剑桥雅思13Test3阅读passage1真题翻译(2)

剑桥雅思13Test3阅读passage1真题翻译(2) 关于这个问题下面小编就来为各个考生解答下。

剑桥雅思13Test3阅读passage1-The coconut palm椰子树

Their biology would appear to make coconuts the great maritime voyagers and coastal colonizers of the plant world. The large, energy-rich fruits are able to float in water and tolerate salt, but cannot remain viable indefinitely; studies suggest after about 110 days at sea they are no longer able to germinate. Literally cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root. The air pocket in the seed, created as the endosperm solidifies, protects the embryo. In addition, the fibrous fruit wall that helped it to float during the voyage stores moisture that can be taken up by the roots of the coconut seedling as it starts to grow.

椰子的生物特征使其成为植物界伟大的海上漂流能手和沿海入侵者。这些富含能量的大型椰子既能漂浮又能耐盐,但不能永远保持活性。研究表明,椰子在海上漂浮约110天后,就无法发芽了。而毫不夸张地说,将椰子种子扔在不毛的岛屿海滨,不需要比沙土好多少的土壤,哪怕有热带阳光的暴晒,它依然能够生根发芽。因为在胚乳固化时种子中形成的气囊保护着胚胎。此外,有助于椰子在漂流期间漂浮的纤维壁能储存水分,可用于椰子幼苗开始生长时的根部所需。

There have been centuries of academic debate over the origins of the coconut. There were no coconut palms in West Africa, the Caribbean or the east coast of the Americas before the voyages of the European explorers Vasco da Gama and Columbus in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. 16th century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America. But the origin of coconuts discovered along the west coast of America by 16th century sailors has been the subject of centuries of discussion. Two diametrically opposed origins have been proposed: that they came from Asia, or that they were native to America. Both suggestions have problems.In Asia, there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use 一 but there are no relatives growing in the wild. In America, there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous. These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there.

数个世纪以来,学术界一直在争论揶子的起源。在15世纪末和16世纪初欧洲探险家瓦斯科·达·伽马和哥伦布开始航海活动之前,西非、加勒比海以及美洲东海岸还没有槨子树。16世纪的贸易和人口迁移活动表明,阿拉伯商人和欧洲水手很可能从南亚和东南亚将椰子带到了非洲,然后穿过大西洋到达美洲东海岸。但是,对于16世纪水手们在美洲西海岸发现的椰子起源何处,几个世纪以来一直存在争议。人们已经提出了两个截然相反的起源说:一是它们来自亚洲,另一个是它们原产于美洲。这两种说法都存在问题、在亚洲,榔子种类繁多,且大量证据表明那里的人们使用椰子已有千年历史,但在野外还没有发现榔子的同系植物。而在美洲有榔子的同系植物,但没有证据表明椰子是本土物种、上述问题引发了一个有趣的观点,即椰子起源于太平洋的珊瑚岛,并从那里扩散到世界各地。

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