VOA慢速英语2016 科学家致力于保护珊瑚礁，让科学变得更有趣（在线收听）

Scientist Fights for Coral Reefs, Makes Science Fun 科学家致力于保护珊瑚礁，让科学变得更有趣

The language used by scientists to explain complex ideas can be difficult and -- well, let’s face it -- sometimes boring.

科学家用来解释复杂的想法所使用的语言是难以理解的并且有时候是无聊的，好吧，让我们一起来谈谈吧。

The language, with its Latin words and long scientific terms, could be one reason some people avoid learning about science, especially children.

科学语言包含了拉丁词汇和很长的科学术语，这使很多人，尤其是孩子不愿学习科学。

American Danielle Dixson is a marine biologist. She wants to make science fun for children. Dixson has turned that idea into a series of children’s books. The nine books are written so that her research is easy to understand.

美国的Danielle Dixson是一名海洋生物学家。她让孩子们从科学中学到乐趣。Dixson已经把这个想法写进了一系列儿童书籍里。已经写完的九本书使她的研究很容易被理解。

"I just don't really think kids should be left out of it and I thought that story books may be one of the easiest ways to sort of captivate them and have them understand."

“我认为孩子们不应该远离科学，我认为故事书或许是最容易吸引他们，让他们理解的方式之一。

Dixson’s research

Dixson的研究

Danielle Dixson is an assistant professor at the University of Delaware. Dixson says another goal of her science writing is to help increase understanding of the ocean environment.

Danielle Dixson是特拉华大学的助理教授。Dixson说她的科学写作的另一个目的是帮助人们提升对海洋环境的认识。

She spent almost two years in the South Pacific working on her post-doctoral research. She went to the island nation of Fiji to investigate coral reefs that are collapsing or, as she says, degrading.

她在南太平洋花费将近2年的时间致力于博士后研究。她去岛国斐济调查那些衰竭以及她所说的退化的珊瑚礁。

The goal of her research is to identify why some healthy coral reefs are breaking down. She also wants to find out how this degradation affects fish that live in and around the reefs. 

她的研究目的是找出珊瑚礁逐渐分解的原因。她也希望找出珊瑚礁的退化会给珊瑚礁里面以及周边的鱼类带来什么影响。

"A number of the reefs are converting from being, you know, these beautiful coral reef systems that have a lot of holes for animals to hide in, into reefs that the coral’s degrading and collapsing and then there is not as much hiding spaces for fishes and things like that.”  

你知道，美丽的珊瑚礁生态系统里有很多可以让动物躲避的洞穴，但是一些珊瑚礁正在退化和衰竭，鱼类可以躲避的洞穴逐渐减少。

Early in her research, Dixson made some videos for people in Fiji. The videos explained her work to the local community. She says she wanted them to understand how her research would help them.

在她的研究初期，Dixson在斐济给人们制作了一些视频。这些视频解释了她在当地社区的工作。她说她想让人们明白她的研究将会给他们带来怎样的帮助。

For the local children, Dixson started making books explaining her work. This helped to keep them from walking through her “laboratory” – baby pools filled with water she was using for her experiments.

对于当地的孩子，Dixson开始写书来解释她的工作。这有对于孩子们远离她的实验室有帮助-她在用装满水的婴儿游泳池做实验。

"I was living, actually, in the village with some of the locals. It was a lot easier to get research done if they understood what I was doing and how it would help them. And one of the ways that I was able to connect with the adults was I would make these videos for them. And then I started making children's books for the kids so that they would have a better idea of why I was there, so that when I ask them not to walk through the baby pools I was using for experiments or something like that, that that would actually happen.”

“实际上，我和一些当地人居住在村庄里。如果他们能够理解我所做的事情并且明白这对他们有怎样的帮助，那么会更容易实现研究成果。我通过给成年人制作一些视频来和他们沟通。然后我开始给孩子们写儿童书，这样他们就能更容易理解我在这里的原因，当我不让他们做一些事情的时候，例如在我用来做实验的婴儿游泳池里面来回穿行，他们也是可以理解的。

When Dixson returned to the United States, she started doing the same thing for children in this country. She uses colorful story books to capture the imagination of children. While she has their attention, she provides very useful information about science.

当Dixson回到美国后，她开始在这个国家给孩子们做同样的事情。她用丰富多彩的故事书激发儿童的想象力。当孩子们集中注意力的时候，她给孩子们灌输非常有用的科学信息。

Home is where the heart is.

家是心之所在。

Home and family are at the heart of many great stories. The search for one’s home or protecting one’s home is universal.

家庭和家人都是许多伟大的故事的中心。对家庭或者家庭保护的研究是很普遍的。

In one of her books, Danielle Dixson tells young readers about two fish -- Mr. and Mrs. Goby. The fish live in a coral reef. And their home is sick.  

