国家地理:Real-Life CSI: Corpse Farm CSI: 尸体农场

Imagine that a partly decomposed¹ body is found lying in the woods. Was the person murdered and how long could he have been dead? To find out, investigators² come here, a place known as the Body Farm. This 2-acre compound at the University of Tennessee is devoted³ to studying what happens to the body after death. The scene isn't for the squeamish. On any given day the ground is strewn with some 50 corpses⁵. For the scientists who work here it's an open-air laboratory of decay.

What is unique about the facility is that we can look at this process of decomposition⁶, Day 1, Day 2, Day 18 and Day 37 and Day 156. Look at that.

Doctor Murray Marks is a forensic⁷ anthropologist⁸. Once decomposition sets in, a normal autopsy⁹ cannot be done and so the pathologist turns to the anthropologist to come up with some information.

To provide that information, Doctor Marks is compiling an unusual and for some stomach-churning reference work, an atlas¹⁰ for law enforcement that would display bodies in every stage of decay.

What happens is you pull out the atlas and you compare your body that's decomposed to this. It's a standard and it will provide, I think, a gold standard for the process of decomposition.

The work at the body farm is important to solving crimes but it's also gruesome. This corpse⁴ has been outside for 2 weeks and it is giving off a powerful stench.

It's not like garbage. It's not even like a dead animal. It's not like a mouse that's behind your wall that dies. I mean, it's, it's a pungent¹¹ sweet smell. You'll never forget it.

The researchers focus on details that would revolt most people such as blackened skin, an important clue in establishing time of death. The darker the flesh the longer the body has been dead.

You can see the head is darker, that arm is a little bit darker, a sign trying to show all the variation throughout the body.

Few people want to think about what flies and maggots do to a body, much less study it.

But Doctor Marks knows these scavengers are as regular as clockwork. The first flies will arrive within half an hour of death and invade the body.

What they look for are the orifices, the nose, the mouth, ears, the ground body inner face where it's gonna be shaded.

Inside the body the flies lay eggs and 24 hours later the eggs produce the slithering, flesh-eating insects, maggots. They are an important clue for Doctor Marks. When the maggots reach 15 millimeters in length they have been fed for about 1 week.

The better I am sitting over on that hill watching these processes, the better the crime scene investigators are gonna be and the more evidence they will have to give as far as finding suspects. I'm I'm fortunate to be able to be a part of that. It's not nasty and it's not gross or awful to do, I mean it's a job that has to be done.


forensic: (a.) Relating to, used in, or appropriate for courts of law or for public discussion or argumentation. 法庭的
pathologist: 病理学家
stench: (n.) A strong, foul¹² odor; a stink¹³. 恶臭

1 decomposed   

已分解的，已腐烂的

参考例句：

• A liquid is decomposed when an electric current passes through it. 当电流通过时，液体就分解。
• Water can be resolved [decomposed] into hydrogen and oxygen. 水可分解为氢和氧。

2 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

4 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

5 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

6 decomposition   

n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃

参考例句：

• It is said that the magnetite was formed by a chemical process called thermal decomposition. 据说这枚陨星是在热分解的化学过程中形成的。
• The dehydration process leads to fairly extensive decomposition of the product. 脱水过程会导致产物相当程度的分解。

7 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

8 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

9 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

10 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。

11 pungent   

adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a pungent style.文章写得泼辣。
• Its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hideouts.它的刺激性气味会令恐怖分子窒息，迫使他们从藏身地点逃脱出来。

12 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！

13 stink   

vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• The stink of the rotten fish turned my stomach.腐烂的鱼臭味使我恶心。
• The room has awful stink.那个房间散发着难闻的臭气。