本周，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人“Science and Technology”版塊出了一篇很有意思的海洋生物的科普文所謂的“狗咬狗”，講的是“Corals eat jellyfish”，什么吃什么？我們先來認(rèn)識這幾種文中涉及到的生物，水母，珊瑚蟲，... 你分得清嗎？

○ jellyfish: a sea animal that has a round transparent body and can sting you 水母；海蜇

○ Pelagia noctiluca: a jellyfish in the family Pelagiidae (游水母科)，水母的一種，稱為紫水母/紫紋水母/夜光游水母

在拉丁語中，pelagia 意思是“大海的...”，nocti 代表“夜晚”，luca 表示“光”，Pelagia noctiluca 就是指一種在黑暗中能夠發(fā)光的海洋生物。

In Latin, pelagia means "of the sea", nocti stands for night and luca means light; thus, Pelagia noctiluca can be described as a marine organism with the ability to glow in the dark. (From Wikipedia)

○ coral: a hard red, white, or pink substance formed from the bones of very small sea creatures, which is often used to make jewellery 珊瑚

○ polyp /'pɑl?p/ a very simple sea animal that has a body like a tube 水螅蟲，也有直接指“珊瑚蟲”(a coral polyp)

那么，珊瑚和珊瑚蟲有什么區(qū)別呢？

珊瑚之名來自古波斯語 sanga（石），是對珊瑚蟲群體及其骨骼的通稱。

○ Astroides calycularis: which is endemic to the western Mediterranean Sea, is a colonial coral consisting of a group of polyps.

其中的 Astroides calycularis 就是珊瑚的一種，只是比較特別，是地中海地區(qū)特有的。

應(yīng)該是長這樣↓↓↓

○ sea anemones: ?？?/span>

有點(diǎn)搞不清珊瑚和海葵了，長得很像。

那么，珊瑚和?？质鞘裁搓P(guān)系？

珊瑚與海葵同屬珊瑚蟲綱(Anthozoa)，但?？⒉皇巧汉鞯囊环N，只可說它們是近親。珊瑚具有碳酸鈣的骨骼，石珊瑚新增的骨頭會連著舊的骨骼，經(jīng)過悠長的歲月，可以形成一片珊瑚群落。而?？菦]有骨骼的，它們是以基部的吸盤來固定身體的。

文中涉及到的生物大概就是這些啦，我們下面開始看文章內(nèi)容。

? 第一段>>>

FROM the human point of view?Pelagia noctiluca?is an enemy. It is a jellyfish, abundant in the Mediterranean Sea, that is the chief cause of stings to swimmers in that popular holidaymakers' destination.

○ From my point of view 在我看來，依我看；這里是 from the human point of view 在人類看來， Pelagia noctiluca 是人類的敵人。Pelagia noctiluca 是什么？前面我們也說了，紫水母，是水母的一種，在地中海地區(qū)也特別豐富（abundant）。那么，紫水母為什么是人類的敵人呢？因?yàn)樗?..的主要原因，the chief cause of ...，來度假勝地地中海的游泳者被蟄的主要原因。

○ the Mediterranean Sea 地中海

○ sting 可作動詞也可作名詞，這里是名詞，意思是“蟄，刺; 叮”，其過去式和過去分詞都是“stung”，后文還會出現(xiàn)。

But, as this picture shows,?Pelagia noctiluca?has enemies of its own. The other creatures in shot are polyps of?Astroides calycularis, a type of coral.

○ 圖中可以看出，Pelagia noctiluca 也有自己的“天敵”了，就是我們一開始介紹的，圖中的另一種生物，珊瑚蟲，polyps of Astroides calycularis.

○ creature: 可以指“生物；動物”anything that is living, such as an animal, fish, or insect, but not a plant.

舉個(gè)??，all the living creatures in the sea 海洋中所有的生物

上文中出現(xiàn)了“organism”也是表示“生物; 微生物”(An organism is an animal or plant, especially one that is so small that you cannot see it without using a microscope.)

○ shot: 最常見的意思是“開槍，射擊，射門”，這里意思是“照片; 鏡頭，(電影的) 連續(xù)鏡頭”(A shot is a photograph or a particular sequence of pictures in a movie.)

The other creatures in shot 指的就是前面說的 this picture 照片、鏡頭中的另一種生物。

? 第二段>>>

Normally,?Astroides calycularis?feeds on small creatures of the plankton.

