国家地理 杀人蜂

30 years after Doctor Cur's fateful African trip, graduate students from the University of Miami are on a field trip exploring caves.

在柯尔博士的非洲之行30年后，迈阿密大学的研究生们正在野外探险洞穴。

Moving ahead of the group, 24-year-old Inn-Saing Ooi climbs into a deep crevasse¹. He's not alone. As he sweeps his flashlight around the interior of the cave, he startles a huge hive of Killer² Bees. And these guys don't like surprises. They quickly retaliate³.

走在队伍前面，24岁的Inn-Saing Ooi爬进了一个深裂缝中。他不是一个人。当他用手电筒扫视洞穴内部时，他惊吓到，发现了一大群杀人蜂。这些杀人蜂不喜欢惊喜。他们很快会报复。

Stingers pierce his flesh, injecting venom⁴ into his bloodstream. As the bees try to fly away, their stingers are ripped from their abdomen⁵. Defending the hive means certain death. But even without the bee, the stinger keeps pumping venom for as long as a minute. Inn-Saing Ooi quickly slides into a life-threatening condition known as anaphylactic shock. Like all victims, just how quickly depends on the dose of venom and his own sensitivity. Blood pressure plummets⁶ to a dangerously low level, his airways⁷ constrict⁸. Inn-Saing Ooi's heart rate slows dramatically. In most cases, a shot of adrenalin will jump-start the heart, elevating his blood pressure, saving his life.

毒刺刺穿他的肌肉，将毒液注入他的血液。当蜜蜂试图飞走时，它们的毒刺会从腹部被撕下来。保卫蜂巢就意味着死亡。但即使没有蜜蜂，毒刺也会持续分泌一分钟的毒液。Inn-Saing Ooi很快就陷入了一种致命的过敏性休克。就像所有的受害者一样，毒液的剂量和他自己的敏感性决定了毒液的传播速度。血压骤降到危险的低水平，他的气道收缩。Inn-Saing Ooi的心率急剧减慢。在大多数情况下，注射一剂肾上腺素会使心脏再次跳动，升高他的血压，挽救他的生命。

But in an extreme case like this one, there is simply too much toxin⁹ for his immune system to handle. Tissue and body functions break down. His kidneys fail.

但在像这样的极端情况下，太多的毒素让他的免疫系统无法承受。组织和身体功能崩溃。他的肾脏坏掉。

Inn-Saing Ooi has nowhere to run, each sting sending out a chemical signal to the rest of the hive to keep up the assault.

Inn-Saing Ooi无处可逃，蜂蜜刺一次会向蜂巢的其他蜂蜜发出化学信号，以保持攻击。

The young student suffers cardiac arrest and dies. He was stung over 8 thousand times, nearly 8 times the number of stings required to kill a man his size. Tragedies like this have earned these creatures the nickname---- Killer Bees.

这位年轻的学生心脏骤停继而死亡。他被蛰了8000多次，相当于杀死一个像他这么大的人所需要被蛰次数的8倍。这样的悲剧为这些生物赢得了“杀人蜂”的绰号。

Despite its fearsome reputation, the killer bee is just a honeybee, a hard-working honeybee that produces some of the sweetest nectarin the world, but a honeybee that will sting its victim 10 times more frequently than its more docile¹⁰ cousin, and it will defend an area nearly 3 times as large. So just how do you tell these bees apart? It turns out you can't. They look almost exactly the same. Even the sting of the Africanized bee is virtually identical to an ordinary bee. It's just the number of Killer Bees who join the fight that makes their attacks so dangerous.

尽管有可怕的名声，杀人蜂只是一只蜜蜂，勤劳的蜜蜂生产世界上最甜的花蜜，但是一只蜜蜂会比它温顺的表弟更频繁地蛰它的猎物多十倍，它将保卫一个几乎是它三倍大的区域。那么如何区分这些蜜蜂呢？事实证明你不能。它们看起来几乎完全一样。即使被非洲化的蜜蜂的刺痛也几乎和普通蜜蜂一样。正是这些参与战斗的杀人蜂的数量让它们的攻击变得如此危险。

1 crevasse   

n. 裂缝，破口；v.使有裂缝

参考例句：

• The deep crevasse yawned at their feet.他们脚下的冰川有一道深深的裂缝。
• He fell down a crevasse.他从裂缝处摔了下来。

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

4 venom   

n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨

参考例句：

• The snake injects the venom immediately after biting its prey.毒蛇咬住猎物之后马上注入毒液。
• In fact,some components of the venom may benefit human health.事实上，毒液的某些成分可能有益于人类健康。

5 abdomen   

n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分)

参考例句：

• How to know to there is ascarid inside abdomen?怎样知道肚子里面有蛔虫？
• He was anxious about an off-and-on pain the abdomen.他因时隐时现的腹痛而焦虑。

6 plummets   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As a result, blood sugar plummets, sometimes even going below the baseline. 结果，血糖浓度迅速掉落，有时甚至落于基线之下。 来自互联网
• State and local governments could continue to back as tax revenue plummets. 由于税收的直线下降，州和地方政府可能继续削减支出。 来自互联网

7 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

8 constrict   

v.压缩，收缩，阻塞

参考例句：

• Men and women alike have been constricted by traditional sexual roles.男性和女性同样受到传统性别角色的束缚。
• Severe migraine can be treated with a drug which constricts the blood vessels.严重的偏头疼可以用一种收缩血管的药物进行治疗。

9 toxin   

n.毒素，毒质

参考例句：

• Experts have linked this condition to a build-up of toxins in the body.专家已把这一病症与体内毒素的积累联系起来。
• Tests showed increased levels of toxin in shellfish.检验表明水生有壳动物的毒素水平提高了。

10 docile   

adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的

参考例句：

• Circus monkeys are trained to be very docile and obedient.马戏团的猴子训练得服服贴贴的。
• He is a docile and well-behaved child.他是个温顺且彬彬有礼的孩子。