经济学人 考研必备.doc

【经济学人】双语阅读：空中旅行 起飞准备 【经济学人】双语阅读：节肢动物学情人为食 Science and technology 科学技术 Arachnology 节肢动物学 Having a mate for dinner 情人为食 Male spiders make the supreme sacrifice for their children 雄蛛对后代的无私奉献 AMONG spiders, the female of the species really is more deadly than the male. 蜘蛛家族中,雌蛛致命性比雄蛛高得多。交配后将配偶狼吞虎咽地吃掉，雌蛛因此声名在外。 Lady arachnids have a well-deserved reputation for polishing off their suitors, post copula, in a manner that Hannibal Lecter might have admired. 它们的这一行为或许在一定程度上赢得了汉尼拔莱克特的敬仰， But it has never been clear why this happens. 然而其原因一直不为人所知。 Some biologists believe it is simply a mixture of female hunger and the availability of a meal that is in no position to run away. 一些生物学家认为这仅仅是因为雌蛛饿了，而盘中餐又无力逃脱。 Others suspect that the male is actually sacrificing his life for the good of his genes. 一些生物学家认为雄蛛是为他的基因而牺牲的。 In other words, his becoming a meal for his paramour somehow helps the offspring of their union. 换句话说，他成为情人的腹中食某种程度上有助于他们共同的后代。 Peng Yu, of Hubei University in China, and his colleagues, decided to try to settle the question. 中国湖北大学的彭宇及其同事决定尝试解开这一谜题。 The results of their investigation are published this week in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 他们的条查结果刊登在《行为生态学与社会生物学》。 Dr Peng and his team collected almost 400 young wolf spiders, of both sexes, from local fields. 彭博士和他的小组在当地收集了几乎400只狼蛛， They then raised the animals separately until they were sexually mature. 再雌雄分开饲养，直到它们性成熟。 Then, one at a time, they introduced the females to a male and watched until one of three things happened: 然后他们每次一只，将雌蛛与雄蛛配对，直到出现以下三者之一的情况发生： the male got eaten; the male mated with the female and successfully avoided being eaten; or the male survived for half an hour, but did not mate with the female within that time. 雄蛛被吃；雄蛛与雌蛛交配后幸免于难；或者雄蛛存活了半小时，而期间未与雌蛛交配。有时，他们将未交配的雌雄蛛配对； Sometimes the researchers paired virgin males with virgin females; sometimes they paired virgin males with females that had recently bred. 有时他们将未交配的雄蛛与刚繁殖过的雌蛛配对。 And in one crucial set of tests they paired