Unit 2B - Life and Death and Life
Life and Death and Life
Edgar M. Reilly, Jr.
Each moment of each day sees the death of some living thing. We know that each plant and animal, by natural tendency, produces far more seeds and eggs, and seedlings and young, than is necessary to maintain its population. This occurs because each species has an insecure hold on life. Moreover, death is necessary for the survival of life, and the death rate must just about equal the birth rate. If all the seeds and eggs created through the life processes survived and grew to adulthood, there could be no life able to continue through this overcrowding.
A pair of American robins nest in one backyard raising two brood of four each. Ten robins where there were two. These pair up and return to equally successful nestlings each year. No matter how much one likes robins, over 90 million birds in one yard at the end of the tenth year would be too much. And there would not be enough worms to feed them!
Nature allows a seeming excess because the difficulties of life restrict survival of both young and old, and the result of this delicate balance is that populations rise and fall in small numbers; only rarely do they rise to disastrous millions or fall to complete zero. Both plants and animals may reach ages where there they are no longer able to reproduce, but usually before old age is reached sickness, storm, and slowed reactions to danger will have eliminated many individuals. Even a few strong and mature individuals die from disease or under the attacks of a predator.
Life is the moving，ever-aggressive force. When any form of life dies, certain life processes take over and act out the saying "waste not, want not" Every atom and molecule of a living plant or animal was molded by life into a form that is a certain species of life. Those very elements and compounds are needed to continue life, and nature is fairly efficient in recycling them.
The controlling factor of life is really "supply and demand". A grass eating animal cannot exist without grass, a predator without prey, a plant without certain basic chemicals or certain kinds of soil. When prey species are rare, the population of predators declines; and when plants lack certain soil, chemical and weather conditions, they decline. Theoretically we would need only to replace those few chemicals filtered out of the soils by water and winds if each of our farm crops were plowed back under the ground, but then we wouldn't have any life-sustaining crops to eat. To raise our crops we need to fertilize by returning chemicals to the soil. It is part of life: through death and decomposing, nature keeps wildlife going.
Why do we find large "pools" of fossil plants and animals but none of recent origin? Actually such concentrations are found today when natural disasters occur, but our minds remain on the disasters and forget the numerous dead. The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD killed many people in the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii where we may still see some of their remains. Every flood kills and buries thousands of animals; a sudden flood entering a saltwater cove, or sheltered inlet, will bury and kill literally millions of seashore living things, perhaps not to be seen again until dug up as fossil during some distant millennium. What may seem like a common occurrence in the fossil-filled rocks exposed to our eyes, is a series of scattered events from a past millions upon millions of years long.
