Алексей ВИНИДИКТОВ
АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК.
Пополняем словарный запас.
ВЫПУСК # 59
от 16 февраля 2003
  • Mr. Bugle. Vanity Fair.

  • How Evolution Works III. The Simplest Example of Evolution

Vanity Fair.

Почему бы не опубликовать в выпуске эту песню группы Mr. Bungle. Очень осмысленно образно.

Публикую.

Vanity Fair

You're not human
You're a miracle
A preacher with an animal's face

In your sexy
Neon smokescreen
Lie the supersalesmen of vanity

Even your shadow worships you
In your jungle solitude

With the orgies of the sacrament
And the seal of flagellants

God saves those who save their skin
From the bondage that we're in

I'm elated
I could cut you
And remove the sheath of your ignorance

Bless the eunuch
And the Skoptsi
Will you hurt me now and make a million?

Say cheese, baby
We all love you
But it's a cheap world and you don't exist...

Slit the fabric of the right now
Spread your legs and wear the crown

Tell me how long, lord, how long?
Till I get my beauty sleep?

Now the hourglass is empty
The moment of my de-sexing

Cut it
Cut it
Cut this cancer from my soul

Now that I've made it...

I'm finally naked...


vanity - тщеславие
preacher - проповедник
smokescreen - дымовая завеса
worship - поклоняться, боготворить
solitude - одиночество
sacrament - причастие
seal - печать
flagellant n - someone who whips himself or herself as a religious punishment

bondage - рабство
to be elated - быть в приподнятом настроении
remove - удалять
sheath - футляр; презерватив; оболочка
slit - разрезать

 

The Simplest Example of Evolution
The process of evolution acts on an E. coli cell by creating a mutation in the DNA. It is not uncommon for the DNA strand in an E. coli bacterium to get corrupted. An X-ray, a cosmic ray or a stray chemical reaction can change or damage the DNA strand. In most cases, a particular E. coli cell with mutated DNA will either die, fix the damage in the strand or fail to reproduce. In other words, most mutations go nowhere. But every so often, a mutation will actually survive and the cell will reproduce.

Imagine, for example, a bunch of identical E. coli cells that are living in a petri dish. With plenty of food and the right temperature, they can double every 20 minutes. That is, each E. coli cell can duplicate its DNA strand and split into two new cells in 20 minutes.

Now, imagine that someone pours an antibiotic into the petri dish. Many antibiotics kill bacteria by gumming up one of the enzymes that the bacteria needs to live. For example, one common antibiotic gums up the enzyme process that builds the cell wall. Without the ability to add to the cell wall, the bacteria cannot reproduce, and eventually they die.

When the antibiotic enters the dish, all of the bacteria should die. But imagine that, among the many millions of bacteria living in the dish, one of them acquires a mutation that makes its cell-wall-building enzyme different from the norm. Because of the difference, the antibiotic molecule does not attach properly to the enzyme, and therefore does not affect it. That one E. coli cell will survive, and since all of its neighbors are dead, it can reproduce and take over the petri dish. There is now a strain of E. coli that is immune to that particular antibiotic.

In this example, you can see evolution at work. A random DNA mutation created an E. coli cell that is unique. The cell is unaffected by the antibiotic that kills all of its neighbors. This unique cell, in the environment of that petri dish, is able to survive.

E. coli are about as simple as living organisms can get, and because they reproduce so rapidly you can actually see evolution's effects on a normal time scale. In the past several decades, many different types of bacteria have become immune to antibiotics. In a similar way, insects become immune to insecticides because they breed so quickly. For example, DDT-resistant mosquitoes evolved from normal mosquitoes.

In most cases, evolution is a much slower process.

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Слова к тексту.

ability способность [q'bIlIti] fix устранить (повреждение), починить [fIks]
able способный [eIbl] gum up закупорить [gAm Ap]
acquire приобретать [qkwaIq] imagine представлять себе, воображать [I'mxGIn]
act воздействовать [xkt] in a similar way подобным образом [In q 'sImIlq weI]
add добавлять [xd] most большинство [mqust]
affect воздействовать, оказывать воздействие [q'fekt] neighbor сосед ['neIbq]
among среди [q'mAN] particular конкретный [pq'tIkjulq]
attach прикрепляться [q'txC] plenty of много, множество ['plenti qv]
breed размножаться [brJd] pour наливать, лить [pL]
bunch группа (клеток) [bAnC] properly хорошо, как следует ['prPpqli]
by gumming up закупоривая [baI 'gAmIN Ap] random случайный ['rxndqm]
cell клетка [sel] rapidly быстро ['rxpIdli]
common обычный ['kPmqn] ray луч [reI]
corrupted поврежденный [kq'rAptId] reproduce размножаться, воспроизводиться [`rJprq'djHs]
damage повреждать ['dxmIG] scale шкала, масштаб [skeIl]
DDT-resistant устойчивые к ДДТ [`dJ dJ 'tJ rI'zIstqnt] split разделиться [splIt]
decade десятилитие ['dekeId] strain род; вид [streIn]
different from отличающийся от ['dIfrqnt frqm] strand молекулярная цепочка [strxnd]
DNA ДНК [`dJ en 'eI] stray случайный [streI]
double удваиваться, делиться [dAbl] survive выжить [sq'vaIv]
either ... or или ... или [aIDq ... L] take over захватывать [teIk quvq]
enter входить в ['entq] therefore следовательно [Deq'fL]
environment окружение, окружающая среда [In'vaIrqnmqnt] unaffected нетронутый [`Anq'fektId]
every so often время от времени ['evri squ 'Pf(t)qn] uncommon необычный [An'kPmqn]
fail не удасться; быть неспособным (to do - что-л сделать) [feIl] X-ray рентгеновские лучи ['eks - reI]

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To be continued...

 

That's all, folks!

 

С наилучшими пожеланиями,

Алексей Винидиктов.


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To be continued...