○ feed on/upon: 以…為食物，用…喂，用…飼養(yǎng)；從…得到滿足；依賴，靠…過日子。 舉個(gè)??，Cows feed on hay. 奶牛以干草為生。He feeds on his cousin. 他靠他的表兄生活。

○ Plankton is a mass of tiny animals and plants that live in the surface layer of the sea. 浮游生物

But researchers led by Tomás Vega Fernández of the Zoological Station in Naples, diving off the coast of Italian islands such as Pantelleria, have show that individual coral-polyps sometimes collaborate to trap and consume jellyfish.

○ Astroides calycularis 通常是以一些小的浮游生物為食。但近來有研究者在意大利海島潛水中發(fā)現(xiàn)一些珊瑚蟲會通過協(xié)作的方式誘捕并吃掉水母。

They catch hold of various parts of their prey to stop it swimming away, and slowly dismember it. As the team describe in a paper in?Ecology, each polyp then consumes part of a tentacle or of the pulsating umbrella the jellyfish uses to swim.

○ catch hold of 抓??；捉住；抓牢；了解

○ prey 這里作名詞，表示“被〔其他動物〕捕食的動物，獵物”(an animal, bird etc that is hunted and eaten by another animal)

○ dismember 意思是“肢解”(To dismember the body of a dead person or animal means to cut or pull it into pieces)

舉個(gè)??，She then dismembered him, hiding parts of his body in the cellar. 她接著將他的尸體肢解，把幾塊碎尸藏進(jìn)了地窖。

此外，dismember 還有一個(gè)意思是“瓜分，分割〔國家、地區(qū)或組織〕”to divide a country, area, or organization into smaller parts.

○ tentacle 意思是“〔章魚等海洋動物的〕觸手，觸角，觸須”one of the long thin parts of a sea creature such as an octopus which it uses for holding things.

○ pulsating: 動詞原形 pulsate 意思是“有規(guī)律地振動，脈動”(to make sounds or movements that are strong and regular like a heart beating).

文中 the pulsating umbrella (which) the jellyfish uses to swim 可以看成省略了先行詞 that/which 的賓語從句，指的就是水母用來前進(jìn)的不停擺動的傘狀體。

? 最后一段>>>

Corals are, essentially, sea anemones with stony cases. Both they and jellyfish belong to the phylum of animals known to zoologists as Cnidaria, the characteristic feature of which is stinging cells called nematocysts. Cnidarians use these to disable their prey.

○ stony: 詞根就是 stone 石頭，stony 是形容詞，意思是“鋪著石頭的；多石的；石質(zhì)的”??：stony soil 石質(zhì)土

○ phylum /'fa?l?m/ one of the large groups into which scientists divide plants, animals, and languages 〔動植物分類的〕門；〔語言的〕語群

○ Cnidaria: 刺胞動物門，又稱刺細(xì)胞動物門，分為：水螅蟲綱、缽水母綱和珊瑚蟲綱等。珊瑚和水母均屬于刺胞動物門。它的一大特點(diǎn)就是具有刺細(xì)胞或者說是刺絲囊。

○ stinging cell 刺細(xì)胞

○ nematocyst /n?'m?t?s?st/ 刺絲囊

刺胞動物都是肉食性的，以浮游生物，小的甲殼類、多毛類甚至小的魚類為食。由于食物的機(jī)械刺激和化學(xué)刺激，引起水螅類動物伸長觸手，并放出刺絲囊以纏繞、麻痹、毒殺捕獲物，再將食物送入口中。（百度百科）

In this example, then, it is a case not so much of “the biter bit” as “the stinger stung”.

○ not so much A as B 與其說是A不如說是B

○ The biter bit 實(shí)際上是一部電影《水澆園丁》，講的是園丁在花園里持水管澆水，一頑童路過，水被腳踩停噴，園丁端詳水管口，頑童忽然松開，水噴園丁一臉，頑童大樂，園丁追打。

The biter bit 意思就是咬人的人被咬了，這里經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人非常巧妙地借用這一說法，與其說是“the biter bit”不如說是“the stinger stung”，將水母被珊瑚蟲吃掉稱作 the stinger stung 蜇人的生物現(xiàn)在自己也被蟄了，對應(yīng)到中文里的意思就是“狗咬狗”？Interesting!

This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "The biter bit"

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