British Vision Issue 89 遵循自然还是人为干预？

A German zoo, under fire for letting a mother polar bear eat its five-week-old cub¹, apparently², has bowed to public pressure, and decided³ to hand-rear its last surviving baby.

Their decisions to intervene, rather than let nature take its course, follows last year's worldwide campaign to save Knut, a young Berlin polar bear. Sue Turten reports.

The five-week-old cub was taken from its mother, Vera, after a public outcry in the German press. Polar bear mom eats her babies. Vera seen here is the bear in public disgrace, but in spite of her behaviour, the zoo in Nuremberg was going to leave their only surviving cub with its mother Vera, saying nature should take its course.

Up until now, we did not have any indication that the mother does not take exemplary care of her cub, therefore we clearly favoured a natural upbringing, just recently, we had clear evidence that the mother did not behave correctly any more, and therefore we intervened.

Comparisons have inevitably⁴ been made with Knut, the cub in Berlin, who was rejected by his mother last year, and reared by keepers in spite of protests by animal rights campaigners.

What can I say? I think it's not very different in nature, where the animals are on their own. Should they interfere⁵ here? I don't know what's right, but I think what they are doing is ok.

It's hoped this cub will not let all the publicity⁶ go to its head, Knut now has his own blog and TV show, he's been in Vanity Fair.

1 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

5 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

6 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。