The Busy Autumn in Iberia伊比利亞半島上的秋天

⊙ Sabine Holzer ⊙丁一 譯

World Gallery 世界風(fēng)情館

The Busy Autumn in Iberia伊比利亞半島上的秋天

⊙ Sabine Holzer ⊙丁一 譯

口語(yǔ)指南針

本文講述的是季節(jié)性很強(qiáng)的事，因而有不少關(guān)于時(shí)間的表達(dá)。除了我們常見(jiàn)的when外，作者采用了不同的時(shí)間表達(dá)方式，如：only open at…、Soon people here will be celebrating All Saint’s Day,the first of November、during、coincide等，建議同學(xué)們多留意、勤積累，在寫(xiě)作時(shí)學(xué)以致用。

Donana,it’s in the southwestern corner of Europe.A wetland like no other anywhere else in the world,it’s full of life.1)marsh [mɑ??] n.沼澤Marshes,pine forests and sand.

Some flowers only open at this time of year,in October.This species2)sprout [spra?t] v.長(zhǎng)出，發(fā)芽sproutsfrom a3)bulb [b?lb] n.植物的球莖bulbthat can only be found in Iberia.It’s popularly known in Spain as the quitameriendas,or snack4)suppressor [s??pres?（r）] n.鎮(zhèn)壓者，抑制物suppressor,because it5)emerge [??mз?d?] v.出現(xiàn)，顯露emergeswhen the days are growing shorter and there’s less time between lunch and dinner.So it blooms when there’s no longer time to have a mid-afternoon snack.There’s always some insect ready to6)savour [?se?v?（r）] v.品味savoursome7)nectar [?nekt?（r）] n.花蜜nectarand in exchange,8)fertilise [?fз?t?la?z] v.使受精fertiliseeach season’s flowers.But autumn’s flowers are few and that’s why so much life gathers around them.What’s more,they don’t last long.Time is working against them and in favour of the cold.

Soon people here will be celebrating All Saint’s Day,the first of November.The season’s first freeze will kill off the9)prey [pre?] v.捕食preying10)mantis [?m?nt?s] n.螳螂mantisesthat were born last spring.At the end of their lives when death is near is when this mantis can behave in the most extreme ways.Like eating the male during11)copulation [?k?pj??le???n] n.交配copulationor fighting another female.Two females have coincided on the same prime spot from where they wanted to release their12)pheromone [?fer?m??n] n.[生化]信息素pheromonesto call out to any male that might still survive.But more than a fight over13)territory [?ter?t?r?] n.地盤(pán)，領(lǐng)地territory,this is going to be a fight14)fuel [fju??l] v.刺激，推動(dòng)fuelledby hunger.There’s little food left in the15)ecosystem [?i?k???s?st?m] n.生態(tài)系統(tǒng)ecosystem.The mantises may be the only insects that are still active.So the body of one of their16)peer [p??（r）] n.同輩peersmay provide the last available proteins to lay one more17)batch [b?t?] n.一批，一組batchof eggs.Yes,mantises can be18)cannibal [?k?n?b（?）l] n.同類(lèi)相食的動(dòng)物cannibals.

The season’s first freeze will kill off the preying mantises that were born last spring.

Last year、last month、last week、last night……形容詞last在修飾時(shí)間名詞的時(shí)候，中國(guó)學(xué)生都習(xí)慣將它理解為相對(duì)于目前所處時(shí)間段而言的上一個(gè)時(shí)間段，于是不管我們?cè)谝荒曛械氖裁磿r(shí)候，last spring和last June也就常常被誤解成“去年春天”和“去年六月”。其實(shí)，last的原意是指“剛剛過(guò)去的，最近的”（just past,most recent），所以如果我們身處十月，last spring就是指今年春天（剛剛過(guò)去的春天），而last June則指今年六月（剛剛過(guò)去的六月），這是我們?cè)陂喿x時(shí)要特別注意的一點(diǎn)。

參考譯文

位于歐洲西南角的多尼亞納是世界上獨(dú)一無(wú)二的濕地，到處一片生機(jī)盎然，這里有沼澤、松林和沙地等地理及生態(tài)體系。

有些花只在十月盛開(kāi)。這個(gè)從球莖發(fā)芽的品種只生長(zhǎng)在伊比利亞半島，西班牙人大多稱(chēng)之為秋水仙，又名“小食遏制者”。因?yàn)樗诎讜儩u短、午餐與晚飯間隔變短的時(shí)節(jié)開(kāi)花。也就是說(shuō)，在它開(kāi)花的那些日子里，人們連下午的餐間點(diǎn)心也沒(méi)有時(shí)間享用。但在自然界，總有一些昆蟲(chóng)樂(lè)于在此時(shí)采蜜，而作為回報(bào)，它們會(huì)給每個(gè)季節(jié)的花卉授粉。不過(guò)，秋天綻放的花并不多，因此秋水仙的周?chē)鸁狒[非凡，而且它們的生命很短暫。時(shí)間于它們不利，因?yàn)楹瑢⒅痢?/p>

很快便是人們慶祝11月1日萬(wàn)圣節(jié)的日子。這個(gè)季節(jié)的第一次嚴(yán)寒會(huì)凍死今年春天才降生的所有捕食螳螂。生命將盡時(shí)，螳螂的行為極端異常，如雌螳螂在交配時(shí)會(huì)把雄性吃掉，或與其他雌性打斗。這里是雌螳螂釋放信息素以吸引仍然活著的雄性的絕佳地點(diǎn)，有兩只在此狹路相逢。然而，它們并非旨在爭(zhēng)奪地盤(pán)，而是為饑餓而戰(zhàn)。它們身處的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)已經(jīng)沒(méi)剩下多少食物了，螳螂可能是為數(shù)不多，依然活躍的昆蟲(chóng)之一，因而同類(lèi)的身體可以提供僅剩的蛋白質(zhì)，讓它們多產(chǎn)些卵。是的，螳螂也可以同類(lèi)相食。