2023考研英語(yǔ)閱讀野生水獺
Otters in the wild
野生水獺
Beguiling carnivores
欺騙性的肉食動(dòng)物
A muse to poets, a mystery to scientists
詩(shī)人的靈感，科學(xué)家的謎團(tuán)
Poets dig my style
詩(shī)人盡挖我的風(fēng)采
Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter. By Miriam Darlington.
《水獺國(guó)度：搜尋野生水獺》米麗亞姆達(dá)林頓著。
Written in prose as sinuous as the creatures themselves, Otter Country is a celebration ofBritain s wild otters. These elusive animals have fascinated Miriam Darlington, a poet, sincechildhood, when she first read Ring of Bright Water, Gavin Maxwell s classic 1960 taleabout living with otters. Never mind the slippery reality it portrays, she writes, the spellof its otters took hold of me long ago and I still long to see one in the wild.
《水獺國(guó)度》是部英國(guó)野生水獺的頌典，其散文式風(fēng)格如水獺自身一般流轉(zhuǎn)。詩(shī)人米麗亞姆. 達(dá)林頓從她兒時(shí)第一次讀到《閃亮的水環(huán)》開(kāi)始, 便對(duì)這種神秘動(dòng)物非常著迷，這本書(shū)是加文馬克斯韋爾20世紀(jì)60年代創(chuàng)作的經(jīng)典小說(shuō)，講述的是一個(gè)與水獺共處的故事。千萬(wàn)不要介意其光滑的外在她寫(xiě)到，水獺的魔力早已將我牢牢吸引，我現(xiàn)在仍然渴望能在野外看到水獺。
This mesmerising book describes her year-long quest across Britain, from Devon toScotland, Cumbria to Wales, through seductive wild places and changing seasons, for aglimpse of otters and to meet people who dedicate their lives to them.
這是一本讓人愛(ài)不釋手的書(shū)，描述了她在英國(guó)長(zhǎng)達(dá)一年的搜尋水獺之旅，從德文郡到蘇格蘭，再?gòu)目膊祭飦喌酵柺浚┻^(guò)魅人的原野，親歷季節(jié)變遷，就為一睹水獺容顏和遇到致力于水獺研究的人們。
The otter was one of the earliest carnivores. Its ancestral genus Mionictis, first roamed theEarth around 30m years ago. Thirteen species now thrive around the globe, barringAustralia and Antarctica, but it is Lutra lutra, the European otter and Britain s only species,that is the object of Ms Darlington s passion.
水獺是最早出現(xiàn)的肉食動(dòng)物之一，它的始祖是中新鼬獺，早在3千萬(wàn)年以前，便開(kāi)始游走于地球。現(xiàn)在的水獺共有13個(gè)品種，布滿(mǎn)全球各地，除澳大利亞和南極洲。然而達(dá)林頓女士鐘愛(ài)的只有歐亞水獺，它也是英國(guó)唯一的品種。
Otters have long fascinated man. Their nocturnal habits mean they are rarely seenottersgive so little of themselves it s hard to know them, Ms Darlington writes. Their sublimelysecretive nature makes them a muse to poets and a mystery to scientists, who still havemuch to learn about these aquatic mammals. Their mischievous appearance belies theirstatus as one of Britain s top predators.
人們所喜愛(ài)水獺為時(shí)已久。只是它們習(xí)慣夜間出沒(méi)，很少有機(jī)會(huì)讓人們看到。水獺透露給人們的信息很少，要了解它們非常困難達(dá)林頓這樣寫(xiě)到。無(wú)比神秘的它們是詩(shī)人的靈感之源，也是科學(xué)家眼里的謎團(tuán)，關(guān)于這些水族哺乳動(dòng)物，還有很多東西等著他們?nèi)W(xué)習(xí)。淘氣的外表下掩藏的是它們作為英國(guó)頭等捕手的身份。
Seamus Heaney, Mary O Malley and Ted Hughes have all devoted elegant doggerel tothese creatures. Hughes is taken with the otter s Underwater eyes, an eel s. Oil of waterbody, the way it Re-enters the water by melting. Mr Heaney declares his love for an otter swet head and smashing crawl/Your fine swimmer s back and shoulders/Surfacing andsurfacing again. Ms Darlington s own lyrical prose is often beautifully evocative: a maleotter is supple as rope made out of silk a female swimming underwater moves in aripple-wake the thin curves of a mother and cub slip together into the twilight, likefierce, muscled ribbons, darkening into the ribbon of the stream.
