墨尔本PTE素材库—Cave Dwellers Battled Bed Bug Bites, Too

Cave Dwellers Battled Bed Bug Bites, Too

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这篇文章不算特别简单的那一类，但是也不算是一个很难的那一种。虽然这段音频的内容主题并不是特别常见，但是太过专业的词汇倒也并不多，所以应该不会对大家的理解造成很大的困扰哦！

听完该段音频的同学，AIL的小编想请你试着做一个小小的summary，这段音频讲的是什么呢？试着做一下re-tell lecture的练习，提高自己的Listening和Speaking的成绩哦！

这段音频中可能的生词，小编都已经替大家整理完毕，并且附在下文的key vocabulary中了哦~ 希望能够对大家的学习带来一定的帮助！

澳大利亚语言学院会定期给大家整理发布一些英语学习相关的素材，可以练听力，也可以练阅读，更可以联系总结复述的能力，对于各位PTE的考生而言实在是绝佳的练习材料！量不在多，每天1-2篇，相信不多时你的英语能力就有很明显的提升！

[key vocabulary]

Prehistoric: adj. 史前的，陈旧的

Encampment: n. 营地，露营

Hide: Vt. 隐藏；n. 躲藏，兽皮，遮盖

Dweller: n. 居民，居住者

Bug: n. 臭虫，小虫

Parasite: n. 寄生虫

Archaeoentomologist:

funerary archaeoentomology, is the use of information provided by the insect fauna associated with archaeological human remains in order to define the peri (around) and post mortem events or funerary practice.

Paleoinsect: paleo: 表示 “古”

Pinned: adj. 用别针憋住的，被压制的；pin的过去分词

Genus: n. 类，种， [生物] 属

Blooksucking: n. 吸血动物

Paranoid: adj. 类似妄想症的，属于偏执狂的；n. 患妄想狂的人，偏执狂患者

Infestation: n. 感染，侵扰

Full Transcript

Researchers have found the earliest evidence of bugs in the Cimex genus co-habitating with humans, in Oregon’s Paisley Caves. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Picture a prehistoric human encampment, in a cave. What do you see? Maybe some animal hides, bones from last night’s dinner, a small fire? But what you might not picture are the other cave dwellers. Like bats. And the bugs that suck their blood.

“The bed bugs we all know and love from hotel rooms and apartments and all that, were originally bat parasites.” Martin Adams is an archaeoentomologist with PaleoInsect Research, a private business in Portland, Oregon. Adams and his colleague Dennis Jenkins analyzed the remains of bed bug cousins, recovered from one of those prehistoric camps, the Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon. And they pinned the insects to three different species within the Cimex genus–the same genus as bed bugs.

These bugs are bat parasites–not the species that commonly bite humans. But they ranged from 5100 to 11,000 years old. Making them the oldest example of bloodsucking bed bug relatives co-habitating with humans. The study is in the Journal of Medical Entomology. [Martin E. Adams and Dennis L. Jenkins. An Early Holocene Record of Cimex(Hemiptera: Cimicidae) From Western North America]

As to whether the cave dwelling humans were as paranoid as modern humans about infestation: “The humans living in Paisley Caves probably knew there were bats in the caves, I sincerely doubt they knew there were bat bugs infesting the bats.” But make no mistake. Bat bugs will still suck human blood if need be. Which may in fact be the origin of the modern hotel pests. So don’t let the bed bugs bite. Or the bat bugs, either.

—Christopher Intagliata

(Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/cave-dwellers-battled-bed-bug-bites-too/)