2019年经济学人 害虫防治:弦理论(2)

 

The other three bushes were left untouched and monitored as controls.

留下其他三处灌木以作为对照。

The team followed up by counting ants periodically on specific sections of the coffee bushes during the days that followed.

之后团队定期计算咖啡灌木中某一特定部分的蚂蚁数量

To decide whether the newly established string highways were indeed granting protection,

为了确定新建立的线高速确实提供了保护作用，

three days after building the connections Dr Jimenez-Soto and Dr Morris

在建立连接三天后，Jimenez-Soto博士和Morris博士

attached white cards bearing ten dead adult female borer beetles¹ to the trunks of all the coffee bushes in the research sites.

将带有十只成年雌性死虫的白色卡片附在了所有被研究咖啡灌木的树枝上。

They monitored these cards for half an hour, noting ant activity on them, and also recording² how many beetles were removed during that period.

他们对这些卡片进行了半小时监控，在此期间内，他们记录蚂蚁在此的活动，以及被移除甲虫的数量。

The string highways proved popular with the ants. Three-quarters of them turned into ant trails,

事实证明线高速很受蚂蚁的欢迎。三分之一的线高速都变成了蚂蚁的路径，

and at least some were used in this way in every one of the study sites.

并且在每个试验址中，至少有一些被以这种方式使用。

Presumably as a consequence, ant activity on bushes connected by strings³ to cuaniquil trees more than doubled,

大概率结果是，和cuaniquil树连接后，蚂蚁在灌木中的活动翻倍，

while that on unconnected neighbours saw no statistically⁴ significant change.

而未被连接的灌木在统计上没有明显变化。

This extra activity resulted in more beetle-scavenging.

这种额外的活动导致更多的甲虫被清除。

Coffee bushes connected by string to a cuaniquil had an average of three of the carded insects removed by the ants during the 30-minute window,

在30分钟时间内，用线将咖啡灌木和一棵cuaniquil树相连，平均有三只死虫被蚂蚁拖走，

triple the rate for unconnected bushes. Dead beetles on cards are clearly easier prey⁵ than live ones hidden in coffee berries.

是未连接灌木比率的三倍。卡片上的死甲虫显然比咖啡浆果中藏着的活虫更好捕食。

Nevertheless, this is an encouraging result for plantation⁶ owners.

然而，这对种植园主而言是个鼓舞人心的结果。

If further experiments back these results up

如果后续试验能够为这一结果提供支持，

it may be that the coffee-borer problem can be alleviated⁷ by a combination of planting the right sorts of shade trees and the wise deployment⁸ of some balls of string.

那么通过种植正确的遮荫树种并合理布局一些线球，咖啡蛀虫的问题就能得到缓解。

1 beetles   

n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

4 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

5 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

6 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

7 alleviated   

减轻，缓解，缓和( alleviate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It is always completely alleviated by total gastrectomy. 全胃切除永远完全缓解症状。
• Toxicity problem in manufacturing and storage might be alleviated by coating beryllium with aluminum. 但如果用铝包覆铍，则可避免加工过程中及储存期间的中毒问题。

8 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。