【英语时差8,16】血浓于水

 Blood Is Thicker Than Water In the 1960’s, biologist William Hamilton became interested in the caterpillars² of the cinnabar moth³. Most caterpillars are heavily camouflaged⁴ to protect them from hungry birds. The cinnabar is an exception. It’s covered with yellow and black stripes and it gathers in conspicuous⁵ clusters. But it also secretes⁶ a chemical which tastes foul⁷ to birds. If a bird starts eating one cinnabar caterpillar¹, it quickly realizes how bad it tastes, then leaves the rest of the cluster alone. This method of survival fascinated Hamilton. If evolution involves the “survival of the fittest,” why should any cinnabar caterpillar sacrifice its own life to let the others survive and breed? The key to this mystery, Hamilton found, is that all the caterpillars in a single cluster are from the same set of eggs. Their genes⁸ are so similar that it doesn’t matter if one caterpillar or another survives to breed. The genes will still be passed down. Hamilton studied a variety of other species that exhibit self sacrificing behavior, and he found the same thing: The chance of one organism sacrificing itself for another increases mathematically as the degree of kinship increases. Animals from sea polyps to birds to monkeys all follow Hamilton’s rule. Some animals that would die to protect their own young might happily kill the young of a stranger. Some anthropologists argue that Hamilton’s rule applies to humans as well. You’re more likely to act altruistically¹⁰ for someone you think of as kin⁹. Perhaps the key to peaceful coexistence lies in recognizing the common kinship of all humankind.

1 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

2 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

3 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

4 camouflaged   

v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰

参考例句：

• We camouflaged in the bushes and no one saw us. 我们隐藏在灌木丛中没有被人发现。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They camouflaged in bushes. 他们隐蔽在灌木丛中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 conspicuous   

adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的

参考例句：

• It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显，抽烟对健康有害。
• Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。

6 secretes   

v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的第三人称单数 )；隐匿，隐藏

参考例句：

• The pineal gland secretes melanin during times of relaxation and visualization. 松果体在放松时分泌黑色素是明白无误的。 来自互联网
• For example, the archegonium (female organ) of the moss Funaria secretes sucrose. 例如藓类颈卵器（雌性器官）分泌蔗糖。 来自互联网

7 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

8 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

9 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

10 altruistically   

参考例句：

• An unexpectedly large fraction of players acted altruistically to protect their weaker friends. 远远超出人们的预料，有很大一部分玩家在游戏中无私地保护那些弱者朋友。 来自互联网