這些瘋狂的事實將讓你大吃一驚
The world is a crazy place. Even the most ordinary, boring, everyday stuff can turn out to have a weird backstory-or do something you had no idea it could. For example, did you know that worms eat four to six times their weight each day? Or that trained Pigeons can tell the difference between Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso? Who knew? But there are dangers out there, too. Your cell phone is infested with bacteria (see below) and traces of the bubonic plague have been found in the New York City subway.
這個世界很瘋狂。即使是那些最普通、最無聊、最日常的東西，也可能有着奇怪的背景--或者能做一些你想象不到的事情。例如，你知道蟲子每天吃的東西是它們體重的4至6倍嗎？或者受訓的鴿子能分辨出莫奈與畢加索的區別？誰知道呢？但也存在着危險。你的手機被細菌感染（見下文），人們在紐約市的地鐵裏發現了腺鼠疫的痕跡。1. HUMANS ARE THE ONLY ANIMALS THAT ENJOY SPICY FOODS
1. 人類是唯一喜歡吃辛辣食物的動物It's an evolutionary mystery that scientists have had trouble explaining, but humans are the only animals who actually enjoy eating spicy food. There does not seem to be any health benefits to eating painful peppers (though some research finds that it may fight off fungus), so the best reason some have suggested is the thrill factor-no different than the fact that we are the only animals that like rollercoasters and scary movies.
這是科學家難以解釋的一個進化之謎，但人類是唯一真正喜歡吃辛辣食物的動物。吃辣的要死的辣椒好像並沒有什麼健康益處（儘管有些研究表明吃辣或能殺死真菌），所以人們提出的最佳原因是：吃辣能夠帶來快感--就像我們是唯一喜歡坐過山車、看恐怖電影的動物一樣。
2. HUMANS ARE ALSO THE ONLY ANIMALS WHOSE BRAINS SHRINK
2. 人類也是唯一一種大腦會收縮的動物As we get older, our brains tend to shrink and can suffer from cognitive dysfunction like Alzheimer's disease and dementia. But as researchers can tell, we are the only animals to whom this shrinkage happens. Tests on other animals have found no similar phenomena-even chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys.
隨着年齡的增長，我們的大腦往往會收縮，可能會遭受認知功能障礙，如阿爾茲海默症和老年癡呆症。但正如研究員說的那樣，我們是唯一一種大腦會收縮的動物。對其它動物的測試並未發現類似現象--即使在黑猩猩和獼猴身上都未發現這種現象。3. POTATO CHIPS CAUSE MORE WEIGHT GAIN THAN ANY OTHER FOOD
3. 薯片比其它食物更容易讓人長胖A Harvard University study of more than 120,000 people found that potato chips were to blame for the gain of an average of 1.69 pounds per person over four years. Other fatteners: potatoes (1.28 pounds), sugar-sweetened beverages (1.00 pounds), and unprocessed red meats (0.95 pounds).
哈佛大學對超多12萬人開展的一項研究發現，過去四年來，薯片使每個人平均長了1.69磅。下列這些食物也會使人變胖：土豆（1.28磅），含糖飲料（1.00磅）和未加工的紅肉（0.95磅）。4. BANANAS CAN'T REPRODUCE
4. 香蕉不可繁殖The bananas we are all know and love, known as Cavendish, are in fact a hybrid of two other plant species. It has no seeds and has only been able to reproduce with the aid of farmers, who remove and transplant part of the plant's stem in order to create our favorite yellow fruit.
我們都知道也都愛吃的卡文迪什香蕉實際上是另外兩種植物的混合物。香蕉沒有籽，只有在農民的幫助下才能繁殖，農民會把植物的部分莖幹移走重栽，這樣就能長出我們最愛的香蕉了。
