When fish doorbell hears当鱼儿来敲门

刘同功

当产卵的鱼群在荷兰乌得勒支的运河中穿行时，它们经常会被水闸挡住——尤其是在春季，水闸很少打开。不过，该市居民现在正在使用网上的 “鱼门铃”系统帮助鱼儿通过水闸。

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 （动作感应的） 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. 居民可以通過乌得勒支水闸处的一台水下实时直播的摄像机，在看到鱼群试图通过水闸时按响一个虚拟的门铃，通知当地的守闸人让鱼群通过。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。allows是主句的谓语，heard by the local lock keeper是过去分词短语作后置定语，when引导一个时间状语从句。79B5AC69-035A-4E27-BEBC-B457838A7D03