托福听力科学60秒（SSS）原文之丝绸之路

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　　对很多备战托福听力的伙伴来说，著名的科学60秒(sixty-second science，简写为SSS)一定不陌生。SSS只有一分钟，但是语速快，信息量大。最重要的是，常作为托福考试听力出题的重要来源。初听者会觉得这就是在磨耳朵，但同样很多朋友反映听多了SSS之后觉得TPO非常拖节奏，很慢，甚至听到想睡觉。恒星英语网托福频道在此和大家分享SSS听力原文及翻译之丝绸之路不仅运货，也会扩散传染病。

　　This is Scientific American 60-second Science, I'm Cynthia Graber. Got a minute?

　　这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是辛西娅·格雷伯。一分钟准备好了吗?

　　For thousands of years, what’s called the Silk Road was a group of land and sea trade routes that connected the Far East with South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and southern Europe.

　　几千年来，所谓丝绸之路就是指从远东至南亚、非洲、中东以及南欧的一系列陆海商路。

　　Of course, when humans travel they carry their pathogens with them.

　　当然，当人们旅行时，也会随身将病菌带到各地。

　　So scientists and historians have wondered if the Silk Road was a transmission route not just for goods, but for infectious disease.

　　因此，科学家和历史学家一直想弄清的是：丝绸之路是否不仅是商品流通的渠道，也是传染病蔓延的途径呢?

　　Now we have the first hard evidence of ancient Silk Road travelers spreading their infections.

　　如今，我们首次发现了古代丝绸之路行者传播传染病的确凿证据。

　　The find comes from a 2,000-year-old latrine that had first been excavated in 1992.

　　该发现来自于1992年被首次发掘的2000年前的公共厕所。

　　The report is in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

　　该研究发表在《考古科学：报告》杂志上。

　　“So the site is a relay station on the Silk Road in northwest China.

　　“就是说，这个地方是中国西北地区丝绸之路的中继站。

　　It's just to the eastern end of the Tarim Basin, which is a large arid area just to the east of the Taklamakan desert, and not far from the Gobi Desert. So this is a dry part of China.”

　　它位于塔里木盆地东端，即塔克拉玛干沙漠东边的一大片干旱区，离戈壁沙漠不远。因此这里是中国的干旱地区。”

　　Piers Mitchell, paleopathologist at the University of Cambridge, and one of the study’s authors, along with his student Ivy Yeh and colleagues in China.

　　皮尔斯·米切尔是剑桥大学的古生物病理学家，他与他的学生叶艾薇以及中国同事们一起做这项研究。

　　In the latrine, archaeologists found used hygiene sticks wrapped with cloth.

　　在这间公厕中，考古学家们发现了几根外层裹着织物的“卫生棍”。

　　These were used for what you think they were used for.

　　“卫生棍”的作用就是你想象的那种作用。(你懂得)

　　“This excavation was great because the cloth was still preserved and the feces was still adherent to the cloth on some of the sticks.

　　“这项发掘至关重要，因为织物至今得以保存，而且有几根棍子的外层织物上还沾着排泄物。

　　So the archaeologist kept these sticks in the museum.

　　所以，考古学家们把这些棍子放进了博物馆。

　　And so my Ph. D. student, Ivy Yeh, who’s first author on the paper, she went out to China took some scrapings from the feces adherent to the cloth.

　　我的博士生叶艾薇——同时也是本论文的第一作者——去了中国，刮下附着在布上的排泄物的一些碎屑。

　　So we were then able to analyze that down the microscope when she brought it back to Cambridge.”

　　之后，她把碎屑带回剑桥，我们才得以放在显微镜下来分析。”

　　Where they found eggs from parasites—including one from a liver fluke.

　　他们在碎屑中发现了寄生虫卵，其中一颗是肝吸虫卵。

　　“And that's the exciting one because that's only found in eastern and southern China and in Korea, where they have marshy areas that have the right snails and the right fish.”

　　“这个发现令人振奋，因为肝吸虫卵之前只在中国东南部和韩国发现过。这些地区有沼泽地，而沼泽地里才有合适的螺和鱼。”

　　The fluke needs snails and fish for its lifecycle, but there were no such snails or fish in this dry region of China.

　　这种寄生虫生命周期中需要螺和鱼作为宿主，但是中国干旱地区没有这种螺和鱼。

　　So the unlucky traveler who harbored the parasite had to have transported the disease to that spot.

　　因此，携带寄生虫的倒霉客官不得已把传染病带到了那里。

　　“Well firstly it tells us that people were doing very long journeys along the Silk Road and you might think that's obvious.

　　“首先，这告诉我们：古人走丝绸之路是一次非常长的旅程。或许你觉得这是不言而喻的。

　　But no one really knew how long people were traveling.

　　但是，没人真的知道古人到底走了多远的路程。

　　Some people may have been trading, only going short distances selling their goods on to the next person.

　　有的人做生意，或许只是走一小段路，把货卖给下家就完了。

　　And so the goods might have gone all the way along the Silk Road, but people might not.

　　因此，走完丝绸之路全程的或许只有货物，人未必会走全程。

　　But we know that some people were doing huge distances."

　　不过现在我们知道了：有的人的确经历了长距离的跋涉。”

　　“Secondly it shows that this was, would be a viable route for the spread of those other infectious diseases like Bubonic plague and leprosy and anthrax that people had previously suggested might have been spread between East Asia and Europe along the Silk Road.

　　“第二，这显示丝绸之路可能是黑死病、麻风病和炭疽病等其它传染病的扩散路径。而之前就有人提出，这些病可能是沿着丝绸之路从东亚蔓延至欧洲的。

　　Because modern genetic analyses have shown similarities between the strains of one end and the other.”

　　因为现代基因分析显示，在丝绸之路两端发现的病菌菌株很相似。”

　　Mitchell says there’s much more work to be done to better understand the spread of diseases around the world.

　　米切尔认为，为了深入了解疾病在全世界范围的传播，我们还有很多工作要做。

　　Perhaps from analyzing skeletons—or various other kinds of remains—to be found along the Silk Road.

　　通过挖掘并分析丝绸之路沿线的遗骨或各种其它遗骸，可以揭开更多的秘密。

　　SSS科学60秒听方法：

　　1.第一遍盲听。大概了解什么意思。

　　2.第二遍再听。尽量做到能复述出大致内容。

　　3.第三遍精听。对照原文来听。

　　4.第四遍看答案，看解释，查字典，弄懂意思。

　　5.第五遍跟读。开始是跟读，最好练到能脱稿跟着说。到了这个水平，这一篇SSS算是过关了。