When fish doorbell hears當魚兒來敲門

劉同功

當產(chǎn)卵的魚群在荷蘭烏得勒支的運河中穿行時，它們經(jīng)常會被水閘擋住——尤其是在春季，水閘很少打開。不過，該市居民現(xiàn)在正在使用網(wǎng)上的 “魚門鈴”系統(tǒng)幫助魚兒通過水閘。

1Tasked with helping ensure Utrecht's canals remain full of life and convincing every-one it wasn't an April Fools' Day joke， two ecologists in the Dutch city have invented the world's first “fish doorbell”.

2An underwater， live?streaming camera at the Weerdsluis lock door allows resi-dents to ring a virtual doorbell heard by the local lock keeper when they see that fish are trying to get through. A lock is a gate that raises or lowers canal boats into different levels of water separated by two doors， and sluices are small fish?sized doors that allow wa-ter and fish to pass between them.

3“You have to see the canal as a motorway for fish. Sometimes you see literally dozens of fish floundering in front of the lock gate， so a fish jam is created，” said underwater na-ture expert Mark van Heukelum. “The Weerdsluis is the link between the Vecht and the Kromme Rijn. In the winter， the fish swim deeper; it is warmer and safer there. In the sum-mer， they want to go to shallow water so that they can reproduce，” he added.

4Mark van Heukelum came up with the doorbell idea while working with wildlife ecologist Anne Nijs on a project to highlight the biodiversity in Utrecht's canals when they noticed how lock keeper Patrick opened the sluice to allow a large group of arriving fish to pass through.

5Nijs said it's a great way to connect residents with their aquatic （水中的） neighbors， and noted that when Mark took the idea to the municipality （市政府）， they were very ex-cited. The only uncertainty was why create a camera and a signal to Patrick when they could just install a motion?activated （動作感應的） sensor.

6Mark van Heukelum explained， “Technically that is probably possible， but this is of course much more fun.” He said， “I am already addicted to it myself and watch it every night. You suddenly see a large pike swimming by or a lobster. It would be nice if you could spot a rarer fish such as an eel.”

ReadingCheck

Choose the best answers according to the text

Inference 1. What can we know about the Weerdsluis？

A. It connects two places on Utrecht's canals.

B. It is a fish species found in Utrecht's canals.

C. It is a group of residents on Utrecht's canals.

D. It controls the water temperatures in Utrecht's canals.

Vocabulary 2. What does the word “floundering” in Para. 3 most probably mean？

A. Playing. B. Settling down.

C. Struggling. D. Giving birth.

Detail 3. What gave Mark van Heukelum the idea of a “fish doorbell”？

A. Anne Nijs' suggestion.

B. A government program.

C. An April Fools' Day joke.

D. A scene at the Weerdsluis lock door.

Inference 4. Why did Mark van Heukelum prefer a “fish doorbell”？

A. It is much more interesting.

B. It costs much less to build.

C. It's technically much easier.

D. It's environmentally friendly.

LanguageStudy

Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

An underwater， live?streaming camera at the Weerdsluis lock door allows residents to ring a virtual doorbell heard by the local lock keeper when they see that fish are trying to get through. 居民可以通過烏得勒支水閘處的一臺水下實時直播的攝像機，在看到魚群試圖通過水閘時按響一個虛擬的門鈴，通知當?shù)氐氖亻l人讓魚群通過。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句。allows是主句的謂語，heard by the local lock keeper是過去分詞短語作后置定語，when引導一個時間狀語從句。79B5AC69-035A-4E27-BEBC-B457838A7D03