8月2日午间英语新闻：意大利西西里岛野火肆虐致3名老人死亡

Touristsposing with pikas have sparked heated debate

草原游客手抓鼠兔拍照？科普博主疾呼：快住手，小心鼠疫！

A popularscience blogger brought attention to a concerning trend of tourists posing withOchotonids, or normally known as pikas, in their hands. The pictures oftourists handling these cute animals have gone viral, raising alarm amongconservationists and experts.

一位科普博主注意到一个令人担忧的现象：游客们手持鼠兔拍照。游客们摆弄这些可爱动物的照片在网上疯传，引起了环保人士和专家的警惕。

Reportsfrom various online forums reveal that some tourists claim to have capturedthese wild pikas in the Qilian Grassland region. A few individuals evenquestioned why it should be wrong to catch such adorable creatures.

在相关平台的网帖中，有游客称自己在祁连大草原抓到鼠兔了。一些人甚至质疑，为什么捕捉如此可爱的生物是错误的。

Theblogger took to her subsequent posts to shed light on the potential risksassociated with this behavior. Firstly, she highlighted the fact that pikashave a certain probability of carrying fleas that can transmit plague.Secondly, such interactions may have adverse effects on the health andwell-being of the individual animals.

这位博主在随后的帖子中阐明了这种行为的潜在风险。一方面，鼠兔有一定概率携带染疫蚤传播鼠疫；另一方面，后续可能对动物个体产生不良影响。

"Regardlessof how endearing wild animals may be, it is unacceptable to casually handlethem," the blogger emphasized. She urged local guides, leaders, andprofessionals in the tourism industry to dissuade visitors from engaging insuch actions. Various other bloggers also joined in the discussion, stressingthat catching wild pikas is an extremely hazardous activity.

这位博主强调:“不管野生动物有多可爱，随意对待它们都是不可接受的。”她敦促当地导游、领导和旅游业专业人士劝阻游客不要从事这种行为。还有不少博主在这条微博下科普：抓鼠兔真是一个非常危险的行为。

Accordingto a research by University of Richmond, plague (Yersinia bacterium) is a verycommon and highly fatal disease in many rodent species. It is a gram-negativebacterium that exists in a flea-rodent-flea life cycle and produces theextremely fatal and fast acting zoonotic disease that is implicated in at leastthree pandemics. Ochotonids are hosts for fleas, which carry the plague(Yersinia pestis) and other diseases.

据美国里士满大学研究称，在很多啮齿类动物中，鼠疫（耶尔森氏菌）是一种非常常见的致死率极高的病症。它是一种以以跳蚤——啮齿动物——跳蚤这样一个生命周期存在的革兰氏阴性菌，并产生极其致命和快速作用的人畜共患病，至少与三次大流行病有关。鼠兔是跳蚤的宿主，同时也有可能携带鼠疫和其他类型的疾病。

Asdiscussions continue to gain traction on social media and within the scientificcommunity, authorities are hopeful that public awareness and education willlead to more responsible tourism practices, safeguarding both the health ofvisitors and the fragile wildlife in the region.

随着社交媒体和科学界的讨论持续升温，政府希望公众意识和教育能够促使旅游业采取更负责任的做法，保护游客的健康和该地区脆弱的野生动物。

重点词汇：

1.plague

英[pleɪɡ]

美[pleɪɡ]

n.瘟疫; (老鼠或昆虫等肆虐造成的)灾害，祸患; 死亡率高的传染病;

vt.困扰; 折磨; 纠缠; 缠扰; 使受煎熬; 给…造成长时间的痛苦(或麻烦); 缠磨;

2. dissuade

英[dɪˈsweɪd]

美[dɪˈsweɪd]

vt.劝阻; 劝(某人)勿做(某事);

3. zoonotic

英[ˌzəʊə'nəʊtɪk]

美[ˌzoʊr'noʊtɪk]

[医] 动物传染病的

Threedead as Sicily counts losses from 'devastating' fires

意大利西西里岛野火肆虐致3名老人死亡

Italy's southern island of Sicily has beendevastated by wildfires that have killed three elderly people, its regionalpresident said, as a heatwave and severe storms further north took a heavytoll.

近日，意大利南部西西里岛地区遭受野火肆虐，已造成三名老人死亡。该地区主席表示，北部地区的热浪和强风暴也造成了严重损失。

The charred bodies of a couple in their 70swere found in their burnt-out home on the outskirts of Palermo, the regionalcapital, according to Italian media reports. Another woman in her late 80s diedin the Palermo province after an ambulance was unable to reach her home due tofires in the area.

意大利媒体报道称，在该地首府巴勒莫市郊，一对70多岁的夫妇被烧焦的尸体被发现在他们已烧毁的家中。另一名当地年过八旬的女性，因火灾阻挡了救护车的到达而死亡。

In an overnight message on Facebook,Sicilian President Renato Schifani said "scorching heat and unprecedenteddevastating fires" had turned Tuesday into "one of the most difficultdays in decades".

西西里岛总督雷纳托·希法尼连夜在Facebook上发文称，“酷热和前所未有的毁灭性大火”使25日成为“几十年来最艰难的一天”。

Italian firefighters said they battlednearly 1,400 fires during that time, including 650 in Sicily and 390 inCalabria, the southern mainland region where a bedridden 98-year-old man waskilled as fire consumed his home.

意大利消防队员说，他们在此期间扑灭了近1400场火灾，其中包括西西里岛的650场，以及卡拉布里亚的390场。卡拉布里亚是意大利南部大陆地区，当地一名卧床不起的98岁男性也在火灾中丧生。

Fires were still burning on the hillsaround Palermo on Wednesday, with Canadair planes back in operation to try todouse the flames. Large areas of the Mediterranean have been sweltering underan intense summer heatwave in recent days, causing deadly blazes across theregion.

截至26日，大火仍在巴勒莫周围的山上燃烧，空中消防救援机（Canadair）重新投入使用，试图扑灭大火。地中海大部分地区这些天遭遇强烈的夏季热浪，导致整个地区发生了致命的大火。

重点词汇：

1. charred

英[tʃɑːd]

美[tʃɑːrd]

adj.烧焦的; 烧黑的;

v.(使)烧黑，烧焦; 当家庭清洁工;

2. bedridden

英[ˈbedrɪdn]

美[ˈbedrɪdn]

adj.长期卧床的;