的五年里只有三人死于水母刺伤，这与被蛇咬伤致死的人数大体相同。
选修9 Unit 4 Exploring plants-Reading
PLANT EXPLORATION IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES The plants in our gardens look so familiar that often we do not realize that many of them actually come from countries far away. Collecting \ancient civilisations saw the value of bringing back plants from distant lands. The first plant collecting expedition recorded in history was around 1500 BC when the Queen of Egypt sent ships away to gather plants, animals and other goods.
第四单元
18 世纪和 19 世纪的植物探索
我们花园里的植物看上去是那么熟悉,以致我们常常意识不到在这些植物中有许多实际上来自遥远的国度。收集所谓的“异国”(exotic)植物要追溯(date back to)到很久以前。许多古老文化都懂得从遥远的地方把植物带回来的价值。历史上有记载的第一个收集植物的探险是在公元前 1500 年，埃及女王派出船只去收集植物、动物以及其他货物。
However, it was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the exploration of the botanical world began on a large scale. Europe had become interested in scientific discovery and the European middle classes took great interest in collecting new plants. This attraction to exotic plants
grew as European nations, like the Netherlands, Britain and Spain, moved into other parts of the world like Asia and Australia. Brave young men took the opportunity of going on botanical expeditions, often facing many dangers including disease,near-starvation, severe environments and conflicts with the local people.
然而，直到 18 世纪和 19 世纪人们对植物世界大规模(scale)的探索才开始。那时欧洲对抖学发现已经倍感兴趣，而欧洲的中产阶级则特别热衷于收集新的植物。随着欧洲人，如荷兰、英国和西班牙向世界其他地区，如亚洲和澳洲的迁徙，这种对异域植物的吸吸引也在增长。勇敢的年轻人借机进行植物探索活动，他们常常面临许多危险，如疾病、饥饿、严酷的环境以及同当地居民的冲突。
An important group of collectors were Frencn Catholic missionaries who, by the middle of the 18th century, were beginning to set themselves up in China. One such missionary, Father d'Incarville, was sent to Beijing in the 1740s. He collected seeds of trees and bushes including those of the Tree of Heaven. Just before he died, he sent some Tree of Heaven seeds to England. They arrived in 1751 and plants from these seeds were grown throughout Europe and later, in 1784, the species was introduced in North America.
有一群重要的收集者是法国天主教教士(missionaries) 18 世纪中叶，他们开始进入中国。其中有一位叫汤执中的传教士于 18 世纪 40年代被派赴北京。他收集了树种、灌木种，其中包括天堂树的种子。就在他去世之前，他还把一些天堂树的种子送到了英国。1751 年它们
抵达英国，由这些树种长成的树遍布了全欧洲。后来在 1784 年，这个物种又被引进到了北美。
Sir Joseph Banks was a very famous British plant collector, who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage from England to Oceania. The purpose of the trip for Banks was to record the plant and animal life they came across. He and his team collected examples whenever they went onto dry land. In 1769, Banks collected vast quantities of plants in the land now known as Australia. None of these plants had been recorded by Europeans before. Cook called the bay where the Endeavour had anchored Botany Bay.
约瑟夫·班克斯爵士是一位著名的英国植物收集家、他曾经陪同詹姆斯·库克进行了从英国到大洋洲的首航。班克斯这次出行的目的就是把他们所见到的植物和动物的情况记录下来。他和他的队员们每次进入干燥的土地时都要收集样品. 1769年，班克斯在我们如今所知道的名叫澳大利亚的这块土地上收集到大量的植物，而在欧洲还没有有关这些植物的记载。库克还把“奋进号”(Endeavour)抛锚(anchored)停靠的地方称为植物湾.
Keeping plants alive during long land or sea voyages was an enormous challenge. Large numbers of seeds failed to grow after long sea voyages or trips across land between Asia and Europe. One plant explorer lost several years' work when his plants were mined with seawater.
要使植物在陆地上或海上远距离航行时存活下来，是一个巨大的挑战。在亚欧之间经过海上或陆上远程旅行之后，大量的种子都不能
生长。曾有一位植物探险家由于他的植物被海水侵蚀腐烂而使他好几年的成果毁于一旦。
The world of plant exploration was completely changed with Dr Nathaniel Ward's invention of a tightly sealed portable glass container. This invention, called the Wardian case, allowed plants to be transported on long journeys. In 1833, Ward shipped two cases of British plants to Sydney, Australia. All the plants survived the six-month journey. In 1835, the cases made a return trip with some Australian species that had never been successfully transported before. After eight months at sea, they arrived safely in London.
纳撒尼尔·沃德医生所发明的便携式密封玻璃容器彻底改变了植物探索的世界.这项发明被称为沃德箱，可以用来进行远距离的植物运输。l833 年，沃德把两箱英国植物运到了澳大利亚的悉尼。所有这些植物经过六个月的航行都存活了下来。l835 年这些箱子又带着一些过去从来没有被成功运输过的澳洲物种作了回程之旅。在海上历经八个月的航行之后，它们安全抵达了伦敦。
A British man called Robert Fortune was one of the earliest plant collectors to use Wardian cases. He made several trips to China between 1843 and 1859. At that time, there were restrictions on the movement of Europeans and so, in order to travel unnoticed, he developed his fluency in Chinese and dressed as a Chinese man, even shaving his head in the Chinese style. He experienced many adventures including huge thunderstorms in the Yellow Sea and pirates on the Yangtze River. Not only
did Fortune introduce over 120 species of plants to Western gardens but he also shipped 20,000 tea plants from Shanghai to India, where a successful tea industry was established.
有一位名叫罗伯特·福琼的英国人,是使用沃德箱的最早期的植物收集家之一。在 1843～1859年之间,他曾多次到中国。那时候，欧洲人在中国的活动受到种种限制(restrictions)，因此，为了在旅行中不引起别人注意，他努力使自己的汉语讲得很流利(fluency),并且穿着中国人的服装，甚至像中国人一样削发(留辫)。他经历过多次险情, 包括在黄海碰到过巨大的风暴, 以及在长江遭遇海盗(pirates)的袭击。福琼不仅把 120 余种植物引入西方园林，而且还把两万株茶树用船从上海运到了印度，印度的制茶工业就成功地发展起来了 The second half of the nineteenth century was a very important period of plant exploration. During this time many Catholic missionaries were sent to China from France. They valued the study of the natural sciences and many of the missionaries knew a lot about plants and animals. Their expeditions resulted in huge plant collections, which were sent back to France. One of the collectors was Father Farges, who collected 37 seeds from a tree that had appealed to him. This tree was later called the Dove Tree. He sent the seeds back to France in 1897 but only one seed grew.
19 世纪下半期是植物探索的一个非常重要的时期。在这期间, 许多法国天主教的传教士被派到中国。他们很着重自然科学的研究, 而且许多传教士对动植物都很了解。他们远征的结果是收集了大量的植物, 并把它们运回法国。其中一位叫作法尔热的神父, 从他所喜爱的