温心小屋
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一篇优美，生动，且有趣的自然科学短文
CURWOOD: It's official. On September 23rd, autumn is here. Soon, many of us will revel(狂欢,celebrate)in the beauty of changing leaves, the cool snap in the air, and the flights of migrating birds. But for commentator Sy Montgomery, the loveliness of the season is captured in the sweetness of the voices of...insects.
(Many crickets蟋蟀)
MONTGOMERY: As summer ripens into autumn, bird song gives way to bug song, especially the virtuosos: crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers. Their songs aren't mere background music. They're conversations, and we can listen in. The songs tell of longing and pursuit, rivalry and battle. Listen. If the song of the autumn field cricket suddenly becomes louder, more rapid, and higher-pitched, it means he's located a lady and is calling to her. If his calls then soften, she's come to him, and given her consent to mate. But if the chirps get louder, longer, and less rhythmic, he's encountered instead a rival, and a viscious battle may ensue. So viscious are cricket fights that they were the entertainment extravaganzas of the Sung Dynasty of China in 900 AD中国宋朝时的娱乐活动：斗蟋蟀. The conquering crickets were so revered that when they died they were buried in little silver caskets.常胜将军在死后会被放入银色的小棺木中下葬
Some songs convey information we can use. Because an insect's metabolism speeds up with the heat, 昆虫的代谢随温度的升高而加快。the hotter the weather, the faster the chirping温度越高，它们歌唱的节拍也越快。 The male snowy tree cricket, who sings from September till the first killing frost, tracks temperatures almost as accurately as a thermometer. Count the chirps in 15 seconds and add 39, and you have the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.雄性雪蟋蟀的歌会一直从九月唱到第一次令它们致命的霜降，数它们歌唱的音节可以推算出温度，和温度计一般准确。用它们在十五秒内的歌唱的节拍数加上39，便是当时气温的华氏温度。
It takes some effort to listen for insect song. Before he died, Vincent Dethier, who wrote a wonderful book, "Crickets and Katydids' Concerts and Solos," told me, "Listen for silence. Then you'll hear them." We must learn to savor the full range of Nature's world of sound. Of course, the songs are not meant for our ears. They're meant to be listened to with small disks near one of the front leg joints, which is where members of the grasshopper family keep their ears. For communicating with such creatures, these songs are perfect. For these animals know what some people never learn: looks are nothing. Performance is all.
Over the relatively long distances these little insects must travel to find one another, songs call out the identity of the musician. In fact, entomologists can sometimes better classify species by song than by appearance. The songs are actually not sung, but fiddled, produced with wings that work like a violinist playing pizzicato. The sound-producing structure is a big wing-vane that bears dozens, sometimes hundreds, of tiny ridges, like a file. The file moves against a scraper, a hardened portion of the inner edge of the wing.
The fall songs of crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers are among the most lovely and lyrical sounds of the natural world. In Africa, the songs of crickets are said to have magical powers. Henry David Thoreau described the song of one species as "a slumberous breathing,"梭罗形容一种昆虫的歌唱为一个”更加真实的梦“ an "intenser dream." And when Nathaniel Hawthorne described the autumn music of the snowy tree cricket, he wrote, "If moonlight could be heard, it would sound like that."如果月光可以被听到，那就是此声音了。
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今天是SNOW DAY, 不用上课，小孩开心我也开心，可以睡个好觉。前天小孩说嗓子有点微疼，其它都好，游泳训练也都好好的，症状第二天就没了。3-6号学校通报的阳性数字近70人。说根据州健康部的指导意见：学校是低风险传染源，所以不再做阳性追踪了，听着像是挺吓人的，不过想想只要参与社会生活，恐怕多数人都难逃这O毒，也就坦然了。第三天了，我没任何不对劲的。昨天看到一位46岁的抗议强制COVID疫苗令,同时自己也未接种COVID疫苗的女士因COVID COMPLICATIONS去世了，感觉太惋惜了，那么美好鲜活的生命。网上看了一篇介绍她的文章，她的朋友加政友说她YOUNG AND VIBRANT, 她的拥抱很POWERFUL，如男性一般有力。 她的先生说她如斗士，送给她的圣诞(或生日礼物）是副红色的拳击手套。但我总在怀疑是不是她对政治生活太过的投入加上她繁重的工作（她是律师，社会活动家，政治家），让她的身体实际上处于一种被透支了的亚健康状态。她看着美丽强势，但总觉得她的面容相较她的年龄略显老，不知道是不是她长期身体精神处于紧绷状态所致。我注意到她胸前的十字架，不知道她对COVID疫苗的拒绝是否和宗教信仰有关，还是一种执念。因为确实宗教因素被列为可以接受的不打疫苗理由。
国内一朋友问我是不是华人打一针疫苗要花4万美金？初听以为是笑话，后来才发现她是认真地。我说没有，疫苗是免费的，政府是怕人不去打，听说纽约还给去打的发钱，不过队排得十里长。这样的谣言都有人信，还有什么样的谣言没人信。
