时间:2019-03-06 作者:英语课 分类:英语时差8,16


英语课

 Don: [WHISTLING A BIRDSONG-LIKE TUNE 1]


Ya?l: Nice tune Don, but can you whistle with your tail like an Anna's hummingbird 2?
D: Hummingbirds 3 can whistle with their tails?
Y: Male Anna's hummingbirds, which live along the west coast of North America, can! Scientists in California discovered this when they were studying the birds' courtship behavior. They noticed that certain high-pitched chirps 5 were produced only when males made rapid swooping 6 courtship dives. The chirps were produced at the bottom of the dive when the birds flick 7 open their tail feathers.
One of the scientists discovered that the two outermost 8 feathers of the male hummingbird's tails had an unusual shape. He plucked these two strange feathers from one male and then let him go in front of a decoy female.
The plucked male saw the stuffed female and started a courtship display to impress her. He swooped 9 into the dive in front of her, but this time there was no chirp 4!
The curious scientist then attached one of the tail feathers to a long stick and found that if he spun 10 it around fast enough, the feather started to hum.
By holding feathers in a wind-tunnel, he found that at wind speeds of forty-four miles per hour the modified tail feathers make high-pitched chirps like the ones heard during the flight displays.
D: Wow! So the tail feathers work like whistles?
Y: Actually, it's more like a clarinet. When you whistle, the tone is produced by air whistling through a constriction 11. The tail chirp is produced by vibration 12 of the feathers themselves, like the reeds in clarinet mouthpieces.
D: Neat! Maybe they should change the name from "Anna's hummingbird" to "Benny Goodman's hummingbird"Y: Oh, Don...!  

n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整
  • He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子,并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
  • The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
n.蜂鸟
  • The hummingbird perches on a twig of the hawthorn.小蜂鸟栖在山楂树枝上。
  • The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backward.蜂鸟是唯一能倒退向后飞的鸟。
n.蜂鸟( hummingbird的名词复数 )
  • Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious. 蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
  • Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨?
v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫
  • The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
  • The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的第三人称单数 ); 啾; 啾啾
  • The linnet chirps her vernal song. 红雀吱喳鸣叫着她春天的歌。
  • She heard nothing but the chirps and whirrs of insects. 除了虫的鸣叫声外,她什么也没听见。
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的现在分词 )
  • The wind were swooping down to tease the waves. 大风猛扑到海面上戏弄着浪涛。
  • And she was talking so well-swooping with swift wing this way and that. 而她却是那样健谈--一下子谈到东,一下子谈到西。
n.快速的轻打,轻打声,弹开;v.轻弹,轻轻拂去,忽然摇动
  • He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
  • By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下,将马头上的苍蝇驱走。
adj.最外面的,远离中心的
  • He fired and hit the outermost ring of the target.他开枪射中了靶子的最外一环。
  • The outermost electron is shielded from the nucleus.原子核对最外层电子的作用受到屏蔽。
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 )
  • The aircraft swooped down over the buildings. 飞机俯冲到那些建筑物上方。
  • The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it. 鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
v.纺,杜撰,急转身
  • His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
  • Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。
压缩; 紧压的感觉; 束紧; 压缩物
  • She feels a constriction in the chest. 她胸部有压迫感。
  • If you strain to run fast, you start coughing and feel a constriction in the chest. 还是别跑紧了,一咬牙就咳嗽,心口窝辣蒿蒿的! 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
n.颤动,振动;摆动
  • There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
  • The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。
学英语单词
accept jobs with materials supplied by clients
active sun
adcarinal groove
after leech rope
all the things found on the planet
atactic structure
atomic power plant
back-with
ball-and-chain
bow planking
canned plain tomatoes
Cercosporella
chondrodystrophia punctata
claisses
clarion call
community centres
contract authorized representative
cornified layer
crematory incinerator
cullin
damsel in distress
defining diaphragm
deintegrate
dense state
docking bridge awning
eating-room
elevator periscope
endocarpon desquamescens
escort services
finger bun
forehew
gagel
gulland
heckart
human skill
Hydropiminocyline
IBM PC/XT
index number of quantum of imports and exports
inducing colour
industrial property rights
inverted difference
ketogenic threshold
Kittila
Kuskovo
lateral turnout right-hand
lawine
loss of phase
lubricating oil consumption
lubrication filler
meritt
Mesa, R.
midlethal dose
muzaffers
national export
news-american
nitrogen index
oblate tube cooler
order Marattiales
over-provision
paklenicas
panetella
Pleurospermum
pliocene pleistocene boundary
plottable error
pocket magnetometer
popenoe
POWDEX (Powdex) process
press-powder
principle of microscopic reversibility
Puxinana
quantitative geology
quantized audio waveform
recovery of chemicals
red trichonocardiasis
red-carpet
relief cartography
remote-control slave barge
rotor-resistance starting
rubber latex condom
septennates
septoria lycopersici italica
sg iron
ski-bob
sloping hinge
sodium antimonylthioglycollate
soi technology
Solaskil
spousedom
surface enzyme
swingball
taiwan network access point
taocin
tracking angular rate without degradation
tunica vasculosa testis
ultrasonic metal forming
unilocular
utility type
what size
wilful neglect to maintain
windisches
your-majesty