【视频讲解】

Elephant Footprints Become Tiny Critter Havens
大象的脚印变成生物的避风港
Critter 生物
...little furry critters.
...毛茸茸的小动物。
Haven
安全处所
...Lake Baringo, a freshwater haven for a mixed variety of birds.
…百瑞高湖，一个适合各种鸟类的淡水栖息地。

Imagine a world without elephants. Not only would we have lost one of the planet’s most charismatic, extraordinary creatures. Also gone would be a network of ecosystem engineers—because elephants are crucial for other creatures to exist.
想象一下没有大象的世界。我们不仅会失去世界上最有魅力、最独特的物种，而且，生态网也会被打破，因为大象对其它生物的存在是至关重要的。
Charismatic
有魅力的：有魅力或领袖气质的、与此有关的或具有这些特点的：
“the warmth of a naturally charismatic leader”(Joyce Carol Oates)
“一个天生就有性格魅力的领袖的亲切”(乔伊丝•卡罗尔•奥茨)
Gone
离开的; 不在的，消失
He knows how hard it was for her while he was gone.
他知道他不在的时候她有多难。

They disperse seeds in their copious droppings.
大象在粪便中散播种子。
Disperse
分散，驱散
It was only when the ash from the disintegrating moon rained down on their faces and breasts that they began to disperse.
当灰尘从即将碎裂的月亮上面落下来拂过她们的脸庞和胸膛的时候，她们才开始散开。
Copious
1. 大量的
I went out for dinner last night and drank copious amounts of red wine.
昨晚我出去吃饭，喝了许多红酒。
2. 冗长的：在主题、思想或文字方面繁复的；累赘的：
“I found our speech copious without order, and energetic without rules”(Samuel Johnson)
“我发现我们的语言冗长而缺乏条理，有力但没有规范”(塞缪尔•约翰逊)

By literally cutting paths through forests as they trample trees and bushes, they create a more complex landscape. And now we know that their very footprints are important.
大象践踏树木和灌木然后走出一条路，他们创造一个更加复杂的环境。现在我们知道它们的脚印也是非常重要的。
cut paths
刻蚀路径
Among the best duelists of House Orien are the swiftblades, peerless sword masters whose Marksof Passage enable them to cut paths between worlds with their flashing blades.
在欧瑞恩家族的决斗家中最优秀的就是快刃——出类拔萃的剑术大师，通行龙纹使他们能用闪电一般的锋刃在世间切出一条通路。
Literally
真实地；确切地：
“There are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water”(Craig Claiborne)
“世界上确实有不知道该怎么烧水的人”(克雷格•克莱本)
Trample
践踏
“trampling on the feelings of those about you”(Thornton Wilder)
“践踏那些在你周围的人的感情”(桑顿•怀尔德)

"We were walking through the forest in Kibale National Park…and that's when we stumbled upon these water-filled elephant footprints.” University of Koblenz–Landau ecologist Wolfram Remmers.
“我们当时正在穿越基巴莱国家公园，然后我们偶然发现了积满水的大象脚印。”沃尔夫拉姆•雷默斯是德国科布伦茨•兰道大学的生态学家。
Stumble
踉跄; 绊脚
He stumbled and almost fell.
他绊了一下，差点儿摔倒。
stumble upon 偶然发现，意外发现：
“The urge to wider voyages . . . caused men to stumble upon New America”(Kenneth Cragg)
“扩大航行范围的紧迫要求使人类意外地发现了新美洲”(肯尼思•克拉格)
Footprint 足迹

“And we looked at them and we quickly noticed that they were not only filled by water, but there were lots of animals living in them."Remmers and his colleagues discovered that elephant footprints are a critical habitat for aquatic invertebrates like water beetles.
“我们观察了一下这些脚印，然后我们很快就注意到脚印里面不仅仅有积水，还有许多小动物生活在里面。”雷斯斯和他的同事发现，大象脚印是龙虱等水生无脊椎动物的重要栖息地。
Critical
1. 批评的
His report is highly critical of the trial judge.
他的报道对承审法官是高度批判的。
2. 好评
The film met with considerable critical and public acclaim.
这部电影深得公众赞扬。
3. 关键的
He says setting priorities is of critical importance.
他说确定轻重缓急至关重要。
4. 危机
Moscow is running critically low on food supplies.
莫斯科的食品供应正严重匮乏。
Aquatic 水生的
The pond is small but can support many aquatic plants and fish.
这个池塘虽小，但是能养活许多水生植物和鱼。
invertebrate
无脊椎动物
water beetle
水甲；龙虱

The team studied 30 footprints in different parts of the national park in Uganda to see just who calls this unique habitat their home. In all, they found 61 species from 27 taxonomic orders.
研究小组对乌干达国家公园中不同地方出现的30个大象脚印进行了研究，他们想知道有哪些生物把这个独特的栖息地当作了家。他们总共发现了27个分类中的61种生物。
Taxonomic 分类法; 分类学
Order => in order to
1. 顺序
2. 秩序：有条理地、有组织地安排各构成部分以求达到正常的运转或良好的外观的状态
“Order, cleanliness, seemliness make a structure that is half support, half ritual”(Florida Scott-Maxwell)
“秩序、整洁和庄重带来一半是支持、一半是敷衍了事的体系”(佛罗里达•斯科特—麦斯威尔)
3. 体制：已确定的社会组织系统：
“Every revolution exaggerates the evils of the old order”(C. Wright Mills)
“每次革命都夸大旧秩序的弊端”(C.赖特•米尔斯)

