風滾草不屬於這裡：英語精讀講義

Bouncing across a scene,

彈跳著穿過畫面，

tumbleweed established the Wild West as Western. 表達脈絡

風滾草奠定了狂野西部的西部風格。

But more than just props, 文法

但不僅僅是道具，

tumbleweed are real and tumbleweed are alive.

風滾草是真實的，而且是活的。

Well, they were alive.

準確地說，它們曾經是活的。

Each tumbleweed starts as a tiny seed on the craggy landscape,

每一棵風滾草都始於崎嶇地表上的一粒微小種子，

putting down roots,

紮根，

up branches,

長出枝葉，

opening flowers,

開花，

and through the miracle of life

並透過生命的奇蹟

birthing seeds,

孕育出種子，

itty-bitty baby tumbles-to-be.

也就是極小的未來風滾草寶寶。

Now,

那麼，

dropping these seeds straight down

如果直接把種子掉在腳下

won't give the tumble tots their best head start. 片語搭配

並不能給這些風滾草寶寶最好的起跑線。

So, what's a parent plant to do 文法

所以，母株該怎麼做

but sacrifice their life for their children?

才能為了孩子犧牲自己呢？

To intentionally starve themselves,

故意將自己餓死，

to die,

死亡，

and to dry,

變乾，

to catch the wind,

乘風而起，

to shuffle off this mortal coil, 慣用語

擺脫這塵世的束縛，

to bounce across the land,

在大地上彈跳，

to chance their children to find fertile ground,

碰運氣讓孩子們找到肥沃的土地，

to root,

紮根，

to sprout,

發芽，

to grow,

生長，

to flower,

開花，

to continue the circle of life.

延續生命的循環。

It's beautiful, really.

真的很美。

These humble tumble rolling across the West

這些不起眼的風滾草在西部翻滾著

in search of empty land to colonize 片語搭配

尋找空地進行殖民

are as iconically West as Westerners Westerning, 文法

和拓荒西部的西部人一樣具有標誌性的西部特色，

because neither are natives.

因為它們都不是本地物種。

Before the 1800s,

在19世紀初之前，

there were no homesteaders and no tumbleweed in the West.

西部既沒有拓荒者也沒有風滾草。

Tumbleweed are an invasive species 用詞

風滾草是一種入侵物種

and a deeply unwelcome one.

而且極其不受歡迎。

It's time to get real about the trouble with tumbles. 慣用語

是時候認真談談風滾草帶來的麻煩了。

Now,

現在，

you might be thinking, 表達脈絡

你可能在想，

"If the West is mostly empty and tumbleweed arrived and survived,

"如果西部大部分地區都是空地，而風滾草到達並存活了下來，

what's the big deal?

有什麼大不了的呢？

They're kind of nice."

它們挺可愛的。"

And you know what?

但你知道嗎？

You're right, 語氣意圖

你說的對，

kind of.

某種程度上是。

Tumbles are like snow.

風滾草就像雪一樣。

A little is charming, 表達脈絡

少一點很有魅力，

but a lot is a problem.

但多了就是個麻煩。

And a lot, a lot, dangerous.

非常非常多的時候，就是危險了。

Tumbleweed stick to things and each other.

風滾草會黏在物體上，也會互相黏連。

One stuck tumble becomes two,

一個卡住的風滾草變成兩個，

10,

十個，

a tumulus.

一個大草堆。

The American interior has vast swaths of land, 片語搭配

美國內陸有著大片廣袤的土地，

and after a tumble terrain takeover,

在風滾草佔領地形之後，

one big windstorm can drown a village under thousands of the things.

一場大風暴就可以用成千上萬個風滾草淹沒一個村莊。

With people quickly finding their roads 文法

人們會很快發現他們的道路

and vehicles

和車輛

and even homes inaccessible.

甚至家門都被堵死了。

If you've never seen tumbles on the move 片語搭配

如果你從未見過風滾草移動

or the aftermath of that,

或者移動後的景象，

it's unreal.

那簡直難以置信。

And though a tumble drift looks like a brown snowdrift,

雖然風滾草堆看起來像棕色的雪堆，

this snow is full of thorns.

但這「雪」卻充滿了刺。

If you're thinking of a rose,

如果你聯想到了玫瑰，

think again. 慣用語

重新想想吧。

On tumbles,

在風滾草上，

it's all thorns.

全都是刺。

Brittle to break off in your skin

很容易折斷紮進你的皮膚

or horse-skin

或是馬的皮膚裡

where it can fester.

在那裡化膿發炎。

Clearing tumbleweed isn't just painful, 文法

清理風滾草不僅令人痛苦，

but also infuriating.

而且讓人惱火。

A tumbleweed drift is both bouncy and sticky.

