Lesson60

10、 Have You Started Working on Your Biology Paper
你开始写生物论文了吗

M: Hi, Sue. Where have you been?
W: Oh. Hi, Dan. I was just at the library. I have to hand in my biology paper tomorrow.
M: Tomorrow? Oh, no, I thought it wasn’t due till Monday.
W: Oh. Don’t worry. It is due Monday. But I’m going away for the weekend and won’t be back till Monday night.
M: Oh, where are you going?
W: California. We’re having a family reunion. It’s my grandmother’s ninetieth birthday. So all the cousins and aunts and uncles are going. She planned the whole thing herself.
M: Wow. That’s great. How many people will be there?
W: Around sixty. My family is big and spread out but we’re pretty close.
So have you started working on your biology paper?
M: Yeah. I’m doing it on bees and how they’re able to recognize whether another bee is related to them.
W: How can they tell?
M: They use their sense of smell. The sweat bees guard their nests this way. If another bee approaches the nest, the guard determines if the new bee is familiar. If it is, it’s allowed to enter.
W: Interesting. Can other insects do this?
M: Well, the paper wasps can. Each wasp nest has a special combination of plant fibers and so the wasps that live there have a unique smell. Those two are the only kinds I’ve read about so far.
W: Well, you’ve still got time. It sounds like that the bees are picky about who comes to their family reunion.

---------2000年1月托福听力试题

【托福特色词汇】
paper 论文；报纸 [这是paper一词在托福中最常见的两种词义。]

参考译文

M：嗨，苏，你去哪了？
W：哦，嗨，丹。我刚从图书馆回来。我明天得交生物论文。
M：明天？哦，不，我还以为是星期一才交呢！
W：哦，别担心。是星期一交。但我这个周末要出去，星期一晚上之前赶不回来。
M：是这样。你要去哪？
W：加利福尼亚。我们有一个家庭聚会，是我祖母的90岁生日。我所有的表兄妹、叔叔、阿姨都去。我祖母亲自策划的这次聚会。
M：哇，太棒了。有多少人要去？
W：大约60人。我们的家族很大，分散在四面八方，但是关系很密切。你开始写生物论文了吗？
M：是的。我写的内容是关于蜜蜂如何识别与它相关的同类的。
W：怎么识别呢？
M：用他们的感觉器官。汗蜂以此来保卫巢穴。如果有另外一只蜜蜂靠近蜂巢，汗蜂先判断是不是它熟悉的，如果是，就让它进去。
W：真有趣。其他的昆虫有没有这样的？
M：纸黄蜂也是。每一个黄蜂巢都有一种植物纤维的特殊的化合物，住在里面的黄蜂身上就带有一种特殊的气味。到目前为止我所知道的就这两种动物是这样。
W：你还有时间了解更多。这听上去好像蜜蜂对去参加家庭聚会的成员要一一识别才让进去。