47.The natural time sense.
47、天赋的时间感、
1. One of the most amazing of living things, the honeybee, has recently been shown to possess still another remarkable skill. It has a built-in alarm clock that goes off exactly every 24 hours.
1、生物中最令人惊奇的东西之一是蜜蜂，在最近的研究里它又显示出它持有的另一种非凡本领。蜜蜂身体里有一个天生的“闹钟”，它准确地每24小时循环一次。
2. Scientists have long known that bees carry a sort of wrist watch inside their bodies. They will return to the same spot, day after day, right to the minute, to feed on sugar-water left for them. To find out how the bees manage to tell time, an unusual experiment was carried out four years ago. Two young German biologists in Paris trained bees to come out for sugar-water every day at exactly 8:15 p.m. The scientists then set out to baffle the bees. When it is 8:15 p.m. in Paris, New York City's Eastern Day-light Saving time is only 3:15 p.m. If the hive were flown to New York between feedings, which time would the bees follow-Paris’ or New York's?
2、科学家早已知道，蜜蜂在它的身体里带着某种手表。蜜蜂能够日复一日，精确到同一分钟，返回同一地点去吃为它们准备的糖浆。为了研究蜜蜂如何辨别时间，四年前进行了一项不寻常的实验。在巴黎，两个年轻的德国生物学家训练蜜蜂每天晚上8点15分准时出来喝糖浆。之后，科学家们设法迷惑蜜蜂。当巴黎是晚上8点15分时，美国纽约市的东部夏令时间是下午3点15分。如果蜂箱在两次喂食之间被空运到纽约市，蜜蜂会遵循哪个时间？巴黎的或者纽约的？
3. So, immediately after a night feeding in Paris, the hive was sealed and rushed off on an air liner. In New York, scientists from the American Museum of National History placed the hive in a specially prepared laboratory in the museum. At exactly 3:15 p.m. New York time - a precise 24 hours after having been fed in Paris - the bees swarmed out of their hive. The experiment proved conclusively that in spite of a 3,500-mile flight and differences in local time, the bees' alarm clocks rang right on their 24-hour schedule.
3、为此，在巴黎进行了一次晚间喂食后，蜂箱立刻被密封，迅速送上飞往纽约的航班。在纽约，来自于美国国家历史博物馆的科学家们把蜂箱设置在博物馆特别准备好的实验室里。在纽约时间下午3点15分整，也就是在巴黎进食整整24小时之后，蜜蜂涌出它们的蜂箱。实验确切证明，尽管经历了3500英里的飞行，以及不同地方的时间差，蜜蜂的“闹钟”仍精确地依照它的24小时时间表运行。
4. As further proof, the experiment was repeated-only this time the same hive of bees had its alarm set in New York and was flown to Paris. There, too. They emerged from their hive exactly 24 hours later for their accustomed feeding.
4、为了进一步证明，该实验被重复进行，这次，同一只蜂箱的蜜蜂，在纽约设定了进食时间，然后飞往巴黎。这次蜜蜂同样准确地在24小时后，按它们的习惯进食时间涌出蜂箱。
5. Scientists now believe that many, if not all, living things are born with some type of hidden clock. These clocks are sometimes set by the number of hours of light or darkness in a day, by the rhythm of the tides or by the seasons.
5、科学家们现在相信，即使不是全部，但仍然有很多生物具有天生的某种类型的潜藏时钟。这些时钟有时根据一天中白昼或黑夜的小时数目设定，有时根据潮汐的规律或者季节设定。
6. One of the most remarkable of nature's living clocks belongs to the fiddler crab, that familiar beach-dweller with the overgrown claw. Biologists have long known that the crab's shell is darkest during the day, grows pale in late afternoon, then begins to darken again at daybreak. This daytime darkening is valuable for protection against enemies and sunlight, and for many years it was thought to be a simple response by the crab to the sun-just as if we were to get a tan during the day and lose it at night.
6、大自然中最非凡的“活钟”之一就属招潮蟹，是人们熟悉的沙滩居民。它有着过分增长的螯，生物学家早就知道招潮蟹的壳在白天是黑暗的，傍晚时变成灰白，然后在破晓的时候又变黑。这种白昼黑化是针对敌人和阳光的有价值的自我保护，很多年以来，它被认为是蟹对于太阳光的一种简单反应，就像我们人类白天皮肤被太阳晒黑，晚上又会白回来。
7. But when an enterprising scientist placed a fiddler crab in darkness, he was amazed to find that the color of the crab's shell kept ticking off the time with the same accuracy.
7、但是，当一个勇于探索的科学家把招潮蟹放在黑暗中，他惊讶的发现蟹壳的颜色依然准确的按时间转变。