一堆風滾草既有彈性又黏糊糊的。

You're going to have to fork them one at a time. 片語搭配

你只能用叉子一個個把它們叉走。

Tedious at best, 文法

往好了說是乏味，

Sisyphean at worst. 文化背景

往壞了說就像推石頭的西西弗斯一樣徒勞。

You might want to use industrial equipment,

你可能會想使用工業設備，

but be careful.

但要小心。

Tumbleweed are shockingly flammable.

風滾草極其易燃。

Dry and airy,

乾燥通風，

but still branch dense,

卻又枝葉茂密，

they are min-maxed kindling. 文化背景

它們是完美的生火引子。

A tumbleweed will go up in flames 慣用語

一個風滾草燃燒起來

way fast

極快

and burns way hot.

且溫度極高。

More on that later. 表達脈絡

稍後再詳細說這個。

But even if you manage to clear the town and all the open land around the town, 文法

但即使你設法清理了鎮子和鎮子周圍所有空地上的風滾草，

a single missed seed contains the next tumble torrent.

只要漏掉一粒種子，就會孕育出下一波風滾草狂潮。

For, while many plants use flowers to attract bees to cross-pollinate and reproduce, 表達脈絡

因為，雖然許多植物用花吸引蜜蜂異花授粉和繁殖，

not tumbles.

風滾草不這麼做。

Their flowers have nothing for bees.

它們的花對蜜蜂沒有吸引力。

Instead,

取而代之的是，

exploding pollen directly into the wind.

直接向風中噴射花粉。

Hope you don't have allergies to cross-pollinate.

希望你對風媒花粉不過敏。

And tumbles don't need two to tango. 慣用語

並且風滾草不需要成對配合。

A lone tumbleweed can fu-pollinate itself.

一棵孤獨的風滾草就能完成該死的自花授粉。

So, that single missed seed will grow up to be a tumblin' weed

所以，那粒被漏掉的種子長大後會成為一棵風滾草

containing tens of thousands of seeds,

包含數以萬計的種子，

hundreds of thousands if it gets large enough.

如果長得足夠大甚至會有數十萬粒。

A single tumble tumbling to town one year 表達脈絡

一年裡只有一棵風滾草滾進鎮子

leaves a tumble trail the next

下一年就會留下一整條風滾草軌跡

and an exponential explosion thereafter.

隨後便是指數級的爆發。

And then,

而且，

there's the danger to agriculture,

還有對農業的威脅，

which brings us to the start of this. 表達脈絡

這把我們帶回了故事的起點。

A time before tumbleweed in America

在美國出現風滾草之前的時代

and a time before homesteading.

以及宅地法頒布之前的時代。

It's the 1800s and the start of Westerners Westerning,

這是19世紀初，西部人開始開拓西部的時代，

building their first farms and tiny towns.

建立他們最早的農場和小城鎮。

Growing enough food to feed the adolescent nation was vital. 慣用語

種植足夠的食物來養活這個年輕的國家至關重要。

Nearly everyone's job had to be farming.

幾乎所有人的工作都是務農。

And the newly created Department of Agriculture had the job of writing pro tips on how best to do that,

而新成立的農業部的任務就是編寫關於如何最好地務農的專業建議，

along with collecting seeds and samples from the new continent, 文法

並且收集來自這片新大陸的種子和樣本，

which is how all was normal

一切都很正常

until one day a letter arrived for DOA.

直到有一天農業部收到了一封信。

Hey,

嘿，

there's this a tumbling weed giving us some trouble.

有這種翻滾的雜草給我們帶來了一些麻煩。

Can you come take a gander? 慣用語

你能來看看嗎？

And so she did, 表達脈絡

於是她去了，

arriving to find South Dakota in bad shape.

到了之後發現南達科他州的情況很糟糕。

A weedy infection rapidly developing,

雜草侵襲正在迅速蔓延，

damaging the food supply.

破壞著食物供應。

These new weeds stole ground nutrients for themselves

這些新的雜草為自己搶奪土壤養分

before crops could even be planted. 文法

甚至在農作物還沒種下之前。

Or they would grow in between crops,

或者它們會長在農作物之間，

choking them out. 片語動詞

窒息它們。

During harvest,

在收穫季節，

they hurt the draft animals

它們會傷害役用牲畜

and clogged or broke the newly mechanized farm equipment.

還會堵塞或損壞新機械化的農業設備。

Early estimates were crop losses of 20%

早期估計由於風滾草造成的農作物損失

because of the tumbles.

高達20%。

DOA tried to constrain the situation using education.

農業部試圖透過教育來控制局面。

Wanted: tumbleweed. 文化背景

通緝：風滾草。

Kill on sight.

