奇闻趣事（三十一）

The average hummingbird weighs less than a penny. It has a body temperature of 111 degrees and beats its wings more than 75 times a second. Its newborn are the size of bumblebees and its nest is the size of a walnut. The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backward.

蜂鸟的平均体重比一枚一便士的硬币还轻。它的体温达111度，翅膀每秒种要扇动75次以上。孵出的蜂鸟只有大黄蜂那么大，其巢只有核桃那么大。蜂鸟是唯一能倒退向后飞的鸟。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十二）

In medi times, church bells were often consecrated to ward off evil spirits. Because thunderstorms were attributed to the work of demons, the bells would be rung in an attempt to stop the storm. Lots of bell ringers were killed by lightning.

中世纪时，教堂的钟常用于驱赶恶魔。因为雷雨被认为是魔鬼所为，所以人们常常敲钟企图使暴风雨停下来。许多敲钟人被闪电击毙。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十三）

Three pairs of common English rabbits were let loose in Australia, in the middle of the nineteenth century. Within a decade, the six rabbits had multiplied into millions, menacing the country's agriculture.

19世纪中期，3对普通英国家兔在澳大利亚被放掉。十年之内，这6只兔子繁殖成了上百万只，对澳大利亚的农业构成威胁。

The work of an artist cannot be exhibited in the Louvre until he has been dead for at least 60 years. The only exception ever made to this rule was Georges Braque.

在罗浮宫展出的艺术作品，其作者必须至少已去世60年。唯一的例外是乔治•布拉克。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十四）

Roman coins minted during the reign of Diocletian have been excavated in remote parts of Iceland. No one is quite certain what this signifies historically, as the very existence of Iceland was unknown to the ancient Romans.

在冰岛的偏僻地区曾出土过古罗马戴克里先生统治时铸的钱币。没有人能确切地说出这件事的历史意义，因为古罗马人根本不知道冰岛的存在。

In eighteenth-century England eyeglasses were often worn purely as fashionable accessories, not as aids to vision. Such glasses were frequently set in gold frames decorated with precious jewels. Sometimes the lenses were removed completely, leaving only the decorative frame to ornament the face.

18世纪的英国，人们常常把眼镜作为纯粹的时髦装饰品，而不是为了提高视力。这种眼镜为金镜框，常常镶有珍贵的珠宝。有时干脆把镜片拿掉，只用装饰性的镜框来装饰面部。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十五）

An electric eel can produce a shock of more than 600 volts, 3 times more powerful than a household outlet. It not only uses this power to kill its prey but to locate it as well-though it is born with eyes, it is blind as an adult and employs its electricity to find food in much the same way as man uses radar.

电鳗能释放出超过600伏的电，是家用电灯电流的3倍。他不仅用这一电力杀死猎获物，还用它寻找猎物。电鳗虽然出生时有眼睛，长大后会变成瞎子，它像人使用雷达那样通过放电寻找食物。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十六）

A factory in which 2,000 different machines are operating with twenty-five men on each machine would rightly be considered a complex structure. The smallest bacterium is that complex. In effect, there are 50,000 chemical reactions taking place in each bacterium.

如果一个工厂有2,000台不同的机器，每台机器有25个人操作，这样的工厂可被认为是一个综合体。最小的细菌就是这样一个综合体。事实上，每个细菌在发生这5万个化学反应。

In a beehive, only 1.5 ounces of wax are used to build a comb that will hold 4 pounds of honey.

在蜂巢中，仅用1.5盎司的蜂腊造的蜂房可以盛下4磅蜂蜜。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十七）

"Flower clocks" provided a unique and decorative means of telling time in the formal gardens of nineteenth-century Europe. A series of flowers beds was laid out to form a clock face, with each bed representing a daytime hour. The beds were planted with flowers known to open or close at the prescribed hours. On a sunny day, the time on a flower clock could be determined to within a half-hour.

19世纪欧洲正规的花园里的"花卉钟"以其独特的装饰性的方式告诉人们时间。人们将各种不同的花卉种成一个一个钟面，每个花床代表白天一个钟点，花床上种植着预计在某一时间开放或闭合的花。晴天时，可根据花卉钟判断时间，误差不超过半个小时。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十八）

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

蜂蜜是唯一不会坏的食物。考古学家尝了在埃及法老坟墓中的蜂蜜，发现仍能食用。

In living memory it was not until February 18, 1979, that snow fell on the Sahara. A half-hour storm in southern Algeria stopped traffic. But within a few hours all the snow had melted.

据人们记忆，直到1979年2月18日撒哈拉沙漠才第一次下雪。阿尔及利亚南部这场半小时的暴风雪使交通中断。不过，几个小时之后，雪就全融化了。

 

                  奇闻趣事（三十九）

Pollen never deteriorates. It is one of the few naturally secreted substances that last indefinitely.

