溫心小屋
以文養心。原創文學，請勿抄襲,如需轉載，請告知。謝謝
一篇優美，生動，且有趣的自然科學短文
CURWOOD: It's official. On September 23rd, autumn is here. Soon, many of us will revel(狂歡,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中國宋朝時的娛樂活動：鬥蟋蟀. The conquering crickets were so revered that when they died they were buried in little silver caskets.常勝將軍在死後會被放入銀色的小棺木中下葬
Some songs convey information we can use. Because an insect's metabolism speeds up with the heat, 昆蟲的代謝隨溫度的升高而加快。the hotter the weather, the faster the chirping溫度越高，它們歌唱的節拍也越快。 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.雄性雪蟋蟀的歌會一直從九月唱到第一次令它們致命的霜降，數它們歌唱的音節可以推算出溫度，和溫度計一般準確。用它們在十五秒內的歌唱的節拍數加上39，便是當時氣溫的華氏溫度。
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,"梭羅形容一種昆蟲的歌唱為一個”更加真實的夢“ 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."如果月光可以被聽到，那就是此聲音了。
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今天是SNOW DAY, 不用上課，小孩開心我也開心，可以睡個好覺。前天小孩說嗓子有點微疼，其它都好，遊泳訓練也都好好的，症狀第二天就沒了。3-6號學校通報的陽性數字近70人。說根據州健康部的指導意見：學校是低風險傳染源，所以不再做陽性追蹤了，聽著像是挺嚇人的，不過想想隻要參與社會生活，恐怕多數人都難逃這O毒，也就坦然了。第三天了，我沒任何不對勁的。昨天看到一位46歲的抗議強製COVID疫苗令,同時自己也未接種COVID疫苗的女士因COVID COMPLICATIONS去世了，感覺太惋惜了，那麽美好鮮活的生命。網上看了一篇介紹她的文章，她的朋友加政友說她YOUNG AND VIBRANT, 她的擁抱很POWERFUL，如男性一般有力。 她的先生說她如鬥士，送給她的聖誕(或生日禮物）是副紅色的拳擊手套。但我總在懷疑是不是她對政治生活太過的投入加上她繁重的工作（她是律師，社會活動家，政治家），讓她的身體實際上處於一種被透支了的亞健康狀態。她看著美麗強勢，但總覺得她的麵容相較她的年齡略顯老，不知道是不是她長期身體精神處於緊繃狀態所致。我注意到她胸前的十字架，不知道她對COVID疫苗的拒絕是否和宗教信仰有關，還是一種執念。因為確實宗教因素被列為可以接受的不打疫苗理由。
國內一朋友問我是不是華人打一針疫苗要花4萬美金？初聽以為是笑話，後來才發現她是認真地。我說沒有，疫苗是免費的，政府是怕人不去打，聽說紐約還給去打的發錢，不過隊排得十裏長。這樣的謠言都有人信，還有什麽樣的謠言沒人信。