The researchers then created 18 artificial footprints to see how fast they would be colonized. Water beetles showed up on day one. After five days, 410 individual invertebrates were occupying the prints. The findings are in the African Journal of Ecology.
然后研究人员制造了18个人工脚印，想看看这些脚印被寄居生物占领的速度会有多快。龙虱在第一天就出现了。5天后，410个无脊椎动物占领了这些脚印。该研究结果发表在《非洲生态学期刊》上。
Colonize
1. (动物) 移居于
Toads are colonizing the whole place.
蟾蜍正移居到这整个地区。
2. 植物) 在…大量繁殖
The area was then colonized by scrub.
那时该地区被大量低矮灌木所覆盖。

"If you think of these footprints as tiny islands in a big forest, it was amazing to me to see how quickly these small animals could find them and colonize them and use them as habitat for foraging and reproduction and living.“
“如果将这些脚印比喻为大森林中的小岛，让我惊讶的是，这些小动物们找到这些小岛并占领那里的速度是如此之快，然后它们会将这些小岛作为栖息地，在那里找寻食物、生殖繁衍并生存。”
Forage
1. 匆忙搜寻
They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.
他们被迫匆忙搜寻衣物和燃料。
2. 觅食
Do not let animals graze until you are notified that forage in your area is safe.
得到你所在区域的饲料安全的通知前，不要让动物吃青草。
reproduction
1. 繁殖；
2. 复制品
a reproduction of a popular religious painting.
…一幅通俗宗教画的复制品。

In some places, elephant footprints are the only stagnant ponds to be found, which could mean that these insects depend on the pachyderms for their very survival. But because this discovery is so new, nobody really knows how critical these habitats are.
在有些地方，大象的足迹是唯一的死水坑，这意味着，这些生物要依赖大象这种厚皮动物生存。但是，因为这点刚刚被发现，所以目前还没有人真正了解这种动物栖息地的重要性。
Stagnant (水) 不流动而腐浊的
...a stagnant pond.
…一个死水塘。
Pachyderm
1. 大型厚皮动物; 如大象、朝天犀牛或河马
2. 厚脸皮，无耻的人
This was an aspect of Buckingham Palace society that had never occurred to Sister Mary, although the pachyderm fitted right in.
玛丽修女从来没想到白金汉宫女王的社交圈里还会有如此厚颜无耻的东西！

"We are not sure how much they are really dependent on elephant-made footprints in other areas, or if they would completely disappear or if they would just be there in a lower number.“
“我们还不确定在其他地区，它们对大象脚印的依赖性有多强，或者说如果这些脚印完全消失，或者数量减少的话，会发生什么事。”
complete, close, end, finish, conclude, terminate
这些动词都是指达到一个自然或适当的终点。
Complete 暗指取得成功的最后一步：= finish
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime” (Reinhold Niebuhr).
“我们这辈子连一件有意义的事也没完成” （莱因霍尔德•尼泊赫）。
Close 指正在进行的事件接近终点：
If there is a further falloff in ticket sales, the play will close.
如果门票销售进一步下跌，这个剧目就会停演。
End 强调结果：
“Where laws end, tyranny begins” (William Pitt).
“哪里没有法制，暴政就从哪里开始” （威廉姆•皮特）。
Conclude 较complete 和 close 更有一种正式味道：
The article concluded with a restatement of the major points presented.
这篇文章结尾再次重申了它的主旨。
Terminate
更多地专指达到一个在时间或空间上预定的限度：
The family lives on a dead-end street that terminates at a fence.
这家住在这条街围着篱笆的尽头。

Without additional protections, elephants will undoubtedly disappear from large swaths of their ranges. Which means a huge community of invertebrates might be severely restricted in their ability to move across the landscape—with ecosystem consequences we can only guess at.
没有额外的保护措施，大象必将大面积消失。这就意味着，一大群无脊椎动物也许会因为自身能力所限，不能大面积移动，我们也只能猜测这是大象脚印对生态系统的一些影响。
Swath (割草机或镰刀)一次划的幅度，划幅
cut a swath
1. 出风头：造成极大的轰动、留下深刻印象或炫耀：
“He cut a bold and even sacrificial swath across American politics”(Gail Sheehy)
“他以大胆勇猛甚至牺牲精神而在美国政界出尽风头”(盖尔•希伊)
2. 在特殊的自然长度和宽度内延伸：
“the surprising 17th Arrondissement, which cuts a generous swath across northwest Paris”(Jean Rafferty)
“占据巴黎西北大片地区的令人惊讶的第十七区”(简•拉夫尔蒂)