国家地理:Family Feuds: Fire Ant Thievery 蚂蚁族仇

This is a fire ant colony in the southeastern United States. Like all ant colonies, it's ruled by a queen and all her workers and warriors¹ are made up completely of female offspring. Unlike other ants, fire ants seem to have almost criminal leanings. It's as if they wanna grow their colony into the biggest, baddest empire in town and they wanna do it now. And what a better way to accomplish that than, well, kidnapping. The queen's minion²s scour⁴ the neighborhood for other newly founded fire ant colonies and then pilfer⁵ the brood and bring the hostage larvae⁶ back to their own queen. It's hard to tell what an ant is thinking. But if you are running a kidnapping syndicate, you'd want enthusiastic workers like these men, they're into it. Sometimes one queen will even team up with another queen, so their colony will have the best chance of survival. That's really what it's all about, bigger colony, better chance for survival. The hitch⁷ is the colony will only let one queen survive, somehow the ants figure out which is their favorite. And well, get ready for more crime, the other is beheaded. The ants who did this may very well have sent their own mother to the chopping block. But, it's all for the sake of the colony, so it's ok. If, right?


leaning: (n.) An inclination⁸, a tendency, or a preference. 一种倾向、趋势或爱好
bad: (a.)【俚语】Very good; great. 非常好的；极棒的
minion: (n.) An obsequious⁹ follower¹⁰ or dependent; a sycophant¹¹. 奴才
syndicate: (n) A loose affiliation¹² of gangsters¹³ in control of organized criminal activities. 罪犯辛迪加
hitch: (n.) An impediment or a delay 妨碍或耽搁
behead: (v.) 斩首，砍头

1 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

2 minion   

n.宠仆；宠爱之人

参考例句：

• At worst some egregious minion had conducted a childish private enterprise.这最多也不过是一批低能的小人物自己干的无聊把戏而已。
• She delegated the job to one of her minions.她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。

3 minions   

n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者

参考例句：

• She delegated the job to one of her minions. 她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。 来自辞典例句
• I have been a slave to the vicious-those whom I served were his minions. 我当过那帮坏人的奴隶，我伺候的都是他的爪牙。 来自辞典例句

4 scour   

v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷

参考例句：

• Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
• We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。

5 pilfer   

v.盗，偷，窃

参考例句：

• Staff were pilfering behind the bar.店员在柜台后有些小偷小摸的行为。
• When food stores close,they go to work,pilfering food for resale on the black market.食品店关门后，他们就行动起来，偷食品拿到黑市上出售。

6 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

7 hitch   

v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉

参考例句：

• They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
• All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。

8 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

9 obsequious   

adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的

参考例句：

• He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air.他看着两位太太,满脸谄媚的神情。
• He was obsequious to his superiors,but he didn't get any favor.他巴结上司，但没得到任何好处。

10 follower   

n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒

参考例句：

• He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。

11 sycophant   

n.马屁精

参考例句：

• The dictator is surrounded by sycophants who are frightened to tell him what he may not like.独裁者被一群不敢谏言的佞臣簇拥着。
• Bestowing favor on a dubious sycophant often leads to the downfall of dynasties.宠用奸佞是历代王朝亡国的重要原因。

12 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。

13 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。