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Night1 of the Living Ants

When an ant dies, other ants move the dead insect out of the nest. This behavior is interesting to scientists, who wonder how ants know for sure – and so soon-that another ant is dead.

Dong-Hwan Choe, a scientist at the University of California2 found that Argentine3 ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, "I'm dead - take me away."

But there's a twist to Choe's discovery4. These ants are a little bit like zombies. Choe says that the living ants - not just the dead ones - have this death chemical. In other words, while an ant crawls around, perhaps in a picnic or home, it's telling other ants that it's dead5.

What keeps ants from hauling away the living dead? Choe found that Argentine ants have two additional chemicals on their bodies, and these tell nearby ants something like, "wait -I'm not dead yet. "So Choe's research turned up6 two sets of chemical signals in ants: one says, "I'm dead," the other set says, "I'm not dead yet."

Other scientists have tried to figure out how ants know when another ant is dead. If an ant is knocked unconscious, other ants leave it alone until it wakes up. That means ants know that unmoving ants can still be alive.

Choe suspects that when an Argentine ant dies, the chemical that says "Wait- I'm not dead yet" quickly goes away. Once that chemical is gone, only the one that says "I'm dead" is left." It's because the dead ant no longer smells like a living ant that it gets carded to the graveyard, not because its body releases new unique chemicals after death," said Choe. When other ants detect the "dead" chemical without the "not dead yet" chemical, they haul away the body. This was Choe's hypothesis.

To test his hypothesis, Choe and his team put different chemicals on Argentine ant pupae. When the scientists used the "I'm dead" chemical, other ants quickly hauled the treated pupae7 away. When the scientists used the "Wait- I'm not dead yet" chemicals, other ants left the treated pupae alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the "not dead yet" chemicals override the "dead" chemical when picked up by adult ants. And that when an ant dies, the "not dead yet" chemicals fade away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining "dead" chemical and remove the body from the nest.

詞匯：

Zombie n 還魂尸，僵尸 Pupa n.蛹

Graveyard n.墓地

hypothesis n.假設(shè)

override v.優(yōu)先于，比……更重要

注釋：

1. night：night 是個(gè)多義詞，其比喻意義是“死亡”，即本篇短文標(biāo)題中該詞的意思。標(biāo) 題是用了逆喻的修辭手法。

2. the University of California：加利福尼亞大學(xué)，位于美國(guó)西部的公立高等學(xué)校系統(tǒng) ，目前擁有10所大學(xué)，包括加州大學(xué)伯克利分校（Berkeley）、洛杉磯分校（ Los Angeles）、 圣地亞哥分校（San Diego）、圣克魯茲分校（Santa Cruz）等。

3. Argentine：阿根廷，位于南美洲的國(guó)家。

4. But there's a twist to Choe's discovery.然而，Choe 又有了新的出乎意料的發(fā)現(xiàn)。 Twist 有“出人意料的變化”的意思。

5. 本句 it's telling other ants that it's dead 中兩個(gè) it 指代前面爬行中的螞蟻，也 就是下段第一句中的 the living dead。

6. turned up：發(fā)現(xiàn)，找到。

7. treated pupae：經(jīng)過處理的蛹，即被科學(xué)家涂抹上化學(xué)藥劑的蛹。

練習(xí)：

1. What is meant by "death chemical" mentioned in paragraph 3?

A A chemical that contains poison. B A chemical that causes death.

C A chemical that announces death. D A chemical that prevents death.

2. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the question "What keeps ants from hauling away the living dead? (paragraph 4)"?

A How do ants know what is to be hauled away from the dead ants?

B What prevents ants from removing the ants that are not yet dead?

C What do ants do to keep themselves away from the dying ants?

D What prevents ants from being carried away after they die.

3. What is NOT true about Choe's finding?

A When an ant dies, it produces a "I am dead" signal.

B Living ants have the death chemical on their bodies.

C Ants have two sets of chemicals on theft bodies.

D Ants have the "I am not dead" chemical on their bodies.

4. According to Choe's hypothesis,

A an ant still smells like a living when it dies.

B the "I am dead" chemical leaves the ant's body when it dies.

C the "I am not dead yet" chemical is left when an ant dies.

D the "I am not dead yet" chemical leaves the ant's body when it dies.

5. What is the result of the test on Choe's hypothesis?

A It proves that his hypothesis is time.

B Not enough evidence has been found to support his hypothesis.

C It shows that his hypothesis is wrong.

D It indicates that his hypothesis needs revising.

答案與題解：

1. C 根據(jù)文章第二段和第三段的表述，阿根廷螞蟻身上有種化學(xué)物質(zhì)，它會(huì)告訴其他螞 蟻“I am dead.”。文章沒有說這種物質(zhì)有毒，也沒有說它能導(dǎo)致或預(yù)防死亡，所以其 他三項(xiàng)都是錯(cuò)誤的選擇。

2. B keep sb. from doing sth. 這個(gè)句型的意思是：使……不做……，阻止……去做……。所以只有 B 是正確理解。

3. A 第三段和第四段告訴我們，螞蟻身上會(huì)帶有兩種化學(xué)氣味，“I am not dead yet” 和“I am dead”。這層意思分別在 B、C 和 D 中的表述出現(xiàn)。短文的第六段告訴我們， 螞蟻死去時(shí) ，“I am not dead yet”的氣味就離開了它的軀體，剩下的就是“I am dead” 的 氣味 。“I am dead”的氣味不是死后新產(chǎn)生的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。所以 A 是正確的選擇。

4. D 短文第六段告訴我們，當(dāng)“I am not dead yet”化學(xué)物質(zhì)離開螞蟻的軀體，“I'm dead” is left。這里，be left 的意思是：留了下來。所以，其他選項(xiàng)都是錯(cuò)誤理解。

5. A 最后一段告訴我們，Choe 和他的研究小組用阿根廷螞蟻蛹進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)，結(jié)果與他的假 設(shè)吻合，即證實(shí)了他的假設(shè)。