2015考研英语阅读英昆虫的绝活

　　Insect acrobatics

　　昆虫的绝活

　　Flipping roaches

　　非常蟑螂

　　How cockroaches vanish

　　蟑螂是怎么消失不见的?

　　ANYONE who has tried to swat a cockroach will know those insects strange ability, in theheat of pursuit, to disappear.

　　只要打过蟑螂的都知道它们特殊的本领往往在追赶最激烈的时候突然消失不见了。

　　Robert Full and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have now worked outhow they do thisand taught a miniature robot to copy the feat.

　　加州大学伯克利分校的Robert Full和他的同事现在已明白它们是怎么做到的，并用一个微型机器人模拟了这个过程。

　　Dr Full had been using high-speed photography to study how cockroaches employ theirantennae to sense and cross gaps.

　　Full博士运用了高速摄影技术来研究蟑螂是如何使触须去感知和穿过缝隙。

　　When the researchers made the gaps wider,

　　当研究者把缝隙扩宽，

　　they saw the animals flipping backunderneath the ledge at the edge of the gap, rather than jumping across the empty space.

　　发现蟑螂直接在缝隙边缘翻转下去，而不是跳过缝隙，

　　As they report in the Public Library of Science, cockroaches running towards a gap suddenlygrip the edge with the hooklike claws on their rear legs and swing 180to land firmlyunderneath the ledge, upside down.

　　正如《科学公共图书馆》所报道的那样，蟑螂先迅速冲向缝隙，然后用后腿上的钩状爪子抓住边缘，顺势摆动180，头朝下牢牢抓住平板底部。

　　They can pull off this stunt in a fifth of a secondso fast that the animals bodies are subjectto between three and five times the force of gravity,

　　它们能在0.2秒内完成这项绝技，这么快的速度蟑螂的身体要承受3到5倍的重力加速度，

　　and also so fast that the movement is invisible to the human eye.

　　也正是由于这么快的移动速度才让人类难以发现。

　　Dr Full and his colleagues have since identified similar behaviour in other animals withhooklike toes that are good at escaping pursuit:

　　Full博士和同事后来又发现了其他具有类似特性的生物，它们同样具有钩状的脚趾并擅长逃离追杀，

　　geckos, for example.

　　比如壁虎。

　　They have also teamed up with members of Berkeley s robotics laboratory to program asmall six-legged robot that has strips of Velcro attached to its rear legs to do the same trick.

　　他们也与伯克利分校机器人实验室合作，设计了一只小型六脚机器人，然后把魔术贴粘在机器人的后腿上，最后成功完成了类似动作。

　　Such a robot could be fitted with a camera and used as a surveillance device.

　　这种机器人可以用来装配相机作为监视装置，

　　Some people, though, might prefer it to be fitted with a miniature machinegun and used asa UCPV.

　　尽管如此，一些人更希望它装配微型机枪变成自动蟑螂捕杀器。

　　词语解释

　　1.acrobatic n.杂技;杂技艺术

　　Later a programme of music and acrobatics waspresented.

　　后来演出了音乐、杂技节目。

　　2.cockroach n.蟑螂

　　There s an electric cockroach too.

　　电动蟑螂也出现了一只。

　　3.miniature n.微型复制品;微小模型

　　She is just like her mother in miniature.

　　她简直是她母亲的缩影。

　　4.ledge n.壁架;暗礁;矿脉

　　There are some objects of art on the ledge.

　　壁架上有一些工艺品。

　　5.gravity n.重力;万有引力

　　Gravity exists in virtually all areas of space.

　　重力其实无处不在。