That's why I'm heading to south Sussex. I've heard about an experiment happening right now to establish how much pesticide1 bees are really getting in the wild. So I'm joining in Professor Dave Goulson and his team to find out how they are going to do it.-The dispute largely focuses on the fact that's pretty much all these experiments done today, have exposed the bees to the pesticides2 in an unnatural3 way, and what we really don't know is actually what wild bees, natural free-flying bees, are actually exposed to, because in the real world, they have a choice about where they can forage4. There are lots of plains around. They might, for example, be avoidable with pesticides, and if they did, that would mean that actually they might be exposed to less than we think.
To find out how much pesticide wild bees are really exposed to, he set up a series of bumblebees in fields around east Sussex. Each started with just a handful of bees. Three weeks later, they are flourishing. New colonies pecked with nectar and
pollen5 collected from the surrounding fields.
-I'm always told bumblebees sting more painful than regular bees. Is that right?
-I don't know. I mean, there isn't much in it. They both are...
-So what we need to do is to get ...
-A pollen sample, and a nectar sample, and a sample of the wax, and then we've got all samples in. We gonna analyse them all to detect these tiny phases of pesticides.
The bees will have these all pached-up in a day or two. The team will collect samples every few weeks, but this will give them the first real measure of the dose that wild bees are getting. They've chosen to study bumblebees for a good reason, because each colony lives for just one year.
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收听单词发音
1
pesticide
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n.杀虫剂,农药 |
参考例句: |
- The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
- This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。
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2
pesticides
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n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 );除害药物 |
参考例句: |
- vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
- There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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3
unnatural
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adj.不自然的;反常的 |
参考例句: |
- Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗?
- She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。
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4
forage
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n.(牛马的)饲料,粮草;v.搜寻,翻寻 |
参考例句: |
- They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.他们不得不去寻找衣服和燃料。
- Now the nutritive value of the forage is reduced.此时牧草的营养价值也下降了。
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5
pollen
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n.[植]花粉 |
参考例句: |
- Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
- He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
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