花粉永远不会变质，是自然界中少有的几种可以无限期存在的物质之一。

Migrating geese fly in a V formation to save energy. A goose's wings churn the air and leave an air current behind. In the flying wedge, each bird is in position to get a lift from the current left by the bird ahead. It is easier going for all, except the leader. During a migration, geese are apt to take turns in the leading position.

迁移中的大雁群成V字队形飞是为了节省能量。一只大雁的翅膀扇动空气，在身后留下一股气流。在飞行的楔行队列中，每一只大雁都得到前面的雁产生的气流的升力。这样，除了领队以外，所有的雁飞起来都省力些。一次迁移飞行中往往有几只大雁轮流领飞。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十）

There's enough energy in ten minutes of one hurricane to match the nuclear stockpiles of the world.

飓风十分钟的能量足以比得上全世界储存的核武器的能量。

Astronauts circling the Earth may get to see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every "day".

环绕地球飞行的宇航员每"天"可以看见16次日出和16次日落。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十一）

If the 23 million cubic kilometers of ice in the world melted at the same time, the volume of the oceans would increase only 1.7 percent, but this would be enough for the sea level to rise about 180 feet. The Empire State Building would be in water to nearly the twentieth floor.

如果地球上2,300万立方公里的冰同时融化，海洋的体积也只增加1.7%，但这将足以使海平面升高180英尺，帝国大厦将有20层淹在水中。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十二）

Plant life could not exist without lightning. Nitrogen is an essential food for plants. The atmosphere is 80 percent nitrogen, but in a form that is insoluble and unusable. It is the intense heat of lightning that forces the nitrogen to  combine with oxygen in the air, forming nitrogen oxides that are soluble in water and fall to the earth in rain as dilute nitric acid. This reacts with minerals in the ground to become nitrates on which the plants depend.

要是没有闪电，植物就不可能生存。氮是植物一种必不可少的养分。其中80%是氮，可是不溶于水，无法为植物利用。闪电的高温是氮和空气中的氧化合成能溶于水的氧化氮，随雨水进入土地，稀释成硝酸。硝酸和地里的矿物作用，形成植物必需的硝酸盐。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十三）

Tuna swim at a steady rate of nine miles per hour for an indefinite period of time-and they never stop moving. Estimates indicate that a fifteen-year-old tuna must have traveled one million miles in its lifetime.

金枪鱼总是以每小时9英里的均恒速度无限地在游动----他们从不停下来。据估计一条15岁的金枪鱼一生中游程达100万英里。

The lungfish can live out of water in a state of suspended animation for three years.

肺鱼离水后以暂不活动的状态可存活3年。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十四）

Because its eyeball is fixed, the whale must move its huge body to shift its line of sight.

鲸鱼的眼球是固定的，它必须移动巨大的身体才能改变其视线。

A whale's heart beats only nine times a minute.

鲸鱼的心脏每分钟只搏动9次。

No one has ever been able to domesticate the African elephant. Only the Indian elephant can be trained by man.

从来没有人能驯服非洲象。只有印度象能接受人的训练。

The bat is the only mammal that can fly.

蝙蝠是唯一会飞的哺乳动物。

 

奇闻趣事（四十五）

A queen bee uses her stinger only to sting another queen bee. She never uses it on workers, drones, or people. The queen's stinger, moreover, is smooth and saber-shaped, not barbed, as other bees' stingers are. Thus she, unlike all other bees, can sting repeatedly without hurting herself.

蜂王的刺只用来螫另一只蜂王，而从不螫工蜂、雄蜂或人。而且，蜂王的刺很平滑，像一把军刀，不象其他蜜蜂的刺那样带有倒钩，因此可以反复刺而不伤害自己。

If one places a minute amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

如果在蝎子身上放上少许一点儿酒，它会立即发疯，将自己螫死。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十六）

Bricks are the oldest manufactured building material still in use. Egyptians used them 7,000 years ago.

砖头是至今仍在使用的最古老的人造建筑材料。埃及人在7,000年前就使用砖头了。

A Venetian law decrees that all gondolas must be painted black. The only exceptions are gondolas belonging to high public officials.

威尼斯有一条法律，规定所有的平的小船都必须漆成黑色，只有高级官员的小船例外。

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.

爱斯基摩人用冰箱防止食物结冰。

                 

奇闻趣事（四十七）

Every year in the U.S. four times the amount of money spent on baby food is spent on pet food, totaling $1.5 billion.

美国每年在爱畜食品上所花的钱，是花在婴儿食品上的钱的4倍，达15亿美元。

 

In 1500 B.C. in Egypt a shaved head was considered the ultimate in feminine beauty. Egyptian women removed every hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished their scalps to a high sheen with buffing cloths.