謝默斯希尼、瑪麗歐瑪列和泰德休斯都曾為這些生靈寫(xiě)過(guò)優(yōu)美的打油詩(shī)。休斯被水獺那如鱔魚(yú)一般的水下眼睛，油般水靈的身軀，和它那化身返水的方式深深吸引。希尼宣稱(chēng)自己喜愛(ài)水獺濕漉漉的腦袋和揮舞不停的爪子/你那如泳者般健美的肩背/一次一次浮出水面。達(dá)林頓女士自己的詩(shī)詞常常讓人產(chǎn)生唯美的浮想：雄性水獺就像絲繩般靈活水底潛游的雌水獺動(dòng)起來(lái)就如水波乍起水獺母親的和幼崽一同消失在暮色里而產(chǎn)生的苗條曲線，就像鋒利而強(qiáng)勁的絲帶，潛入波紋陣陣的水流深處。
Despite her sense of romance, Ms Darlington avoids the easy trap of anthropomorphising theotter. Instead she offers a memorable mixture of scientific study and earnest observation.She chronicles the species dramatic decline to near extinction between the 1950s and late1970s, thanks to hunting for sport, habitat loss and the use of certain pesticides in farming.After a ban on otter hunting and new legal protection in 1978, otters have become animportant conservation success story. These creatures can now be found in the wild in everycounty in England.
盡管她有浪漫的想法，達(dá)林頓女士還是沒(méi)有將水獺人格化,避開(kāi)了這個(gè)危險(xiǎn)陷阱。相反她將科學(xué)研究和忠實(shí)觀察湊合到一起，結(jié)果讓人終身難忘。她全程記錄了20世紀(jì)50年代到70年代期間，由于獵殺行為、棲息地的喪失和農(nóng)耕時(shí)某些殺蟲(chóng)劑的使用，導(dǎo)致水獺數(shù)量劇減，瀕臨滅絕的過(guò)程。1978年新的保護(hù)法律出臺(tái)并全面禁止獵殺水獺，保護(hù)水獺成為一個(gè)重要的成功故事。在英格蘭每一個(gè)郡縣,現(xiàn)在都可以看到野生水獺的蹤影。
Otters apparently enjoy a rather illustrious club of fans. Readers of Ms Darlington will be gladshe is among them.
顯然水獺們擁有一個(gè)著名的粉絲俱樂(lè)部。達(dá)林頓女士的讀者們很高興看到作者也是他們中的一員。
Otters in the wild
野生水獺
Beguiling carnivores
欺騙性的肉食動(dòng)物
A muse to poets, a mystery to scientists
詩(shī)人的靈感，科學(xué)家的謎團(tuán)
Poets dig my style
詩(shī)人盡挖我的風(fēng)采
Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter. By Miriam Darlington.
《水獺國(guó)度：搜尋野生水獺》米麗亞姆達(dá)林頓著。
Written in prose as sinuous as the creatures themselves, Otter Country is a celebration ofBritain s wild otters. These elusive animals have fascinated Miriam Darlington, a poet, sincechildhood, when she first read Ring of Bright Water, Gavin Maxwell s classic 1960 taleabout living with otters. Never mind the slippery reality it portrays, she writes, the spellof its otters took hold of me long ago and I still long to see one in the wild.
《水獺國(guó)度》是部英國(guó)野生水獺的頌典，其散文式風(fēng)格如水獺自身一般流轉(zhuǎn)。詩(shī)人米麗亞姆. 達(dá)林頓從她兒時(shí)第一次讀到《閃亮的水環(huán)》開(kāi)始, 便對(duì)這種神秘動(dòng)物非常著迷，這本書(shū)是加文馬克斯韋爾20世紀(jì)60年代創(chuàng)作的經(jīng)典小說(shuō)，講述的是一個(gè)與水獺共處的故事。千萬(wàn)不要介意其光滑的外在她寫(xiě)到，水獺的魔力早已將我牢牢吸引，我現(xiàn)在仍然渴望能在野外看到水獺。
This mesmerising book describes her year-long quest across Britain, from Devon toScotland, Cumbria to Wales, through seductive wild places and changing seasons, for aglimpse of otters and to meet people who dedicate their lives to them.
這是一本讓人愛(ài)不釋手的書(shū)，描述了她在英國(guó)長(zhǎng)達(dá)一年的搜尋水獺之旅，從德文郡到蘇格蘭，再?gòu)目膊祭飦喌酵柺浚┻^(guò)魅人的原野，親歷季節(jié)變遷，就為一睹水獺容顏和遇到致力于水獺研究的人們。
The otter was one of the earliest carnivores. Its ancestral genus Mionictis, first roamed theEarth around 30m years ago. Thirteen species now thrive around the globe, barringAustralia and Antarctica, but it is Lutra lutra, the European otter and Britain s only species,that is the object of Ms Darlington s passion.
