Why read this: This piece is a long-form science feature, the kind of writing students will meet in journals, magazines and university coursework. Forty years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the question of what radiation has actually done to the wildlife of the exclusion zone is still scientifically open, and the article uses four expert voices to show how that uncertainty actually looks in practice. For Mandarin L1 students, Chernobyl is already an anchor point in their schema, which makes the article a good vehicle for upgrading their academic vocabulary in nuclear science, biology and ecology, while practising the reading move that matters most at this level: holding several competing explanations in mind at once and refusing to collapse them prematurely into a single tidy story.
What to notice: Notice that the article never tells you which scientist is right. Burraco offers a hypothesis about melanin and frog colour; Mousseau attacks the sampling; Mothersill defends the methodology; Turnbull warns against any simple framing. Track who says what, and notice the heavy modal hedging (might, may, perhaps, in his view) that signals exactly how confident each claim is. Watch for the recurring counter-explanation that radiation is not the only candidate cause: heavy metals, forest succession from pine to birch, the sudden withdrawal of humans, and now global warming all surface as alternative or additional drivers. The closing image of questions that 'litter this landscape' is doing rhetorical work: re-read it after finishing, and ask what the writer wants you to take away that no single quote in the piece states outright.
Skills practised: Tracking multi-source argument across a long text. Reading scientific hedging accurately, so that 'might somehow act' is heard as a careful claim rather than a confident one. Distinguishing immediate biological response (a frog with more melanin) from inherited evolutionary adaptation (a trait passed down across generations as transgenerational mutations). Recognising the journalist's deliberate refusal to resolve the debate, and treating that refusal as a feature of the genre rather than a failure. Building academic vocabulary in three overlapping domains: nuclear-science terms (ionising radiation, radioactive contamination, radionuclide, fallout), biology terms (genome, mitochondria, chromosome, mutation, melanin), and the science-journalism register that frames them (hard proof, classic example, hotly debated, per se, tease out, pushes back against, a menagerie of).
Surviving in a poisoned land: Chernobyl's wildlife is different, but not in the ways you might think
Forty years after the reactor exploded, scientists are still arguing about what radiation has actually done to the animals and plants of the exclusion zone, and what other forces may have shaped them.
Tap any green word in the article to see its meaning.
It was 2016, and in the middle of the night: very late at night, when most people are asleep — 半夜；深夜, the evolutionary biologist: a scientist who studies how living things change over many generations — 进化生物学家 Pablo Burraco was on his first field trip: a research visit to a real-world location to gather data — 实地考察 to a troubled part of the world: a region marked by trouble or disaster — 饱受困扰的地方. By head-torch, he closed in on: moved gradually toward (something) until very near — 逐步逼近；接近 a noise in the abandoned, irradiated landscape: an area that has been exposed to radiation — 受到辐射的地区 around the ruined Chernobyl power plant: a large facility that produces electricity — 发电厂, site of the worst nuclear disaster: a major accident at a nuclear power station that releases radiation — 核灾难 in history. He plucked a male tree frog: a small frog that lives in trees — 树蛙 from a branch and saw the amphibian was unusually dark. The question that followed has been asked since 1986: had radiation from the stricken power station: a power station damaged by disaster — 遭重创的发电站 changed the creatures living near it?
in the aftermath of: in the period directly after (a major event) — 在……之后（重大事件之后） the catastrophic reactor explosion: a violent burst caused by failure of a nuclear reactor — 核反应堆爆炸 on 26 April 1986, an area of northern Ukraine roughly 37 miles wide was evacuatedevacuate: To move people from a dangerous place to a safe location. — 疏散；撤离；转移 and sealed off as an exclusion zone: an area people are not allowed to enter, set up around a hazard — 隔离区；禁区. Winds carried radioactive material: matter that gives off harmful radiation — 放射性物质 far and wide: over a very large area — 到处；广泛地, with radioactive dust: fine particles in the air that carry radiation — 放射性尘埃 reaching the UK, Norway and even North Africa; falloutfallout: The event of small airborne particles falling to the ground in significant quantities as a result of major industrial activity, volcano eruption, sandstorm, nuclear explosion, etc — 放射性沉降物 contaminationcontamination: The process of making a material or surface unclean or unsuited for its intended purpose, usually by the addition or attachment of undesirable foreign substances — 污染；污染物 settled most heavily on local fields and forests. Many feared such radioactive contamination: the presence of harmful radioactive substances in an environment — 放射性污染 on this poisoned land: land contaminated with toxic or radioactive substances — 受污染的土地 would devastatedevastate: To destroy or severely damage something; to cause someone severe emotional shock or distress. — 摧毁；使荒废；使震惊 the wildlife that, unlike people, could not leave.