We do come across the remain of plants and animals as we travel through our woods and fields. Some we are unable to see because what is left is covered by leaf-litter (the dead parts of trees which are annual contribution from the productivity of the forests). Others escape our eyes because they are discolored by the processes of dying out, and the very odors of death are masked by the smells of new and different life. In the topics, areas of constant warmth and moisture, the decomposers and scavengers work in greater numbers, more swiftly, and efficiently. The same processes are at work on both plants and animals in the seas as well as on the lands. Life recycles almost 100 percent of life; very rarely does a body, or a small part of a body, escape recycling for long. Even man's carefully buried past generations eventually are reached by the powers of decay - of life.
Do you want to know what happened to the past dead? Do you want to see death? Look around you at the beauties of nature, at the thousands of forms of plants and animals life wherever you may be. Look closely, because death is life; it is simply hard to see because of life.
参考译文——生命，死亡，生命
生命，死亡，生命
小埃德加·赖利
每一天，每一瞬间，都经历着某种生命的死亡。我们知道，出于天然本能，各种动植物生产出的卵、籽、幼畜、幼苗，远远超出了维持自身数量的需要。这是因为，任何一种物种对存活都没有很大的把握。再者，死亡是生命存活必需的，死亡率必须与出生率大致持平。如果生命过程中所创造出来的全部卵、籽都存活至成年或成熟期，那就没有一种生物能在这种过分拥挤的环境中继续生存。
一对美洲知更鸟在一家后院筑巢孵下两窝雏鸟，一窝4只，本来是两只鸟，现在成了10只鸟。这些鸟在再成双结对，每年冋来成功地孵育同样多的雏鸟。无论谁多么喜欢知更鸟，10年后一个院子里的知更鸟的数量超过9千万只，那也实在太多了。再说也不会有足够的虫子来养活它们。
大自然允许一种表面上的过量，因为生命的艰难竭制了幼小的和年老的生命的存活，这一微妙平衡的结果是，各物种数量上下浮动得很小，只偶尔才成百万地上升，造成灾难，或降跌至零。动植物都能活到不能再繁殖的年龄，但往往等不到年老，疾病、 暴风雨以及对危险的迟缓反应就已经使许多个体的生命消亡。甚至少数强壮成熟的个体生命也会死于疾病或食肉动物的袭击。
生命是一种运动发展、永远进取的力量。任何一种生命形式消亡时，某种生命过程便会取而代之，实践起那句"不浪费，不会缺"的老话。活的动植物的每一个分子、原子都是经由生命塑造成某种生命物种形式的。那些元素和化合物正是延续生命所需要的，大自然卓有成效地将它们循环使用。
生命的控制因素实际上是"供求关系"。食草动物没有草不能生存。食肉动物没有猎物不能存活，植物没有某些基本的化学物质或某种土壤不能生长。猎物稀少时，食肉动物的数量就减少；植物缺少一定的土壤、化学物质和气候条件就会凋零。从理论上来讲，如果我们把全部庄稼都犁入土中作肥料，那么我们只需再补上极少数由于水和风而从土壤中流失的化学物质就行了，但那样的话，我们就不会有赖以生存的粮食了。要种植庄稼，我们得向土壤施加化学物质，使土壤肥沃。大自然通过死亡和腐烂使得野生生物生生不已，这是生命的一部分。
为什么我们发现大量动植物的化石，却没有一种是较为近期形成的？实际上，在今天，自然灾害发生时，也有类似的生物的集体死亡，只是我们专注于灾害本身，忘却了众多消亡的生物。公元79年，维苏威火山爆发，使古罗马的赫尔库拉内姆和庞培两个城市许多人丧命。在那儿，我们仍能看到其中一些遗骸。每次洪水都摧毁并埋葬掉成千上万的动物。一场突然泛滥的洪水，涌进一个咸水小海湾或隐蔽的小湾，会葬送掉海岸边数以百万计的生命。这些生命可能要经过几千年漫长的岁月，成为化石被挖掘出来之后，才能重见天日。人们所能看到的布满化石的岩石，看似寻常，却是千百万年来断断续续发生的一系列事件演变的结果。
我们在树林和田野中穿行时，便能碰上各种动植物的遗骸。有些我们看不到，因为残留下来的己经被枯枝落叶（那是树林的枯死部分，每年，森林都会产出一大批)所覆盖。还有一些躲过了我们的视线，因为它们在枯干的过程中变了色，而死亡所产生的那种腐烂气味又被种种新的不同的生命气息所掩盖。在终年温暖温润的热带地区，腐生物和食腐动物数量更多，工作更迅速、有效。与陆地上的情况一样，同样的过程作用在海洋里的动植物身上。生命进程几乎将生物百分之百全部回收利用。很少会有一具遗骸，哪怕只是遗骸的一小部分，会长期搁置未被重新利用的。甚至人类小心翼翼埋葬的一代代先辈最终也会被腐烂的力量，亦即生命的力量，所触及。
你是不是想知道往昔的死者现在怎么样了？你是不是想观测死亡？不论你身处何地，观察一下周围美丽的大自然，观察一下成千上万种动植物的生命形式。仔细地看一看，因为死亡即生命，只不过由于生命的存在，死亡难以为人所察觉罢了。
Key Words:
tendency ['tendənsi]
n. 趋势，倾向
population [.pɔpju'leiʃən]
n. 人口 ，(全体)居民，人数
survival [sə'vaivəl]
n. 生存，幸存者
insecure [,insi'kujə]
adj. 不安全的；不稳定的；不牢靠的
brood [bru:d]
n. 窝
v. 孵，沉思
species ['spi:ʃiz]
n. （单复同）物种，种类
decline [di'klain]
n. 衰微，跌落; 晚年
v. 降低，婉谢
predator ['predətə]
n. 食肉动物，掠夺者
mature [mə'tjuə]
adj. 成熟的，(保单）到期的，考虑周到的
replace [ri(:)'pleis]
vt. 取代，更换，将物品放回原处
population [.pɔpju'leiʃən]
n. 人口 ，(全体)居民，人数
rare [rɛə]
adj. 稀罕的，稀薄的，罕见的，珍贵的
molecule ['mɔlikju:l]
n. 分子
reproduce [.ri:prə'dju:s]
v. 再生，复制，生殖
disastrous [di'zɑ:strəs]
adj. 灾难性的
factor ['fæktə]
n. 因素，因子
numerous ['nju:mərəs]
adj. 为数众多的，许多
eruption [i'rʌpʃən]
n. 爆发，喷发，出疹，长牙
occurrence [ə'kʌrəns]
n. 发生，事件，发现
volcanic [vɔl'kænik]
adj. 火山的，猛烈的
exposed [iks'pəuzd]
adj. 暴露的，无掩蔽的，暴露于风雨中的 v. 暴露，
decay [di'kei]
v. (使)衰退，(使)腐败，腐烂
n. 衰退
efficiently [i'fiʃəntli]
adv. 有效地
contribution [.kɔntri'bju:ʃən]
n. 贡献，捐款(赠)
eventually [i'ventjuəli]
adv. 终于，最后
productivity [.prɔdʌk'tiviti]
n. 生产率，生产能力
constant ['kɔnstənt]
adj. 经常的，不变的
n. 常数，恒量
swiftly ['swiftli]
adv. 迅速地，敏捷地
escape [is'keip]
v. 逃跑，逃脱，避开
参考资料：
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