水獺是最早出現(xiàn)的肉食動(dòng)物之一，它的始祖是中新鼬獺，早在3千萬(wàn)年以前，便開(kāi)始游走于地球。現(xiàn)在的水獺共有13個(gè)品種，布滿(mǎn)全球各地，除澳大利亞和南極洲。然而達(dá)林頓女士鐘愛(ài)的只有歐亞水獺，它也是英國(guó)唯一的品種。
Otters have long fascinated man. Their nocturnal habits mean they are rarely seenottersgive so little of themselves it s hard to know them, Ms Darlington writes. Their sublimelysecretive nature makes them a muse to poets and a mystery to scientists, who still havemuch to learn about these aquatic mammals. Their mischievous appearance belies theirstatus as one of Britain s top predators.
人們所喜愛(ài)水獺為時(shí)已久。只是它們習(xí)慣夜間出沒(méi)，很少有機(jī)會(huì)讓人們看到。水獺透露給人們的信息很少，要了解它們非常困難達(dá)林頓這樣寫(xiě)到。無(wú)比神秘的它們是詩(shī)人的靈感之源，也是科學(xué)家眼里的謎團(tuán)，關(guān)于這些水族哺乳動(dòng)物，還有很多東西等著他們?nèi)W(xué)習(xí)。淘氣的外表下掩藏的是它們作為英國(guó)頭等捕手的身份。
Seamus Heaney, Mary O Malley and Ted Hughes have all devoted elegant doggerel tothese creatures. Hughes is taken with the otter s Underwater eyes, an eel s. Oil of waterbody, the way it Re-enters the water by melting. Mr Heaney declares his love for an otter swet head and smashing crawl/Your fine swimmer s back and shoulders/Surfacing andsurfacing again. Ms Darlington s own lyrical prose is often beautifully evocative: a maleotter is supple as rope made out of silk a female swimming underwater moves in aripple-wake the thin curves of a mother and cub slip together into the twilight, likefierce, muscled ribbons, darkening into the ribbon of the stream.
謝默斯希尼、瑪麗歐瑪列和泰德休斯都曾為這些生靈寫(xiě)過(guò)優(yōu)美的打油詩(shī)。休斯被水獺那如鱔魚(yú)一般的水下眼睛，油般水靈的身軀，和它那化身返水的方式深深吸引。希尼宣稱(chēng)自己喜愛(ài)水獺濕漉漉的腦袋和揮舞不停的爪子/你那如泳者般健美的肩背/一次一次浮出水面。達(dá)林頓女士自己的詩(shī)詞常常讓人產(chǎn)生唯美的浮想：雄性水獺就像絲繩般靈活水底潛游的雌水獺動(dòng)起來(lái)就如水波乍起水獺母親的和幼崽一同消失在暮色里而產(chǎn)生的苗條曲線，就像鋒利而強(qiáng)勁的絲帶，潛入波紋陣陣的水流深處。
Despite her sense of romance, Ms Darlington avoids the easy trap of anthropomorphising theotter. Instead she offers a memorable mixture of scientific study and earnest observation.She chronicles the species dramatic decline to near extinction between the 1950s and late1970s, thanks to hunting for sport, habitat loss and the use of certain pesticides in farming.After a ban on otter hunting and new legal protection in 1978, otters have become animportant conservation success story. These creatures can now be found in the wild in everycounty in England.
盡管她有浪漫的想法，達(dá)林頓女士還是沒(méi)有將水獺人格化,避開(kāi)了這個(gè)危險(xiǎn)陷阱。相反她將科學(xué)研究和忠實(shí)觀察湊合到一起，結(jié)果讓人終身難忘。她全程記錄了20世紀(jì)50年代到70年代期間，由于獵殺行為、棲息地的喪失和農(nóng)耕時(shí)某些殺蟲(chóng)劑的使用，導(dǎo)致水獺數(shù)量劇減，瀕臨滅絕的過(guò)程。1978年新的保護(hù)法律出臺(tái)并全面禁止獵殺水獺，保護(hù)水獺成為一個(gè)重要的成功故事。在英格蘭每一個(gè)郡縣,現(xiàn)在都可以看到野生水獺的蹤影。
Otters apparently enjoy a rather illustrious club of fans. Readers of Ms Darlington will be gladshe is among them.
顯然水獺們擁有一個(gè)著名的粉絲俱樂(lè)部。達(dá)林頓女士的讀者們很高興看到作者也是他們中的一員。
