Name: 蝙蝠。朋友還是敵人？- 6分鐘英語 (Bats: Friend or foe? - 6 Minute English)
Uploaded: 2022-04-24T16:50:27.000Z
Duration: 6 min 20 s

人類和蝙蝠的關係一直很複雜。

In some cultures bats are depicted as vampires,

在一些文化中，蝙蝠被描繪成吸血鬼。

associated with Halloween, witches and dark,

Bats play an important part in stories and myths

蝙蝠在故事和神話中扮演著重要角色

‘bat signal’ shining in the night sky can mean only one thing –

a call for help to the superhero, Batman!

So do we love or hate these furry flying animals?

那麼我們是愛還是恨這些毛茸茸的飛行動物呢？

And with some newspaper headlines identifying bats

should we think of them as friend or enemy?

我們應該把他們看作是朋友還是敵人？

We’ll be answering all these questions soon, but first,

我們將很快回答所有這些問題，但首先。

Neil, time for another interesting bat fact.

尼爾，是時候說說另一個有趣的蝙蝠事實了。

There’s a huge variety of them, from tiny fruit-eating bats

它們的種類繁多，從小小的吃水果的蝙蝠

that fit into the palm of your hand to giant carnivores,

從適合手掌大小的食物到巨型食肉動物。

In fact it’s the variety of bat types that

事實上，正是由於蝙蝠類型的多樣性，使得

might explain our complex feelings towards them.

也許可以解釋我們對他們的複雜感情。

So, Sam, my quiz question is this: roughly how

所以，山姆，我的問答問題是：大概有多少

many different species of bat are there worldwide?

Hmmm, I’ll say b) two and a half thousand.

OK, Sam, we’ll come back to that later in the programme.

好的，薩姆，我們在節目中晚些時候再來討論這個問題。

Maybe not everyone likes them but bats do have some friends.

也許不是每個人都喜歡他們，但蝙蝠確實有一些朋友。

Farmers love them for pollinating their plants…

…and medical scientists study them hoping to

......而醫學家們研究它們，希望能夠

discover the secrets of their anti-ageing and long life.

Dr Winifred Frick is the chief scientist at

威尼弗裡德-弗裡克博士是美國聯邦調查局的首席科學家。

Bat Conservation International, a group of

environmentalists working to protect bats.

Here she is telling BBC World Service programme,

她在這裡告訴英國廣播公司的世界服務節目。

The Documentary, about another useful service

紀錄片，關於另一項有用的服務

Most bats are insectivorous and they’re really

大多數蝙蝠是食蟲的，它們真的是

important consumers of different kinds of insect pests

不同種類昆蟲害蟲的重要消費者

and here in the United States it’s been estimated that

bats provide billions of dollars every year to the US

蝙蝠每年為美國提供數十億美元的資金

agricultural industry through their voracious

consumption of agricultural pest insects.

Most bats eat only insects – they’re insectivores.

大多數蝙蝠只吃昆蟲 - 它們是食蟲動物。

That’s good news for farmers because they eat many pests -

這對農民來說是個好消息，因為它們會吃掉許多害蟲 --

insects or small animals that are harmful or damage crops.

有害或損害農作物的昆蟲或小動物。

Even better, bats’ appetite for these annoying insects is voracious –

更妙的是，蝙蝠對這些惱人的昆蟲的胃口是貪婪的----。

So far, so good in the friendship between humans and bats.

到目前為止，人類和蝙蝠之間的友誼還不錯。

But then along came the coronavirus pandemic and with it,

但後來冠狀病毒大流行，隨之而來的是。

newspaper reports that bats might be to blame.

報紙報道，蝙蝠可能是罪魁禍首。

Before we get into this we need to explain some terms.

在我們討論這個問題之前，我們需要解釋一些術語。

The Covid which people around the world have

been suffering from is the ‘outbreak virus’.

But if you go backwards there’s an intermediary

但如果你向後看，有一箇中間人

known as the ‘progenitor virus’ between this and

被稱為 "原生病毒"，介於這兩者之間。

the ‘ancestral virus’, which is decades or centuries older.

祖先病毒"，它的歷史要比現在早幾十年或幾百年。

Ninety-nine percent of scientists would agree

that the ‘ancestral virus’ of Covid-19 came from bats.

Covid-19的 "祖先病毒 "來自蝙蝠。

But it’s the go-between ‘progenitor virus’

但它是介於兩者之間的 "原生病毒"。

One of the scientists leading this search is Linfa Wang,

上司這一搜索的科學家之一是王林法。

a professor at Duke Medical School who is known

杜克大學醫學院的一位教授，他被稱為

work to BBC World Service’s, The Documentary:

在英國廣播公司（BBC）世界服務部的《紀錄片》中工作。

Of course the holy grail right now for Covid-19

當然，現在Covid-19的聖盃是什麼？

is to discover where is that progenitor virus and

是要發現原生病毒在哪裡，以及在什麼地方。

also in which kind of animals or humans, right?

也是在哪種動物或人類，對嗎？

And usually the progenitor virus has to be 99.9%

而通常情況下，原代病毒必須是99.9%。

identical to the outbreak virus and so our study

與爆發的病毒相同，是以我們的研究

and you demonstrate the genomic sequence is

99.9% [identical] then that’s brilliant.

Professor Wang thinks that finding the source of

Covid-19’s ‘progenitor virus’ would be like finding

Covid-19的 "原生病毒 "就像找到了

is associated with the cup believed to have been

耶穌基督在他最後一餐時使用的。

something extremely difficult to find or get.

If you can discover the ‘progenitor virus’ then,

如果你能發現'原生病毒'，那麼。

in the words of Professor Wang – that’s brilliant! –

an exclamation meaning ‘that’s very good!’ or ‘amazing!’

意思是 "非常好！"或 "了不起！"的感嘆詞。

是以，儘管蝙蝠有時被，錯誤地。

blamed for causing Covid, they are good friends to farmers,

因造成Covid而受到指責，它們是農民的好朋友。

environmentalists and scientists – as well as vampires!

環保主義者和科學家--以及吸血鬼！"。

字幕列表影片播放

蝙蝠。朋友還是敵人？- 6分鐘英語 (Bats: Friend or foe? - 6 Minute English)

phrase

extremely

pandemic

recap