in their eyes.

　　在20世纪70年代晚期，物理学家克劳斯 舒尔腾得出结论说，鸟类依靠眼睛内能够感应地磁的生物化学反应来导航。

　　Tests have shown that the special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome.

　　测试表明，眼睛内部某些特别的细胞在蛋白隐色素的作用下能够实现这一功能。

　　Professor Reppert’s team used wild fruit flies and replaced their version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent then put them in a mazewith each wing wrapped in a metal coil.

　　里珀特教授的研究团队把野生果蝇眼内的蛋白隐色素换成人类的蛋白隐色素，然后将果蝇放在一个迷宫中，每只翅膀都用金属丝包裹起来。

　　They then sent a current through it so that the coil was magnetised in a way which mimicked⁴ Earth’s electromagnetic field.

　　然后他们将电流导入金属丝，这样金属丝就有了磁性，就像地球的电磁场一样。

　　The flies responded in exactly the same way as if they had their own cryptochrome, by either avoiding the magnetic fields or moving towards them if the researchers had placed sugar nearby.

　　果蝇做出的反应就像自己的蛋白隐色素没被换过一样，既能够避开磁场，也能够飞向研究人员放了糖的磁场附近。

　　The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

　　这一新研究发表在《自然通讯》杂志上。

1 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

2 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

3 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

4 mimicked   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的过去式和过去分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• He mimicked her upper-class accent. 他模仿她那上流社会的腔调。 来自辞典例句
• The boy mimicked his father's voice and set everyone off laughing. 男孩模仿他父亲的嗓音，使大家都大笑起来。 来自辞典例句