06.26 外刊精读笔记：为什么洋葱总是让你流泪

Why Onions Make You Cry

Trilobites By JOANNA KLEIN September 12, 2017

为什么洋葱总是让你流泪

JOANNA KLEIN 2017年9月12日

感谢Bluce学英语外刊精读笔记互享群102号所做笔记

Trying to figure out why humans cry is exhausting. We cry about death, violence, breakups, abandoned puppies, sweet kisses and words charged with all kinds of meanings. We don’t cry when we should, and we cry for no reason. But let’s take a moment to appreciate the clarity of crying while cutting onions.

译文

弄清人类哭泣的原因是件麻烦事。我们因为死亡、暴力、分手、被遗弃的小狗、甜蜜的吻和饱含各种意思的言语而哭。我们在应该哭的时候不哭，却又会毫无来由地哭起来。不过在这里，我们先好好珍惜一种原因很清楚的哭泣——切洋葱时的流泪。

笔记

charge with:

【释义】(phr.) 使充满；使饱含；装满

·His speech was charged with emotion.

他的发言充满了激情。

appreciate:

【释义】vt. to recognize how good someone or something is and to value him, her, or it欣赏；赏识；鉴赏；重视

·to appreciate good wine 品尝好酒

·to appreciate deeply(或greatly, keenly, sincerely, very much) 极为欣赏

clarity:

【释义】n. the quality of being clear and easy to understand 清楚明了；清晰易懂

There has been a call for greater clarity in this area of the law.

人们要求这个领域的法规应该更加明确一些。

【同义词】“清楚明了；清晰易懂”释义下的同义词

transparency

take a moment：花一些时间

Onions make us teary because a reaction in the onion releases a chemical called lachrymatory factor, or LF, that irritates our eyes. Simply peeling an onion won’t make your eyes water. But if you chop, cut, crush or smash one — boohoo. The onion’s cells break open, allowing two normally separated substances to combine. Linked together like pieces of a puzzle, they become a potent chemical weapon.

译文

洋葱让我们哭是因为它会释放一种叫催泪因子（lachrymatory factor，简称LF）的化学物质，刺激我们的眼睛。单纯只是剥开一个洋葱并不会让我们流泪。但是如果你去剁、切、捣或压它——呜呜呜。洋葱的细胞会破开，让两种通常分开的物质混合起来。这就像连成了猜字谜里的一个词，它们会成为一种强大的化学武器。

笔记

teary:

【释义】adj. with eyes full of tears 哭泣的，悲伤的；易流泪的

·But there was no teary-eyed goodbye when Smith returned to England, as the Disney film depicts. 但是，当史密斯船长重返英国时，他们告别时也非迪斯尼电影里的泪涟涟。

·Ms. Li, 38, her petite frame dressed in a pink nightgown, spoke softly and stared at the ceiling with teary eyes. 李女士，38岁，身形瘦小，穿着一件粉红色睡衣，柔声诉说，泪眼一直盯着天花板。

lachrymatory:

【释义】adj. relating to or prompting tears催泪的；泪的

factor:

【释义】n. genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity 【生物化学】因子，要因

irritate：

【释义】v. excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus （在生理上）刺激，使兴奋

·Wear rubber gloves while chopping chillies as they can irritate the skin. 剁辣椒时戴上橡皮手套，因为它们会刺激皮肤。

【释义】 adj. having a strong physiological or chemical effect e.g. "a potent toxin"; " potent liquor"; " a potent cup of tea" (药、酒等)有效力的；有效验的；烈性的

同义词： strong stiff

lachrymatory factor:

背景知识

洋葱中的催泪因子（lachrymatory factor, LF）主要是由一类烷基半胱氨酸硫氧化物（ACSO）经一些特殊的酶作用而产生的[1]。最早的时候，人们一直以为催泪因子只是由蒜氨酸酶单独作用产生，直到2002年日本学者发现洋葱中还存在另一种关键酶的作用——催泪因子合成酶（lachrymatory-factor synthase）[2]。这种酶也影响洋葱催泪因子的产生。

allowing 在这里作现在分词，与逻辑主语 “the onion” 为主动关系，表示动作同时进行：

The onion’s cells break open, allowing two normally separated substances to combine.

“It turns into a gas. It hits your eyes, and then it hits your sensory nerves in your eyes and causes them to tear up,” said Josie Silvaroli, an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who helped describe how these pieces fit together, structurally speaking, in a paper published in July in the journal ACS Chemical Biology. “It’s similar to

译文

“它会变成一种气体，冲击你的眼睛，然后冲击眼中的感觉神经，导致流泪，”在俄亥俄州凯斯西储大学(Case Western Reserve University)读本科的乔茜·席尔瓦罗利(Josie Silvaroli)说，她参与的一篇七月发表于《ACS化学生物学》期刊(ACS Chemical Biology)的论文，从结构的角度解释了这些因素的搭配。“和催泪瓦斯差不多。”

笔记

sensory nerves：

【释义】感觉神经

·When a patient is given an opiate like morphine, pain signals are still transmitted from sensory nerves to the central nervous system.

