英語新聞一點通：小心「水果未爆彈」就在你身邊! @ 【精英翻譯】的部落格

Danger – Unexploded Fruit!

It’s hot now in Taiwan and the summer weather means melons are everywhere: sliced melon, chilled melon, and, of course, ice-cold melon drinks. All these are absolutely delicious, and all completely normal. However, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, melons have been behaving in a totally abnormal way: they have been exploding! Some farmers have been using a growth hormone called forchlorfenuron. Since forchlorfenuron is a plant hormone, it’s not usually dangerous to humans and is used safely in a number of countries, including Australia. The exploding problem, however, seems to have multiple causes. The fruit growers applied the chemical to mature melons, not young ones. Then, there were heavy rains which plumped up the fruit. Finally, the type of melon the farmers had planted had much thinner skins than normal. The result was not a booming rural economy, but booming melons!

小心「水果未爆彈」就在你身邊!

近來台灣已進入炎熱的夏天，這代表吃西瓜的季節到了! 民眾隨處可見切片的西瓜、冰涼的西瓜，還有廣受歡迎的西瓜汁，這些都是常見又好吃的西瓜。然而，中國東部江蘇省所生產的西瓜最近卻出現不尋常的現象：西瓜爆炸了! 有些農夫在栽種植物時會使用植物生長調節劑，也就是一種植物荷爾蒙；它對於人體無害且許多國家 (例如澳洲) 都非常小心地使用在農作物上。這起西瓜爆炸事件似乎是由多種因素引起，這些植物生長劑是噴灑在已成熟而非剛種植的西瓜上；緊接著，大雨使這些西瓜變大；最後，這些農夫種植的西瓜瓜皮就顯得比一般西瓜更薄。很明顯地，這個栽種方式並未帶來蓬勃發展的農村經濟，反而卻引發造成砰砰巨響的西瓜爆炸事件!

字彙

sliced 切片的
squeezed 擠壓的
abnormal 異常的
forchlorfenuron 植物生長調節劑
hormone 荷爾蒙
multiple 多樣的
plump up 變大；變胖
rural 鄉村的

解讀

The writer finishes the article with a pun. He uses one word (booming) with two meanings. A ‘’ booming economy’’ means an economy that is doing well. ‘’Booming melons’’ mean melons making a loud noise as they explode.

作者以雙關語作為本文的結尾，文中提到的「booming」一詞有兩個意思：「booming economy」用以形容蓬勃發展的經濟；「Booming melons」則是形容西瓜在爆炸時發出巨大的聲響。

文句練習

You need ___________ bread to make toast.
If you press a toothpaste tube to get the toothpaste out, the tube is ________________.
The recent flooding in the southern US was a result of _________________ weather.
_________________ is the chemical name of a plant hormone.
A _______________ is a chemical substance in living things which affects their growth and development.
There are _______________ ways to answer an essay question.
Pillows are more comfortable if you _____ them ___ first.
Many people in Taipei have relations in ______________ areas.

文句練習解答