公元前1500年的埃及，剃光头被认为是女性美的极致。埃及妇女用专门的金镊子将所有的头发全都拔掉，然后用布将头皮磨得闪闪发光。

     

            奇闻趣事（四十八）

In ancient Greece, women counted their age form the date on which they were married, not form the day they were born, signing that the wedding marked the start of a woman's real life.

在古希腊，妇女从结婚之日，而不是从出生之日起计算自己的年龄，说明婚礼标志着一个女人真正生活的开始。

In ancient Egypt, when merchants left the country on business trips they carried small stone models of themselves. If they died while abroad, these figures were sent back to Egypt for proxy burial.

古埃及商人出海经商时身上都带着石制的本人小像。如果他们死在国外，这些石像被送回埃及作为替身埋葬。

 

                  奇闻趣事（四十九）

The male Maya Indian would change his name twice as he was growing up. His original name was linked with the date he was born. He would get a new name, describing a personal feature, when he was initiated into manhood. On marrying, he would take on his formal name.

玛雅印第安男子长大时要改换两次名字。最初的名字和出生的日期有关，开始进入成年时会得到一个表现个人特点的新名字，到结婚时才用正式名字。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十）

During World War II, the U.S. Navy had a world champion chess player, Reuben Fine, calculate-on the basis of positional probability-where enemy submarines might surface. Dr. Fine says, "It worked out all right."

第二次世界大战期间，美国海军有一位国际象棋世界冠军鲁本·法恩。他根据位置概率计算敌人的潜水艇会在什么地方露出水面。法恩博士说："这很管用。"

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十一）

Not until January 1978 had a child been born on every one of the world's seven continents. The last of the seven was Antarctica-with the birth of Emilio Marco Palma, on an Argentine military base.

直到1978年1月，世界七大洲才都有孩子出生。七大洲中最后一个有孩子出生的是南极洲，那个孩子是在阿根廷一个军事基地出生的埃米利奥·马可·帕尔马。

                  奇闻趣事（五十二）

In looking at 200 fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, a rough scoring of the male and female characters reveals a strong dichotomy. There are sixteen wicked mothers or stepmothers and only three wicked fathers or stepfathers. There are twenty-three evil female witches and only two evil male witches. There are thirteen young women who kill or endanger the men who love them, but only one man who harms his bride.

看一下格林兄弟写的200个童话故事，男女人物的粗略统计显示出一种强烈的对比。故事中有16个邪恶的母亲或继母，只有3个邪恶的父亲或继父；有23个坏女巫，只有2个坏男巫；有13个年轻女子杀死或危害她们的爱人，只有一个男子伤害自己的新娘。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十三）

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever to be written on a typewriter. It was typed on a Remington in 1875 by Mark Twain himself. Twain, however, wished to withhold the fact. He did not want to write testimonials, he said, or answer questions concerning the operation of the "newfangled thing".

《汤姆·索亚历险记》是第一部在打字机上打出来的小说，那时马克·吐温于1875年用一台雷明顿牌打字机亲自打的。可是吐温不想声张这一事实。他说他不想写什么证明材料，也不愿意回答关于使用那台"新玩意儿"的问题。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十四）

A grasshopper can leap over obstacles 500 times its own height. In relation to its size, it has the greatest jumping ability of all animals.

蚱蜢能跳过自己身高500倍的障碍物。从身体大小这一比例来说，它是世界上最善跳的动物。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十五）

There are small ice-free patches of land in Antarctica. Altogether, it comes to an area of 2,900 square miles or 0.06 percent of Antarctica's area. The patches are kept bare by the wind.

南极洲有几小块地方没有冰，其总面积为2900平方英里，相当于南极洲面积的0.06%。因为那些地方风大，冰存不住。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十六）

Of the twenty-five highest mountains on earth, nineteen are in the Himalayas.

世界上最高的25座山中有19座在喜马拉雅山脉。

 

The oldest rocks in the world, the so-called St. Paul stones in the Atlantic Ocean, are 4 billion years old.

世界上最古老的岩石是大西洋中被叫做圣彼得和圣保罗的岩石，已有40亿年的历史。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十七）

Lightning strikes the Earth a hundred times every second, from the 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any given moment.

地球上任何时候都有1,800个雷雨在形成，其中每秒钟内有100个雷击中大地。

 

                  奇闻趣事（五十八）

 

A day on the planet Mercury is twice as long as its year. Mercury rotates very slowly but revolves around the sun in slightly less than eighty-eight days.

水星上的一天比它的一年要长一倍。水星自转非常慢，但绕太阳公转一圈只需要不到88天。