当给一名患者使用鸦片制剂如吗啡时，痛觉信号仍然继续从感受器传递到中央神经系统。

tear up：

【释义】(phrasal verb with tear) to get tears in your eyes, so that you almost start to cry, because you are experiencing strong emotion （因为情绪激动）眼里含泪（几乎要开始哭泣）

·She teared up as the award was presented to her. 在她授奖时，她激动地眼含热泪。

fit together：

【释义】组成整体；整合在一起：

·These broken pieces of plates don't fit together; they must be parts of different ones.

这些盘子碎片拼合不起来，它们肯定是不同盘子的碎片。

tear gas：

【释义】 n. a gas that makes the eyes fill with tears but does not damage them; used in dispersing crowds 催泪瓦斯

·And the police battered the protesters with tear gas, shotguns and rubber bullets.

警察用催泪瓦斯、霰弹枪和橡胶弹同抗议者战斗。

Lachrymatory factor evolved as a defense mechanism, protecting onions against microbes and animals like us, even if we’ve learned to bear tears for the sake of flavor. Damaging an onion basically causes it to ramp up its defenses: as cells break, the chemical reaction is unlocked.

译文

催泪因子是作为一种防御机制演化而来的，它能让洋葱抵抗微生物和我们这样的动物的侵袭，尽管我们已经学会为了美味强忍泪水。破坏一个洋葱实际上就是导致它开始防御：随着细胞破裂，化学反应被激活。

笔记

evolve as:

【释义】逐渐成为、演变

·I have no reason to leave the club, they have always supported me, they always gave me guarantees of being able to evolve as a player. 我没有理由离开俱乐部，他们一直在支持我成长为一名球员。

defense mechanism：

【释义】 n. (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires 防卫机制；[心理] 防御机理

·Their “guilt” of having used a defense mechanism becomes relative.

他们的“内疚”曾经用一种防御机制变得相对的。

ramp up:

【释义】 v. bolster or strengthen 增加，提高

·The foreign trade is ramping up.

外贸正处于上升中。

unlocked:

【释义】adj. to become unfastened or freed from restraints被解开的；被释放的

Inside the intact cells of an onion, a molecule called sulfenic acid precursor floats around the watery filler like a napping human in a lazy river. Also floating in that cytoplasm are little sacs called vacuoles, containing a protein called alliinase, which is like a little drill sergeant of the process.

译文

在一个完好的洋葱细胞内，一种被称为次磺酸前体的分子在填充液里漂着，就像一个躺在漂流河上打瞌睡的人。在细胞质里还漂着一种叫“液泡”的囊，里面装着一种叫蒜酶的蛋白质，它是这个反应过程里的军训教官。

笔记

intact:

【释义】adj. undamaged in any way; whole未受损的；完整无缺的

·The vase remained intact despite rough handling.

molecule :

【释义】n. (physics and chemistry) the simplest structural unit of an element or compound [化学] 分子；微小颗粒，微粒

·And because, of course, we have this carbon here what you end up doing is adding a carbon to your molecule.

因为，当然，我们这里有一个碳,接下来需要做的就是在你的分子中再加上一个碳。

cytoplasm :

【释义】n. the protoplasm of a cell excluding the nucleus; is full of proteins that control cell metabolism [细胞] 细胞质

同义词： cytol

·Most of the cytoplasm has been squeezed out in order to make the sperm an efficient torpedo-like swimming machine.

大多数细胞质被挤出，为了让精子成为一个高效率的鱼类状游泳机器。

sac:

【释义】n. a structure resembling a bag in an animal [生物] 囊；液囊

·Putting the fossil under a microscope, he discovered the sac was filled with tiny spheres.

借助显微镜，他进一步发现这种囊中填充着一些微小的球体。

vacuole:

【释义】n. a tiny cavity filled with fluid in the cytoplasm of a cell [细胞] 液泡；

· Many mature plant cells have a single large central vacuole that confines the cytoplasm to a thin peripheral layer.

许多成熟植物细胞有一个中央大液泡，它使细胞质被挤成外围的一薄层结构。

drill sergeant:

【释义】【军事】操练教官

·Drill sergeant John Eldridge holds the pin in place and prepares to secure it with a fist.

操练教官约翰·艾尔德里奇徽针放在衣服上合适的位置，并准备用拳头来固定它。