Forty years on, the picture is stranger than that fear suggested. Researchers have cataloguedcatalogue: To make a catalogue of — 编入目录;详细记录 twisted trees, swallows troubled by tumours and an eerieeerie: Strange, weird, fear-inspiring — 怪异的;阴森的 black fungus inside the reactor ruins, yet the wider injured landscape: an environment that has been damaged — 受损的地貌环境 is also teeming with: extremely full of (something), especially living things — 充满；密布 life. Whether any species has truly adapted to ionising radiation: radiation with enough energy to remove electrons from atoms, causing biological damage — 电离辐射 remains notoriously hard to prove, and hotly debated: discussed with strong, opposing opinions — 争论激烈的.
Burraco's team have sampled more than 250 frogs. In a 2022 paper, they reported that frogs inside the zone are, on average, darker than those outside, with the gap sharpest where radiation hit hardest in 1986. Their hypothesis, which Burraco insists remains a hypothesis, is that this colour, attributedattribute: To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc — 归因于；归咎于 to higher melaninmelanin: Any of a group of naturally occurring dark pigments, especially the pigment found in skin, hair, fur, and feathers — 黑色素 levels, may act as a partialpartial: not complete or whole; existing only in part, or showing unfair bias towards one side — 部分的；不完全的；偏袒的 shield, and that darker frogs fared better. There is no hard proof: strong, conclusive evidence — 确凿证据. Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina argues the samplingsampling: The process or technique of obtaining a representative sample — 抽样;取样 is not comprehensive, and that present melanisation does not correlatecorrelate: To have or establish a mutual relationship or connection between two or more variables or phenomena. — 相关联；使相互关联 with present radiation. Burraco pushes back against: argues firmly in opposition to — 反驳；提出反对 this, noting the frogs came from sites with similar habitat but different radiologicalradiological: Of or pertaining to radiation, radioactivity or nuclear weapons — 放射性的;辐射的 histories. The radiobiologist Carmel Mothersill points out: draws attention to (something) — 指出 that the methodologymethodology: a system of methods and principles used in a particular area of study or activity — 方法论；方法体系 is sound.
That exchange is a classic example: a typical and well-known case of (something) — 典型例证；经典案例 of a disagreement that has bubbled away: continued at low intensity over a long time — 持续不断；持续发酵 for years. Whenever an unusual feature appears in some organism, the same problem returns: can anyone be sure radiation, not other contaminantscontaminant: That which contaminates; an impurity; foreign matter — 污染物;杂质 such as heavy metals: metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium that are toxic to living things even in small amounts — 重金属, is the cause? Similar uncertainty shadows the genomesgenome: The complete genetic information (either DNA or, in some viruses, RNA) of an organism — 基因组；基因组图谱 of the feral dogs: dogs that live in the wild after escaping or being abandoned by humans — 流浪犬；野化犬 descendeddescend: To move downward; to be a blood relative of a particular ancestor. — 下降；下来；是……的后裔 from pets abandoned in 1986, and the unusual genetic diversity in the mitochondria of bank voles: small rodents that live in woodland and along riverbanks — 岸鼩鼱；红背䶄（小型鼠类）. Such patterns might reflect mutations and chromosomalchromosomal: Of or relating to chromosomes — 染色体的 aberrationsaberration: A deviation of a tissue, organ or mental functions from what is considered to be within the normal range — 组织、器官或心理功能偏离正常范围的异常 driven by radiation, or they might not. Mothersill notes that pine trees, especially sensitive to fallout, died off in many places, letting birch take over: began to dominate or replace (others) — 取而代之；占主导 and produce a richer but quite different forest. Animals respond to that altered ecosystemecosystem: The interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment — 生态系统 rather than to radiation per se: by itself; in itself — 就其本身而言（拉丁语）.