見一個殺一個。

AKA prickly thistle, 用詞

又名帶刺薊草，

AKA Kali Tragus

又名俄羅斯刺沙蓬

AKA the wind witch,

又名風之女巫，

AKA the Russian thistle.

又名俄羅斯薊。

This, by the way,

順便說一下，

is the motherland where the species is native

那個地方正是這個物種的原產地

and from where crop seed contaminated with tumble seed probably came

很可能含有風滾草種子的受污染農作物種子就是從那裡來的

to arrive in South Dakota

並抵達南達科他州

on perhaps a single farm to start the infection,

也許是從單個農場開始傳播，

which grew worse by the year. 片語搭配

然後一年比一年嚴重。

And the Department of Agriculture's efforts to stop it were futile.

農業部試圖阻止它的努力是徒勞的。

Way too much land, 文法

土地太大，

far too few people.

人太少。

Worse, this new land was Tumbletopia,

更糟糕的是，這片新土地簡直是風滾草的烏托邦，

and still is.

直到現在依然如此。

See this run of rectangle states?

看到這一連串矩形排列的州了嗎？

It's the Great Plains,

這是大平原，

abutting the Great American Desert,

緊鄰美國大沙漠，

an enormous stretch of land,

一片廣闊延伸的土地，

flat, open, windy.

平坦、開闊、多風。

South Dakota's neighbors had no chance,

南達科他州的鄰居們束手無策，

nor neighbors' neighbors. 文法

鄰居的鄰居們也是如此。

From patient zero, 用詞

從零號病人開始，

boom.

轟！

By the turn of the century, 片語搭配

到了世紀之交，

the tumbleweed infection covered the interior,

風滾草之災覆蓋了內陸，

eventually spreading north to Canada and south down to Mexico.

最終向北蔓延到加拿大，向南蔓延到墨西哥。

America's mountains were a barrier for a while

美國的山脈曾經作為屏障維持了一段時間

until tumbleweed hitched a ride on the trains that had freshly connected the continent. 慣用語

直到風滾草搭上了剛剛連接整個大陸的火車的順風車。

Jaunting over the mountains west and east

向西和向東跨越山脈短途旅行

to establish themselves in every spare pocket of empty land.

在每一塊空地的邊角紮根。

Oh, dear.

噢，天哪。

But it gets better. 語氣意圖

但事情變得更糟了。

Back to fires,

回到火災的話題，

specifically prairie fires.

具體來說是草原大火。

A nice big field of dry wheat is just begging to burst into flames. 慣用語

一大片乾燥的麥田簡直是在乞求被點燃。

The only early tech to stop fires was to build firebreaks, 用詞

早期阻止火災的唯一技術是建立防火帶，

physically stopping the flames with neat, straight, vitally empty stretches of land the fire could not cross.

用整齊、筆直、完全空曠、火無法越過的土地從物理上阻擋火焰。

But more perfect tunnels for tumbles you could not make. 文法

但你不可能造出比這更完美的風滾草通道了。

Even if the firebreaks were kept clear, 表達脈絡

即使防火帶保持暢通，

fire makes its own wind,

火勢本身會產生風，

sucking in cold air from ground level to blow out hot, up, and over.

從地面吸入冷空氣，把熱空氣向上向外吹。

Thus, transforming tumbles into fireballs to breach the break.

從而把風滾草變成火球越過防火帶。

So started the first volley in the war on tumbleweed. 表達脈絡

於是打響了對抗風滾草戰爭的第一槍。

But for the Department of Agriculture to eradicate the infection from the interior farmland and towns where they did the most damage

但是，要讓農業部從內陸農田和遭受破壞最嚴重的城鎮根除這種感染，

would mean not only catching every weed and seed across a third of a continent 文法

將意味著不僅要在橫跨三分之一個大陸的範圍內抓住每一根雜草和每一粒種子

with the cooperation of two annoyed international neighbors,

還需要兩個被激怒的國際鄰國的合作，

but also finding every patch of infection across the mountains in the other two thirds,

還要在跨越山脈的另外三分之二的土地上找到每一片感染區，

an impossible task.

這是一項不可能完成的任務。

So, uh, that's why tumbleweed are still here 表達脈絡

所以，厄，這就是為什麼風滾草現在依然存在

and have been around for so long and in such numbers

而且存在了這麼久、數量這麼多

people forget there was ever a before time.

以至於人們忘記了曾經沒有它們的時代。

But not the United States Department of Agriculture. 表達脈絡

但美國農業部沒有忘記。

From the 1800s to 1900s to 2000s,

從19世紀、20世紀一直到21世紀，

still trying to rid America of the weed, 片語搭配

他們仍在努力清除美國的這種雜草，

but so far without success.

但至今仍未成功。

That is the trouble with tumbles.

這就是風滾草帶來的麻煩。