2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Following the Monarchs in an Ultralight A

One of the world's most amazing migration¹ is about to begin in earnest: 300 million monarch² butterflies spread across North America are about to converge³ on small forests in the mounts of Mexico. This year, the butterflies have an unusual company as NPR News John Nelson explains.

Francisco Gutierrez is a man whose life is ruled by two obsessions⁵. First, the monarch butterflies that fly out to Mexico every winter filling the trees in the forest near Gutierrez's home in the Mexican state of Mishawaka. When he was a kid, he used to stare at these trees for hours.

It's amazing. Sometimes, the branches of the trees broke(s), because of the weight. Or so many broke. Yeah, brokes that you can having(slip of tongue should be have) one tree, one million of monarchs⁶, imagine that.

Obsession⁴ No.2, not coincidentally is a 33-foot wide ultralight airplane with wings painted to look exactly like the wings of a giant monarch butterfly. Recently, Gutierrez and his motorized glider⁷ took off from a runway in Canada and turned to the south. And millions of monarchs converge on Mexico several weeks from now with Gutierrez's plane's gliding⁸ right behind them, filming everything. Eventually, he plans to produce a documentary that captures this migration from what you might call the monarch side point of view. Like the butterflies, he plans to make a lot of pit stops along the way however, recently he was in an airport in suburban⁹ area. Guttierrez spent that morning taking curious but terrified reporters off in his ultralight so that they could bounce around on the wind and catch the view from a thousand feet. On a flight like those / it's impossible not to marvel¹⁰ at the skills of an inch-wide insect that flies from Canada to Mexico.

5500 kilometers, imagine, if we compare the size of this thing with us, it's the same as we have to go to the moon and back, you know that. (The moon and back?) Yes, exactly the same distance.

Gutierrez has been warned not even veer¹¹ towards the protected airspace over the nation's capital. Not to be deterred¹², he towed his glider into the city and parked it on a baseball field. There he was met by Lincoln Brieward, a monarch expert at Sweetbuyer College in Virginia. Brieward called the glider trip a stunt¹³ that could help answer some important scientific questions. For instance:

No body has any real idea how far monarchs fly above the ground, are there thousands of them if you get up the airways¹⁴ and how high do they fly.

While Gutierrez taxied back and forth¹⁵ across the ball field, Brieward talked about the urgent need to draw attention to the threats to this migration. In the United States he says herbicide use is wiping out the weeds these insects need to eat. Meanwhile down in Mexico, illegal logging is rampant¹⁶, even in / protected forests. Brideward was in those forests last winter.

You can hear chainsaws in a distance, you can see piles of saw dust and , piles of chipped wood where they're, they are logging.

As Brideward talked an actual monarch butterfly flitted across the baseball field, the sign that the migration had begun. Gutierrez is now flown west out of suburban Maryland When he reaches Kansas he will veer to the left and head for Mexico.

John Nelson, NPR News Washington.

If you don't have time to make the trip yourself, you can find the photos of monarch butterflies and of the ultralight airplane Francisco Gutierrez is using to follow their migration might going to our website, NPR.org.

1 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

2 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。

3 converge   

vi.会合；聚集，集中；(思想、观点等)趋近

参考例句：

• The results converge towards this truth.其结果趋近于这个真理。
• Parallel lines converge at infinity.平行线永不相交。

4 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

5 obsessions   

n.使人痴迷的人（或物）( obsession的名词复数 )；着魔；困扰

参考例句：

• 95% of patients know their obsessions are irrational. 95％的病人都知道他们的痴迷是不理智的。 来自辞典例句
• Too often you get caught in your own obsessions. 所以你时常会沉迷在某个电影里。 来自互联网

6 monarchs   

君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Monarchs ruled England for centuries. 世袭君主统治英格兰有许多世纪。
• Serving six monarchs of his native Great Britain, he has served all men's freedom and dignity. 他在大不列颠本国为六位君王服务，也为全人类的自由和尊严服务。 来自演讲部分

7 glider   

n.滑翔机；滑翔导弹

参考例句：

• The glider was soaring above the valley.那架滑翔机在山谷上空滑翔。
• The pilot managed to land the glider on a safe place.那个驾驶员设法让滑翔机着陆到一个安全的地方。

8 gliding   

v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的

参考例句：

• Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
• The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。

9 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

10 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

11 veer   

vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向

参考例句：

• He is unlikely to veer from his boss's strongly held views.他不可能背离他老板的强硬立场。
• If you fall asleep while driving,you'll probably veer off the road.假如你开车时打瞌睡，可能会驶离道路。

12 deterred   

v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣，可他却不罢休。
• Jeremy was not deterred by this criticism. 杰里米没有因这一批评而却步。 来自辞典例句

13 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

14 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

15 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

16 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。