双语阅读：猫有九命吗
人们常说猫有九命，果真如此吗?一只猫从很高的楼上掉下来，多半都能安然无恙，让你不得不相信它真的有那么多命。那么，事实果真如此吗?让我们一起来探索一下吧!Some people believe in the superstition that cats have nine lives, because
cats can survive falls from high places with few, if any injuries. This gives
the appearance that the cats return to life after sustaining a fatal accident.
Granted, they may sustain minor injuries, such as bloody noses, cracked teeth,
or a few broken ribs, but they live to recover.
The ability of the cat to survive these accidents that would kill humans or
other animals is not due to multiple lives, but to several advantages they
possess. Their small size and low body weight soften the impact as they make
contact with the ground after falling from great heights.
The highly developed inner ears of cats equip them with an unusually keen
sense of balance, which is critical to their landing on their feet. This sense
of balance allows a cat falling upside down to right himself by rapidly
determining his position, repositioning himself, and making any adjustments
necessary to ensure that he lands on all fours.
Since cats land on all four paws, the impact from landing on the ground is
absorbed by all four. Additionally, cats bend their legs when they land, which
cushions the impact by spreading the impact, not only through bones that could
easily break, but through the joints and muscles as well.
Most are surprised to learn that a cat stands a greater chance of survival
if it falls from a higher place than from a lower place. New
Yorkveterinariansgathered data from theirfelinepatients, which clearly support
this fact. Ten percent of their patients died after falling from 2-6 stories,
while only five percent of the fatalities occurred when their patients fell from
7-32 stories.
Laws of physics explain why these survival rates vary. All falling bodies,
regardless of their masses, accelerate by 22 miles per hour per second of their
falls. The falling object, after traveling a certain distance through the air
reaches a final speed, or "terminalvelocity," because the object's friction with
the air slows the fall. The smaller the object's mass, and the greater its area,
the more it will slow.
A cat falling from a higher floor, after it stops accelerating, spreads its
legs into an umbrella shape, which increases the area against which the air must
push and increases the friction, thus slowing the cat's fall. Through the cats
highly developed sense of balance, he buys more time tomaneuverhis body in
preparation for landing on all fours. A cat falling from a lower height does not
have the opportunity to increase its body's area, slow its fall, or position his
body to land on all four feet.
veterinarian: 兽医
feline: 猫科动物
velocity: 速度
maneuver: 控制
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