Danielle Dixson在她的一本书中给年轻的读者讲述了两条鱼-虾虎鱼先生和虾虎鱼女士。他们生活在珊瑚礁里面，但是他们的家生病了。

"Mr. and Mrs. Goby lived in their coral home and all if a sudden coral starts to get sick, but they needed their house to stay alive. So what would they do to help it? It sort of goes through all the scientific findings, but it does it in the sense of those two gobies are trying to save their home."

虾虎鱼先生和虾虎鱼女士居住在他们的珊瑚家里，突然间，珊瑚生病了，但是他们需要让他们的家活着。所以他们应该为它做些什么呢？这在某种程度上，从两条虾虎鱼努力拯救家园的角度，较全面地展示了科学发现。

The story about the little fish was based on one of Dixson's studies. She explains that one form of seaweed kills coral on contact.

小鱼的故事来源于Dixson的研究。她解释说一种海藻杀死了接触到的珊瑚。

"We do know that there is one species of the seaweed that if you put in contact with coral for 48 hours, the contact point of the coral will be dead. There are a number of organisms that live inside corals -- this tiny little goby being one of them.”

我们知道有一种海藻和珊瑚接触48小时之后，接触点的珊瑚会死掉。有很多生物体居住在珊瑚里面—这个小虾虎鱼就是其中的一个。

The goby fish have a strong interest in keeping their coral home healthy. When coral are in danger from the seaweed, the marine organisms send a distress signal to Mr. and Mrs. Goby.

虾虎鱼非常希望他们的家可以健康。当珊瑚处于海藻的危险中，这个海洋生物会释放求救信号给虾虎鱼先生和虾虎鱼女士。

“Please come help!” And that’s just what the fish do. Dixson explains.

“快来帮帮我！”Dixson解释说这就是鱼所做的事情。

“So it was so interesting to see since goby lives in the coral, that's really its home, it should have a vested interest in protecting its home. So I ran a series of experiments to figure, you know, does the goby help the coral fight the seaweed? And it ends up that they do. We found out that the coral actually can chemically communicate with the goby to tell it, like, ‘Come help me! I'm hurt right here!’"  

所以这看起来很有趣，因为虾虎鱼居住在珊瑚里，那真的是它的家，它就非常愿意保护它的家。所以我做了一系列的实验来证实虾虎鱼会帮助珊瑚对抗海藻吗？结果是他们会。我们发现珊瑚真的会和虾虎鱼通过化学交流来告诉它，比如，“快来帮帮我！我这里受伤了！”

As a marine scientist, Dixson wants her stories to be both educational and inspirational, serving as an agent for change. She also includes in her books “a call to action,” asking readers what they can do to make a difference.

作为海洋科学家，Dixson希望她的故事在教育意义和启示作用方面有推动作用。她的书中也包含了“呼吁读者们行动起来”，呼吁读者们尽他们的努力来有所作为。

"One of the things I do in those story books is I have a last page. And the last page talks about what you can do to help. You know, there is a lot of things that even a 6-year-old is able to do, whether it's shutting your lights off when you leave a room, or riding your bike to your friend's house instead of having your parents drive you. There is a lot of stuff that they can do and still feel they're making a difference."

每个故事中我都附有最后一页，讲述的是你可以做哪些努力来起到帮助作用。你知道，有很多事情甚至6岁的孩子都可以做，无论是当你离开房间的时间记得关灯，还是骑车去朋友家而不是让你的父母开车送你。孩子们有很多可以做的事情并且感受到他们所起的作用。

Danielle Dixson’s books shine a light on the environmental problems facing our world’s oceans. They also make science fun and understandable for children.

Danielle Dixson的书指明了全球海域面临的环境问题。他们使科学变得更有趣并且让儿童容易理解。

But her books may have an unintended consequence, something she may not have planned on.

但是她的书可能会有意想不到的影响。

When Danielle visited an aquarium at age five, a tour guide gave her a book about whales. The conversations that resulted from that book inspired Dixson to become a marine biologist. Perhaps her books will inspire a child to make science a career.

当Danielle在五岁的时候参观一个水族馆的时候，一个导游给了她一本关于鲸鱼的书。书中的对话启发Dixson成了一名海洋生物学家。或许她的书将会激发另外一个孩子以科学为职业。

Words in This Story

boring - adj. dull and uninteresting

marine biologist - n. a scientist who studies life in the sea

captivate - v. to get and hold the attention of (someone)

degrade - v. to cause (something complex) to break down into simple substances or parts

vested interest – combination noun / set phrase a personal or private reason for wanting something to be done or to happen

inspirational - adj. causing people to want to do or create something

unintended consequence – combination noun / set phrase unforeseen outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action

aquarium - n. a glass or plastic container in which fish and other water animals and plants can live : a building people can visit to see water animals and plants