国家地理:Octopus Mating 章鱼交配

OK, we are back in the world of the Cyanea octopus¹. It's mating time. Here's your potential conquest. She doesn't know you're alive. She's too busy cleaning trash from her house. Now you are the perceptive² type. You use your sensitive disks for any sign of interest—pheromones, whatever. Hey, wait a minute. She's standing³ tall, that means she sees you and she may be interested. Yeah, baby, full speed ahead.

Then, wouldn't you know it, a vicious tide swirls⁴ in and suddenly everything is topsy-turvy. Among other flotsam, the tide brings in a rival. Now, great, just what you needed. Three's company, pal⁵. Your job: get in the other guy's face. Just like what you do if you were an adult human male, you try to intimidate⁶ the other guy by striking poses and copping attitudes. Now, that doesn't work. So you show off your biggest sucker disks. You show him yours, he shows you his. It doesn't get any more testosterone serious than this. Yours is bigger, hum, naturally. And the intruder takes off like a whipped dog. Its tentacles⁷ would be between its legs, if its tentacles weren't already its legs.

OK, now, where were we? Ah, right. As both you and the female are promiscuous—each of you mates with several other octopods from this part of the sea all the time—so, what's with all this coyness? Here's where it gets really really good. I mean, X-rated hot octopus-on-octopus good. Your goal is to get this appendage⁸, called a hectocotylus arm, into the female's mantle⁹ cavity. Ah, there we go. The arm has a groove¹⁰ that delivers sperm¹¹ packets to the female. The longer your arm stays in her cavity, near her oviduct, the more sperm packets you can deliver. If you are good, I mean, you have to be good, you might stay in this position for hours. At this time, ahem, forget about it. Not only does the coupling last just a minute or two, but when the female takes off, she drags you along, like the speaker at a drive-in movie, she forgot to put back on the rack.

Luckily, an octopus is such a solitary¹² creature. I mean, can you imagine hanging out with other guy octopi? You'd never hear the end of it.


pheromone: 信息素，外激素
topsy-turvy: In a state of utter disorder¹³ or confusion 混乱
flotsam: Wreckage¹⁴ or cargo¹⁵ that remains¹⁶ afloat after a ship has sunk. 漂浮物
testosterone: 睾丸激素
coyness: 怕羞, 羞怯
hectocotylus: A modified arm of the male of certain cephalopods, such as the octopus, functioning as a reproductive organ in the transference of sperm to the mantle cavity of the female. 化茎腕，交接腕某些雄性头足纲动物，如章鱼身上的一条变种腕，可起生殖器官的作用，把精液传送到雌性的套膜腔中
mantle cavity: 外套腔
oviduct: A tube through which the ova pass from the ovary to the uterus or to the outside. 输卵管

1 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

2 perceptive   

adj.知觉的，有洞察力的，感知的

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• He is very perceptive and nothing can be hidden from him.他耳聪目明，什么事都很难瞒住他。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 swirls   

n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Swirls of smoke rose through the trees. 树林中升起盘旋的青烟。 来自辞典例句
• On reaching the southeast corner of Himalaya-Tibet, It'swirls cyclonically across the Yunnan Plateau. 在到达喜马拉雅--西藏高原东南角处，它作气旋性转向越过云南高原。 来自辞典例句

5 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

6 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

7 tentacles   

n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛

参考例句：

• Tentacles of fear closed around her body. 恐惧的阴影笼罩着她。
• Many molluscs have tentacles. 很多软体动物有触角。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 appendage   

n.附加物

参考例句：

• After their work,the calculus was no longer an appendage and extension of Greek geometry.经过他们的工作，微积分不再是古希腊几何的附庸和延展。
• Macmillan must have loathed being judged as a mere appendage to domestic politics.麦克米伦肯定极不喜欢只被当成国内政治的附属品。

9 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

10 groove   

n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯

参考例句：

• They're happy to stay in the same old groove.他们乐于墨守成规。
• The cupboard door slides open along the groove.食橱门沿槽移开。

11 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

12 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

13 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

14 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

15 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。