美語情景對話 第848期:Island Invasion 島嶼入侵

Nick: In Australia, there's a lot of snakes as well. Is there snakes in Guam?

尼克：澳大利亞有很多蛇。關島有蛇嗎？

Cheryl: Yeah, there's plenty of snakes in Guam, one of which is very famous. It's the brown tree snake. Now the brown tree snake was brought over to Guam a long time ago in cargo ships when it hid in the cargo and the cargo was unloaded onto the docks of Guam. So when these brown tree snakes were accidentally released onto Guam's soil, they subsequently destroyed most of Guam's bird population. Can you believe that?

謝麗爾：有，關島有很多蛇，其中有種蛇非常有名。那就是棕樹蛇。很久以前，貨船將棕樹蛇帶到了關島，棕樹蛇藏在貨船裏，貨船在關島碼頭卸貨。這些棕樹蛇在無意中被放到了關島的土地上，棕樹蛇使關島的鳥類數量大幅減少。你能相信嗎？

Nick: That's amazing. Yeah. Introductions like that can cause disasters for wildlife.

尼克：這太不可思議了。好像它們給野生動物帶來災難。

Cheryl: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And because these brown tree snakes destroyed most of the bird life on Guam we've lost a lot of beautiful tropical birds that used to live on Guam. Another thing that I can think of that was introduced to Guam, but isn't a wild animal, is a wild plant and we call it a Japanese Bonsai Leaf, actually. And I believe Bonsai means suicide or something in Japanese but what these leaves do is they grow and grow and they look like vines so they cover loads and loads of trees and good wildlife that are out there. I mean, plant life and they keep these plant life from growing because they essentially ambush them and keep sunlight from ever reaching them.

謝麗爾：對，沒錯。棕樹蛇毀滅了關島的大部分鳥類，我們失去了很多以前在關島生活的漂亮的熱帶鳥類。我想到了另一樣引進關島的東西，不過不是野生動物，而是野生植物，我們稱之爲日本盆景葉。我認爲盆景這個詞在日語裏的意思是自殺，這些盆景葉子會持續增長，看起來就像藤蔓一樣，它們會覆蓋住大量樹木和野生植物。它們會導致其它植物無法生長，因爲它們會遮住這些植物，讓其它植物無法接觸陽光。

Nick: That's really interesting.

尼克：這太有意思了。

Cheryl: Yeah, so if you can imagine a building covered completelyin really thick vine, that's how these Japanese Bonsai leaves work. They completely shroud and cover all of the good plant life that we have on Guam. So we've lost a lot of good plant life, beautiful different types of leaves, and bushes, flowers. So in addition to losing all of our bird life, we've also lost a lot of our plant life to this introduction of a foreign plant species in Guam.

謝麗爾：對，你可以想象一下一座大樓完全被厚厚的藤蔓遮住的樣子，這就是這些日本盆景葉做的事情。它們會把關島的植物完全蓋住。所以我們又失去了很多好的植物，失去了多種漂亮的樹木、灌木和花朵。除了失去大量鳥類以外，我們還因爲外國植物引進關島而失去了我們的植物。

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重點講解：
1. as well 也；還；
例句：The sideshows will fetch in the people as well.
幕間穿插的表演同樣可以招徠看客。
2. used to do sth. 過去常常；過去曾；
例句：A hermit used to live in the cave.
一位隱士曾經住在那個山洞裏。
3. keep sb. from doing sth. 阻止（或防止、阻礙）…做；
例句：Robbie couldn't keep the child from yelling.
羅比沒法使孩子不大叫大嚷。
4. in addition to 另外；加之；除…之外；
例句：In addition to be boring, life could also be cruel.
除了無趣，生活也是殘酷的。