A Buzzy Technology: Agriculture

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  【题解】buzzy义为“活跃的,令人兴奋的”。随着世界经济的不断发展,目前全球大部分地区已基本解决温饱问题,农业创新并不会“令人兴奋”。因此,题目中的buzzy与agriculture形成对比,激发读者好奇心。由正文可知,新发明之所以buzzy是因为这项科技能够让传感器在空中持续作业。
  By taking constant readings1 of everything from soil moisture to crop growth rates, sensor-equipped drones2 can boost agricultural productivity3. If, that is, you can keep them in the air.4 Drones rely on batteries to stay aloft5, which means their flight times are usually limited to around half an hour at best6. On December 11th scientists from the University of Washington announced a better idea: strapping sensors to insects7. The researchers fitted bumblebees and honeybees8 with tiny environmental sensors9 weighing just over a hundred micrograms10 and let them loose11 in the great outdoors12. The results were encouraging13: the insects were happy to fly about with their cargo14, and the sensors, which are designed to upload15 data when the insect returns to its hive16, performed as expected. How farmers could deal with the tricky17 task of gluing18 tiny circuit boards to hundreds of bees without being stung is a mere detail19. Bring on the internet of bees.
  [1] reading此处作可数名词,表示“(传感器)上的度数”。take readings是固定搭配,义为“读取度数”,例如:We take temperature readings every two hours.(我们每两小时读取一次温度。)此外,许多学习者容易混淆reading与本句另一个单词rate的元音发音,请注意前者读音为/i?/,后者读作/e?/。
  [2] sensor-equipped drone义为“载有传感器的无人驾驶飞机”。
  [3] boost agricultural productivity义为“提高农业生产率”。动词boost义为“促进,推动,使兴旺”。“提高生产率”也可以使用其他动词,如increase/improve/raise productivity。
  [4] 该句that is的作用是引出条件状语从句if引导的限制条件,而非常见的“解释说明”。前者that is通常位于if后,后者则位于解释说明的事物前,如:“They, that is Mike and Tom, …”本句if限制前一句话,即sensor-equipped drones can boost agricultural productivity。換言之,只有当无人机能够在空中持续作业,它们才能提高农业生产率。
  [5] aloft义为“在高处,在空中”。形近词aloof则表示“疏远的;淡漠的”。
  [6] 学习者容易望文生义将at best理解为“最好的”,然而其真正含义是“充其量,至多”。该句意为:无人机需要电池提供动力以保持在空中飞行,这意味着它们的续航时间通常限制在至多半小时左右。
  [7] strap sensors to insects义为“将传感器固定在昆虫身上”。这里strap A to B与后文fit B with A都表示“将A固定在B上”。使用这两个词组时请明确A和B的关系。
  [8] bumblebee和honeybee分别指“熊蜂”和“蜜蜂”。熊蜂与蜜蜂素以“勤劳”著称,生来便喜持续飞行劳作,满足“传感器持续空中作业”的要求。此外,熊蜂与蜜蜂飞行的“嗡嗡声”英文表达为buzz,题目buzzy一词恰与此呼应。
  [9] environmental sensors译作“环境传感器”,包括土壤温度传感器、空气温湿度传感器、蒸发传感器、雨量传感器、光照传感器、风速风向传感器等,多用于农业环境监测。
  [10] microgram义为“微克”,即10-6克,符号为μg。
  [11] let sth loose义为“释放某物(尤指动物)”。此处表示“释放熊蜂与黄蜂”。
  [12] 请注意outdoor与outdoors的差别。前者为形容词,用在名词前作定语;后者既可作副词,义为“在户外”,也可作名词,义为“户外”。该句outdoors前有定语great,因此作名词。the great outdoors义为“广袤的户外”,great一词突出了土地相对于熊蜂与蜜蜂的广大。
  [13] encouraging义为“振奋人心的”。
  [14] cargo本义为“(船、飞机、车辆装载的)货物”。此处指昆虫搭载的传感器。
  [15] upload义为“上传”。反义词为download(下载)。
  [16] hive义为“蜂巢”。
  [17] tricky义为“棘手的,难对付的”。农民面临的棘手问题是如何将小型电路板固定在成百只蜂身上而不被蛰。
  [18] glue本义为“用胶粘”,这里却不能按字面义理解。此处仍表示将传感器“固定”在蜂身上。glue一词暗示了固定之紧密。
  [19] be a mere detail义为“只是个细节问题”。此处作者强调了该发明整体上的创造性突破,相应地,实际操作层面的种种细节便不那么重要了。换言之,该发明瑕不掩瑜。这也呼应了标题的buzzy一词。
  (原文出自The Economist)
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