毛毛虫移动时 内部器官先于外部肢体(有声)

A caterpillar¹'s guts² move forward first, followed by its outer body, according to x-ray studies of the insects walking on a treadmill³.

Imagine if before you took each step, your guts lurched up into your throat. Well, caterpillars⁴ don’t have to imagine—they take such drastic steps every day.

Researchers were interested in how fluids move around inside a caterpillar. So they put one on a treadmill and x rayed it while it walked. Caterpillars move by a wave that starts at the back end of their body and sweeps through each segment until it reaches the head, pushing it forward. The scientists had assumed that the guts were squished or squeezed or wobbled about like a bowl of jello⁵ in a moving car.

They were surprised instead to find that the insects move via an integrated, two-stage system in which their guts go forward before their outer body does. So, their innards do slide into their throat, but it’s a controlled glide⁶. The finding was published online in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers describe the way of walking as “unlike any form of legged locomotion⁷ previously⁸ reported.” The discovery is already being investigated by engineers for possible soft-bodied robots. Because no guts, no glory
 

1 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

2 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 treadmill   

n.踏车；单调的工作

参考例句：

• The treadmill has a heart rate monitor.跑步机上有个脉搏监视器。
• Drugs remove man from the treadmill of routine.药物可以使人摆脱日常单调的工作带来的疲劳。

4 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

5 jello   

n.凝胶物，果冻

参考例句：

• We have ice cream,pie,cake or jello.我们要冰淇淋、馅饼、蛋糕或是果冻。
• She likes jello very much.她很喜欢吃果冻。

6 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

7 locomotion   

n.运动，移动

参考例句：

• By land,air or sea,birds are masters of locomotion.无论是通过陆地，飞越空中还是穿过海洋，鸟应算是运动能手了。
• Food sources also elicit oriented locomotion and recognition behavior patterns in most insects.食物源也引诱大多数昆虫定向迁移和识别行为。

8 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。