万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-07-25&07-26, 禁止喂鸟

As tourist attractions go, San Francisco's wild parrots can be frustratingly¹ unpredictable, the 200 birds can often be seen swooping² near Telegraph Hill, but there is only one place where they show up like clockwork . At 5:30 every afternoon they return to a small park surrounded by high-rises where for the past couple of years, outstretched hands have offered sunflower seeds. ( Awesome)

Here in the midst of the urban jungle , two species mingle³ and share , exchange for a little food, the parrots bring a lot of happiness.

"I was having a bad day, and I wanted to talk to the parrots."
"So this is, this is therapy, isn't it?"
"Yeah it's kinda nice."

There is no doubt the parrots are loved, but it's feeding them, loving them too much, robbing them of the ability to survive on their own. One bird-lover especially disturbed is Mark Biddner . His book and documentary film The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill, made the birds famous in the first place. While he once fed the birds, he says now the flock is thriving and should not depend on humans.

"My whole thing is to keep them wild, not to make them into like a circus actor."

Biddner's worries reached City Hall ,so starting today parrot feeding in San Francisco is banned. We visited it when feeding was still legal and found plenty of ruffled⁴ feathers.

"I think law enforcement has better things to do with their time than to be policing a bunch of people trying to feed some birds"

When the new law takes effect. This could mean a misdemeanor charge and a-hundred-dollar fine, so if the cops show up, it could be the bird-feeders, who, take flights.

The city it seems is determined⁵ to bite the hands that feed the parrots.

John Blackstone, CBS News, San Francisco.

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like clockwork: With machinelike regularity⁶ and precision; perfectly⁷.

misdemeanor: <美>(=misdemeanour)[律]轻罪, 与 felony 相对。

1 frustratingly   

参考例句：

• Some programs set this limit too close, resulting in frustratingly temperamental scroll behavior. 一些程序将这种限制设置得太窄，导致滚屏的行为变幻无常，令人沮丧。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• But the process is frustratingly slow. 但这过程慢得让人郁闷。 来自互联网

2 swooping   

俯冲，猛冲( swoop的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The wind were swooping down to tease the waves. 大风猛扑到海面上戏弄着浪涛。
• And she was talking so well-swooping with swift wing this way and that. 而她却是那样健谈--一下子谈到东，一下子谈到西。

3 mingle   

vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往

参考例句：

• If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中，就不会被注意到。
• Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。

4 ruffled   

adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She ruffled his hair affectionately. 她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
• All this talk of a strike has clearly ruffled the management's feathers. 所有这些关于罢工的闲言碎语显然让管理层很不高兴。

5 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

6 regularity   

n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐

参考例句：

• The idea is to maintain the regularity of the heartbeat.问题就是要维持心跳的规律性。
• He exercised with a regularity that amazed us.他锻炼的规律程度令我们非常惊讶。

7 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。