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Zombie Ants

Intro:

Welcome to daily fun facts where we discuss fun facts about this crazy world. Use these newfound facts to break the ice and start an interesting conversation.  Happy learning everyone!

Dialogue:

Andrea:  Brie, what are your plans for Halloween this year?  Will you dress up in costume?

Brie:  Yes, I’m going as a Zombie.  I will put on some tattered clothes and paint my face grey.  I might also use some make-up to paint a few bloody wounds here and there. But I don’t plan to go out trick-or-treating in my costume.  I’ll stay home and hand out candy to all the cute neighborhood trick-or-treaters who ring my doorbell. 

Andrea:  Good idea!  Zombies are very popular these days.  They are featured in almost every horror tv show and video game.  

Brie:  Exactly, I won’t need to put in much effort at all for people to know I’m a Zombie.   If I just write the phrase The Walking Dead or The Last of Us on my shirt, everyone will know what I’m dressed as right away.

Andrea: The Last of Us? Isn’t that the video game where a fungus that turns ants into zombies jumps to humans and starts turning them into zombies as well?

Brie:  Yes, that’s the storyline. No worries, it was written that way just to give us a scare!

Andrea: Well, did you know that the fungus that turns ants into zombies is actually a real thing?

Brie:  It is?  Is this some kind of Halloween trick you are using to try to scare me?

Andrea: No, I’m serious!  It’s a very real and  interesting fun fact!  Scientists have discovered a rare parasitic fungus in Thailand, Indonesia, the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, and in tropical parts of Australia, that can turn carpenter ants into zombies.  

Brie:  在泰国，印度尼西亚，巴西的亚马逊热带雨林以及澳大利亚的热带地区，真的有一种这样的寄生真菌，能够让木蚁变成僵尸？When you say that a fungus turns ants into zombies, you mean that it controls the ant’s behavior? 

Andrea:  Yes, the ants are first infected through contact with the spores of the fungus.  Within a week, the fungus takes control of the ant so that it enters into a zombie-like state. Without infecting the ant’s brain, the fungus forces the ant to bite into and attach to leaves and twigs in conditions that are optimal for enabling the fungus to grow.  Once the fungus has found it’s sweet spot, that is, the best conditions to grow, it kills the ant and grows out of the ant’s head.  

Brie:  木蚁首先通过与真菌的孢子接触而被感染。 在接下来的一周之内，真菌就能控制蚂蚁的行为使它进入僵尸状态。 在不感染蚂蚁大脑的情况下，真菌迫使蚂蚁首先找到一个适合真菌生长的环境，然后控制蚂蚁咬入并附着在叶子和树枝上。 一旦真菌找到最佳的生存环境，它就会杀死其寄生的蚂蚁，并从蚂蚁的头上长出来。 Eww! That sounds terribly painful! But how does a zombie ant infect other ants?

Andrea:  Well, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, after the fungus erupts out of the head of the ant, it grows a fruit that contains fungus spores.  In pictures I’ve seen, it looks like a stalk with a capsule shaped spore sack on the end has grown out of the head of the ant.  Once fully grown, the fruit disperses fungus spores into the air.  In the rainforest, the spores fall to the forest floor and infect other ants of the same species, turning them into “zombies” one by one.

Brie: 原来当真菌从蚂蚁头上长出之后，它将继续生长，直到长出一个类似球状，包含真菌孢子的水果；等到植物完全长大之后，水果就会破裂开，让真菌孢子在空气中传播开来，从而感染更多的蚂蚁，使他们变成僵尸。Stop it, Andrea. I have a creepy image of a fungus growing out of the head of an ant, and it’s going to give me nightmares!  If the fungus is able to jump to humans like in the video game, we could be in for a zombie apocalypse!  I don’t want a fruit growing from my head.

Andrea:  Ok, ok, don’t freak out!  There’s no need to worry about an apocalypse!  The fungus only attacks some species of carpenter ant, so not even every type of ant.  At that rate, the likelihood that it will one day be able to infect a human is very low.

Brie:  Well, that’s a relief.  该寄生真菌仅仅只能感染两类木蚁，对于大部分蚂蚁来说其实是无害的，对人类更是没有任何影响。But I think I will finish my Halloween plans later.  Your fun fact has made me quite drowsy.

Andrea:  So, you mean, because you’re so bored you have zombied out?

Brie:  Yah, I’ve zombied out, but not because I’m bored, you’ve just certainly made me feel like a zombie.

Close: 

So, everyone, there’s your fun fact of the day!  Let’s go over some of the vocabulary and phrases from this dialogue.

Vocabulary:

Costume  / ˈkɒs tum /  装扮

Zombie  /ˈzɒm bi/  僵尸

Tattered  / ˈtæt ərd /  破烂的

Trick-or-treater  / trɪkˈɔr tritər /  不给糖就捣蛋的人，通常指小孩

The Walking Dead  / ðə ˈwɔ kɪŋ ded /  欧美电视剧《行尸走肉》

The Last of Us  / ðə læst  əv ʌs /  网游《美国末日》

Fungus  / ˈfʌŋ gəs  菌类

Storyline  / stɔrilaɪn /  故事情节

Parasitic  /ˌpær əˈsɪt ɪk /  寄生的

Carpenter Ant  / ˈkɑr pən tər ænt /  木蚁

Infect  / ɪnˈfɛkt /  感染

Spore  / spɔr / (真菌）袍子

Optimal  / ˈɒp tə məl /  最佳的

Sweet Spot  / swit spɒt / 最佳状态，最佳环境

Erupt  / ɪˈrʌpt /  爆发

Stalk  / stɔk /  茎, 梗

Capsule   / ˈkæp səl /  胶囊

Disperse  / dɪˈspɜrs /  散播

Creepy  / ˈkri pi /   怪异的，令人毛骨悚然的

Zombie Apocalypse  / ˈzɒm bi  əˈpɒk ə lɪps /  世界末日小说中描述的场景，由于僵尸的袭击导致人类文明的崩溃。

Phrases:

To Give a Scare  使受惊吓/使害怕

Freak Out  吓坏了

Zombied Out  形容人像行尸走肉一样，无精打采，无意识地四处晃动。

Alright, join us next time for another fun fact to help break the ice! 好了，这就是我们今天的有趣常识分享，如果喜欢我们，请别忘了点击订阅！拜拜，咱们下期再见！

Photo Credit: Danny Newman

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