扫描关注少儿英语微信

• 双语：熊猫为获取更好生活条件假装怀孕(图)
• 莫冲动：口语再好这些句子也不能脱口而出
• 看电影《权力的游戏》学英语：放口风(图)
• 日韩混血小萝莉走红 大眼圆圆萌Cry(组图)
• 电梯事故频发：看老外在电梯上咋作死(双语)
• 不懂英文惹尴尬 中国人穿脏话T恤出行引争议

为什么蚊子会咬你

　　Mosquitoes have an extraordinary ability to target humans far away and fly straight to their unprotected skin.Regrettably, mosquitoes can do more than cause an itchy wound.Some mosquitoes spread several serious diseases, including Dengue, yellow fever and malaria.

　　蚊子具有惊人的能力，可以从远处瞄准目标人群，直接叮向人们裸露的肌肤。不幸的是，蚊子叮咬不仅仅是引起瘙痒这么简单。一些蚊子还会传播致命疾病，如登革热、黄热病以及疟疾等等。

　　Over one million people worldwide die from these mosquito-borne diseases each year.New research now shows how mosquitos choose who to bite。

　　每年世界上有100多万人死于由蚊子传播的疾病。最新一项研究表明了蚊子是如何选择人群进行叮咬的。

　　Mosquitoes need blood to survive.They are attracted to human skin and breath.They smell the carbon dioxide gas -- which all mammals breathe out.This gas is how mosquitoes know that a warm-blooded creature is nearby。

　　蚊子依靠血液存活。人类的皮肤和呼吸能够吸引蚊子。它们能够闻到二氧化碳的味道，而一切哺乳动物都会呼出二氧化碳。这种味道通常会帮助蚊子发现附近存在的热血动物。

　　But mosquitoes also use their eyes and sense of touch.Michael Dickinson is a professor at the California Institute of Technology.His research shows how these small insects, with even smaller brains, use three senses to find a blood meal。

　　然而，蚊子也会利用它们的视觉和触觉来搜寻目标人群。Michael Dickinson是加州理工学院的一位教授。他的研究表明了蚊子这种小型昆虫虽然脑袋很小，但它们却可以利用三种感官来发现吸食目标。

　　We suspected from research that we had been doing on fruit flies that vision might play a very large and underappreciated rolein allowing the mosquito to really home in on the potential host target。

　　“通过对果蝇进行试验，我们怀疑我们低估了视力的作用。视力可能对于蚊子寄宿在宿主身上起到了巨大作用。

　　Michael Dickinson’s team used plumes– material that rises into the air -- of carbon dioxide gas into a wind tunnel.They then used cameras to record the mosquitoes.The insects followed the plume。

　　Michael Dickinson团队使二氧化碳羽化物(即一种会上升到空气中的物质)进入风道。接着使用相机记录蚊子飞行的过程。蚊子紧紧跟随着羽化物。

　　Then, the scientists placed dark objects on the lighter colored floor and walls of the tunnel.Mr. Dickinson said, at first, the mosquitoes showed no interest in the objects at all。

　　接着，科学家们将一些深色物质放置在风道中浅颜色的地板和墙壁上。Dickinson告诉我们，蚊子起先并未对这些物质表现出任何兴趣。

　　What was quite striking and quite surprising is that the mosquitos fly back and forth for hours.these are hungry females--and they completely ignore the objects on the floor and wall of the tunnel.But the moment that they get a hit of CO2,they change their behavior quite dramatically and now would become attracted to these little visual blobs."

　　“出乎意料的是，蚊子飞来飞去飞了几个小时。这些雌蚊子虽然饥饿，但它们完全忽视了地板和墙壁上的物质。然而，当它们闻到二氧化碳的那一刻，便立马改变了之前的行为，并开始包围这些可见的小型团状物。”

　　This suggested to the researchers that a mosquito’s sense of smell is more important in the search for food.Once mosquitoes catch a smell of a human or animal, they also follow visual cues。

　　这向研究人员表明，蚊子的嗅觉在找寻食物时更为重要。一旦它们闻到人类或动物的味道，就会利用视觉搜寻。

　　This really makes a lot of sense.because if the mosquitoes were distracted by every visual object in their world, they would just waste all their time.This case, they only start paying attention when their nose tells them that there might be a host nearby."

　　“这的确意义非凡。因为如果蚊子被视野范围内的所有事物分心的话，就会浪费时间。这个试验表明蚊子只有用嗅觉判断之后才开始注意附近的宿主。”

　　This process happens several times over the course of a mosquito’s flight.Michael Dickinson explains。

　　在蚊子飞行的时候，这一寻找过程发生了多次。Michael Dickinson 解释说。

　　What some of the details of our experiments indicated is that it’s very hard to fool them over the long run.They will always get their man or woman over time .because they’ll just keep repeating this strategy until they find a yummymeal. "

　　“在我们的试验中，有些细节表明想长期欺骗蚊子是不可能的。它们最终总是可以找到要吸食的男男女女，因为它们会不断重复这一策略直到找到可口的食物。”

　　Matt DeGennaro is a scientist at Florida International University.He says understanding a mosquito’s way of finding its host could help prevent those insects from biting.He is working to create genetic changes that affect the mosquito’s sense of smell。

　　Matt DeGennaro是佛罗里达国际大学的科学家。他认为发现蚊子寻找宿主的方法有助于防止蚊子叮咬。他正在致力于改变影响蚊子嗅觉的基因。

　　"We need to know which genes control this process at all these different stages.And then we can use that knowledge to design a new perfume.that could block the mosquito’s sensation of us,or could triggercertain receptors that signal danger to the mosquito and then cause them to stay away."

　　“我们需要了解不同的阶段由哪些基因控制，进而可以运用这一知识来设计新型香水，阻断蚊子对人类的感知，或者触发某些感受器，向蚊子释放危险信号，从而保护人类免于叮咬。”

　　The study, published in Current Biology, details the steps of the mosquito’s flight.so that we may one day have a fighting chance against the biting insect。

　　这项研究发表在《当代生物学》杂志上，详实地描述了蚊子在飞行中的各个阶段。有朝一日，我们也许会找到应对蚊子叮咬的办法。