今天跟大家拓展的是《小托福官方指南》里的Practice Set 1 中的7—10题文本中所介绍的一种独特的小动物：leafcutter ant。

学习小资料一

Leafcutter ants, a non-generic name, are any of 47 species of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the two genera Atta and Acromyrmex. These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of the southern United States. Leafcutter ants can carry more than 20 times their body weight and cut and process fresh vegetation (leaves, flowers, and grasses) to serve as the nutritional substrate for their fungal cultivars.[1]

切叶蚁是一种非属类的名称，属于两属Atta和Acromyrmex属植物的47种叶片咀嚼蚂蚁中的任意一种。这些热带、种植真菌的蚂蚁是南美洲、中美洲、墨西哥和美国南部部分地区特有的。切叶蚁可以携带超过其体重20倍的重量，并将新鲜的植物(叶子、花朵和草)切割并加工成其真菌品种的营养基质。

※积累词汇：

species 物种

leaf-chewing咀嚼叶子的

belong to 属于

genera 类别

tropical 热带的

fungus-growing种植真菌的

endemic 某地特有的

carry搬运

body weight 身体重量

process加工

vegetation植物（总称）

nutritional营养的

substrate 基底

Fungal 真菌的

cultivars栽培品种

学习小资料二

Leafcutting ants get their name from their habit of cutting leaves into small pieces. There are only two species in the United States, which are found in Arizona, Texas, western Louisiana and southern California. Mature nests of leafcutting ants may contain more than one million individuals, but only one queen who is long-lived. Some very old colonies may occupy the same area for 60-70 years.[2]

切叶蚁的名字来源于将树叶切成小块的习惯。在美国只有两个物种，分别在亚利桑那州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州西部和南加州被找到。成熟的切叶蚁的巢穴可能含有超过100万的个体，但只有一个长寿的蚁后。一些非常古老的殖民地可能在同一地区占据居住60-70年。

※积累词汇：

piece 片

mature成熟的

nests巢穴

contain包含

individual个体

colonies殖民地

occupy占据

有了以上的对于leafcutter ant 小资料的学习，我们再回看小托福里面的语言素材。发现简单不少吧。咋们在重温一遍原文。

We’ve talked before about how ants live and work together in huge communities. Well, one particular kind of ant community also grow s its own food. So you could say these ants are like people---like farmers. And what do these ants grow? They grow fungi(FUN-guy). Fungi are kind of like plants--mushrooms are a kind of fungi. These ants have gardens, you could say, in their underground nests. This is where the fungi are grown.（联系对应资料一）

译文：我们之前谈到蚂蚁是如何在巨大的社区里生活和工作的。一种特殊的蚂蚁群落也种植自己的食物。所以你可以说这些蚂蚁就像人一样，就像农民一样。这些蚂蚁种植了什么？他们种植了（真菌）。真菌有点像植物--蘑菇是一种真菌。你可以说，这些蚂蚁在它们的地下巢穴里有花园。这就是真菌生长的地方。

Now, this particular kind of ant is called a leafcutter ant. Because of their name, people often think that leafcutter ants eat leaves. If they cut up leaves they must eat them, right? Well, they don’t! They actually use the leaves as a kind of fertilizer. Leafcutter ants go out of their nests looking for leaves from plants or trees. They cut the leaves off and carry them underground...and then feed the leaves to the fungi--the fungi are able to absorb nutrients from the leaves. What the ants eat are the fungi that they grow. In that way, they are like farmers!（联系对应资料一）

译文：现在，这种特殊的蚂蚁被称为切叶蚁。因为它们的名字，人们常常认为切叶蚁吃树叶。如果他们切碎树叶，就必须吃它们，对吧？嗯，他们没有！他们实际上用树叶作为肥料。剪叶蚁从巢中寻找植物或树木的叶子。他们把叶子切下来，运到地下……然后把叶子喂给真菌——真菌能从叶子中吸收养分。蚂蚁吃的是它们生长的真菌。这样，他们就像农民一样！

The amazing thing about these ants is that the leaves they get are often larger and heavier than the ants themselves. If a leaf is too large, leafcutter ants will often cut it up into smaller pieces--but not all the time. Some ants carry whole leaves back into the nest. In fact, some experiments have been done to measure the heaviest leaf a leafcutter ant can lift without cutting it. It turns out that , it depends on the individual ant. Some are stronger than others. The experiments showed that some “super ants” can lift leaves about 100 times the weight of their body! （联系对应资料二）

这些蚂蚁的神奇之处在于它们得到的叶子比蚂蚁本身更大更重。如果叶子太大，剪叶蚁通常会把它切成小块——但不是总是这样。有些蚂蚁把整片叶子带回巢里。事实上，已经实施一些实验来测量切叶蚁能在不切割它的情况下提起最重的叶子。事实证明，这取决于蚂蚁的不同个体。有些蚂蚁比其他蚂蚁更强壮。实验表明，一些“超级蚂蚁”能提起是自己重量的100倍的叶子。

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