看·经济学人学提升雅思阅读｜Why turtles eat plastic rubbish

　我们都知道, 雅思阅读文章经常会选自以下几个外刊不等：其中经济学人就是其中一个重要的取材来源。

　　今天，我们就来学习一下最新一期经济学人的 science and technology版块内容！

　　Why turtles eat plastic rubbish

　　Turtles have an unfortunate habit of devouring plastic objects floating in the sea. These then get snared in their alimentary canals, cannot be broken down by the animals’ digestive enzymes and may ultimately kill them. It is widely assumed that this penchant for plastics is a matter of mistaken identity. Drifting plastic bags, for instance, look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat. Yet lots of plastic objects that end up inside turtles have no resemblance to jellyfish. Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida therefore suspects that something more complicated is going on. As he writes in Current Biology, he thinks that the odour of marine micro-organisms which colonise floating plastic objects induces turtles to feed.

• have an unfortunate habit of doing 有不好的的。。习惯

• Devour 吞食

• alimentary canals 消化道

• break down 分解

• It is widely assumed that 普遍认定。。

• penchant for sth 酷爱…　　

• have no resemblance to sb/sth 与。。没有相似之处

• induce sb to do 诱使某人做。。

The idea that the smell of plastic flotsam might lure animals to their doom first emerged in 2016. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide, which are released into the air by micro-organism- colonised plastics, are those which many seabirds sniff to track down food. These chemicals mark good places to hunt because they indicate an abundance of the algae and bacteria that lie at the bottom of marine food chains. The researchers also found that birds which pursue their food in this way are five or six times more likely to eat plastic than those which do not.

• The idea that ….. first emerged 一个…的想法首次出现　

• dimethyl sulphide 乙烷硫化物　

• sniff 嗅/闻

• an abundance of 丰富的/大量的

• algae and bacteria 水藻和细菌

• at the bottom of 在。。底部　

• marine 海洋的　

• food chains 食物链

• be more likely to 更有可能做。。

　　Since turtles are known to break the surface periodically and sniff the air when navigating towards their feeding areas, Dr Pfaller theorized that they are following these same chemicals, and are likewise fooled into thinking that floating plastic objects are edible.

• Periodically 不时地

• navigate towards 航行前往

• theorize 从理论上说明…

• are fooled into doing 被骗做某事　　

• edible 可以吃的，可食用的