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Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.
请听环境科学课上的部分内容。
When you try to imagine a fungus, you’d probably picture a mushroom popping up out of the ground and think that’s it.
当你们试着想象真菌的时候，你们可能会想到蘑菇冒出地面的场景，并且认为就只是这样了。
But a fungus like that...most of it actually lives underground, and fungi in general are often an important active component of the soil.
但是像那样的真菌......实际上大部分的真菌都生活在地下，而且菌类通常是土壤中重要的活跃成分。
A fungus secretes enzymes into the soil, enzymes that break down, decompose organic material in the soil. So the fungus can absorb this material and get nutrition.
真菌会把酶分泌进土壤中，酶会分解土壤中的有机材料，这样真菌就能吸收这种材料得到养分了。
But to me, what’s most interesting about this process is how it may enable fungi to help clean up environmental pollution in the soil.
但是这个过程对我来说最有趣的部分是它能够帮助清理土壤中的环境污染。
And that’s thanks in part to a substance in their cell walls called chitin.
而这某种程度上要感谢它们细胞壁中一种叫做角素的物质。
Now a lot of people think fungi are related to plants, but they are not.
很多人认为菌群和植物有关，但其实不是。
Believe it or not, the only other place chitin is found in abundance is in the exoskeletons of insects, crabs and such.
信不信由你，唯一能发现丰富的角素的其他地方只有昆虫、螃蟹之类的外骨骼中。
So in this sense, fungi are more associated with insects than with any plant. Strange, uh?
就这种意义而言，真菌和昆虫的联系比和任何植物还要紧密，很奇怪，对吧？
