8月7日午间英语新闻： 大热天喵星人是怎么给自己降温的？

> How do cats cool themselves off?

不流汗不吐舌头 大热天喵星人是怎么给自己降温的？

When temperatures rise, humans sweat, dogs pant and cats ... don’t move enough to overheat? Well, partially. Cats, who need to maintain an internal body temperature of 101°F to 102°F, have several methods for keeping cool in sweltering weather.

气温上升时，人会流汗，狗会喘气，猫呢？好像对高温没啥反应？其实，并不是完全没反应。猫需要保持38.3度到38.9度的体内温度，它们有几种方法可以在闷热的天气中保持凉爽。

It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “any secretions there or from their nose, mouth or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”

有一种错误观念认为猫通过爪子流汗来给自己降温。在夏日里你可能会看到潮湿的猫爪留下的印子，但是据兽医金柏莉•梅说：“猫的鼻子、嘴或舌头的任何分泌物都不是流汗，而是起到保护和湿润的作用，不足以给血液降温。”

Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which works to cool humans via evaporation—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious disease.

事实上，猫通过定期舔自己的毛发来达到流汗般的散热效果。人类通过汗液蒸发来给自己降温，猫的舌头分泌出的唾液在蒸发时也可以给身体降温。因此也可以用湿毛巾擦一擦猫的身体，轻微润湿毛发，来帮助你的猫降温。在极端炎热的天气下，猫也会喘气，但和狗不同，狗在热天里经常喘气是为了凉快，而喘气的猫则意味着过热或其他严重疾病的危险。

If you’re tempted to shave your feline friend to help keep him cool—don’t! "Fur acts as a thermal regulator to slow down the process of heat absorption,” James H. Jones, an expert in comparative animal exercise physiology and thermoregulation at the University of California at Davis, told The Washington Post.

如果你有给猫剃毛降温的冲动，千万别这么做！加州大学戴维斯分校比较动物运动生理学和体温调节系的专家詹姆斯•H•琼斯表示：“猫的毛发相当于减缓吸热过程的体温调节器。”

Fur coats are highly evolved—in the winter they keep animals warm, but in the summer they work both to protect delicate skin from the sun and slow dehydration (Jones notes that, according to research, shaved camels fared worse in the deserts than those with their fur intact).

动物的毛发经过了高度进化，冬天可以为动物保暖，夏天则保护它们脆弱的皮肤不被日晒，并减慢脱水速度。琼斯指出，研究发现，被剃毛的骆驼在沙漠里没有毛发完好的骆驼那么皮实。

But even with these methods for keeping cool, cats also rely on the perks of domesticity to stay comfortable. So even though they evolved from wild ancestors and are able to tough it out, leave the A/C (or a fan) on for your cats when you go out, and make sure to leave them plenty of water.

即使有这些降温方式，猫也需要待在舒适的室内环境里。尽管它们是从野生祖先进化而来的，也能够忍受炎热，但是在你出门时还是要给猫开着空调，并确保给猫留下充足的水。

重点词汇：

sweltering 

英 /ˈsweltərɪŋ/

美 /ˈsweltərɪŋ/

adj. 闷热的；热得难受的

thermoregulation 

英 /ˈθɜːməʊˌreɡjʊˈleɪʃən/

美 /ˌθɜːrmoˌreɡjəˈleʃən

n. 温度调节

> The ‘Leaning Tower’ of the Middle East

世界上最“歪”建筑在哪？

Capital Gate, also known as the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi, is a skyscraper in the emirate that is more than 160 meters tall, 35 stories high and with more than 16,000 square meters of office space. It is one of the tallest buildings in the city and was designed to incline 18 degrees west.

首都之门又称阿布扎比斜塔，是阿联酋首都阿布扎比的一座摩天大楼，高 160 多米，共 35 层，可用办公面积超过 16,000 平方米。首都之门是阿布扎比最高的建筑之一，其设计向西倾斜 18度。

Calling the Capital Gate a skyscraper does not quite capture its true essence. The brief given to the engineers and architects was not to make the biggest or tallest building around but to “challenge the rules of architecture and to build a structure that would put Abu Dhabi on the world map”, says Ahmed Al Mansoori, a lead engineer for Capital Gate and director of engineering for the company Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions.

将首都之门称为摩天大楼，并不能完全表达它的精髓。该建筑首席工程师兼阿布扎比国家展览公司工程总监艾哈迈德•阿尔•曼苏里说，给工程师和建筑师的任务不是建造最大或最高的建筑，而是“挑战建筑规则，建造一座能让阿布扎比在世界上崭露头角的建筑” 。

The United Arab Emirates ranks third equal internationally for the place with the most number of skyscrapers, sharing that spot with Japan, both having 251 buildings taller than 150 meters. The number one spot is held by China with 2,055 buildings taller than 150 meters, followed by the US with more than 800.

在世界上摩天大楼数量最多的国家中，阿联酋目前与日本并列第三，拥有 251 座 150 米以上的摩天大楼。排名第一的是中国，有2055座摩天高楼，其次是美国，有超过800座摩天高楼。

According to skyscraper.com, the tallest buildings in the UAE after Burj Khalifa are: Marina 101 at 425m, Princess Tower at 413.4m, 23 Marina at 392.4m and Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid in Abu Dhabi at 381.2m.

根据 skyscraper.com网站报道，阿联酋最高的建筑为哈利法塔，其次是滨海101大厦，高度为425米；迪拜公主塔，高度为413.4米；滨海23大厦，高度为392.4米；以及阿布扎比穆罕默德本拉希德大厦，高度为381.2米。

重点词汇：

capture

英 /ˈkæptʃə(r)/

美 /ˈkæptʃər/

v. 俘获，捕获；夺取，占领；吸引，引起；记录，体现；拍摄，录制；吃掉（国际象棋棋子）；使（数据）保存于电脑中；俘获（原子，亚原子粒）；（河流）袭夺

n.捕获，被捕获；被捕获的人（或物）；占领，攻占；夺取，抢占；（数据）存储