The change that may matter most is the withdrawal of humans: humans leaving an area completely — 人类的撤离. Where villages once stood, wolves, bears and bisonbison: A similar North American animal, Bison bison — 北美野牛 now roam, and populations of deer, wild boar: a wild relative of the domestic pig, found in forests — 野猪 and elk have flourished. Wolf numbers inside the zone are roughly seven times those of surrounding nature reserves: areas of land protected by law where wildlife and habitats are preserved — 自然保护区, perhaps because prey is so abundant. The Eurasian lynxlynx: Any of several medium-sized wild cats, mostly of the genus Lynx — 猞猁 has returned; brown bears, unsighted here for over a century, were caught on a camera trap: a camera triggered automatically to photograph wildlife passing by — 红外感应相机 in 2014. None of this proves the animals tolerate radiation; it shows they thrive once people stop hunting and building.
Whether anything has truly evolved a defence is the most controversial question. A genuine evolutionary adaptation: a trait inherited over generations because it helps survival — 进化适应 must be inherited and give an organism an edge in their environment: a slight advantage that helps them survive and reproduce — 在环境中拥有的优势. There are hintshint: A clue — 提示. A 2012 study suggested soybeans grown in contaminated soil cope better with radioactivityradioactivity: Spontaneous emission of ionizing radiation as a consequence of a nuclear reaction, or directly from the breakdown of an unstable nucleus — 放射性 and heavy-metal stress, and Chernobyl's bank voles appear more resistant to DNA damage: harm done to the genetic material inside cells — DNA损伤. Mousseau argues the dark fungus on the reactor itself supports the idea that melanin offers protection, though there is zero evidence the fungus has evolved to harness radiation as energy. For Mothersill, the priority is to tease out: carefully separate or work out (something complicated) — 梳理出来；细致分析 whether mutations that emerged after 1986 have been passed down: transferred from one generation to the next — 代代相传 as transgenerational mutations: genetic changes passed from one generation to the next — 代际遗传突变；跨代突变. Research from 2006 found aberrations in the chromosomeschromosome: [Reproduction and Genetics] A linear arrangement of condensed DNA and associated proteins (such as chaperone proteins) which contains the genetic material (genome) of an organism — 染色体 of bank voles persistedpersist: to continue firmly in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition — 坚持；持续；执意 when the animals were bredbreed: To cause animals to produce offspring in a controlled way; to give rise to or be the cause of something. — 繁殖；培育；滋生 in clean laboratories, which is at least suggestivesuggestive: Tending to suggest or imply — 有暗示性的;意味深长的.
Not every species is thriving. The combined pressure of radioactive contamination and rising temperatures is placing growing strain on: putting more and more pressure on (something or someone) — 对……带来越来越大的压力 Chernobyl's barn swallows, and global warming: the long-term rise in average temperatures across the Earth — 全球变暖 looks set to worsen their position. Nor is the disaster's reach confinedconfine: To keep or restrict someone or something within certain limits of space, scope, or quantity. — 限制；局限；禁闭 to the immediate vicinity: the area very close to (something) — 紧邻区域；周边地区 of the plant: trace radionuclides dispersed in 1986 still turn up in Polish mushrooms, US blueberries and Greek firewood. As the geographer Jonathon Turnbull warns, the spectacular framing of Chernobyl as a place that either died or miraculously revived does not go deep. What exists is a menagerie of: a varied collection of (things) — 形形色色的（一群事物） subtle responses. Forty years on, it is no surprise so many questions still litter this landscape: are scattered all over (this place) — 散布在……各处.
It was 2016, and in the middle of the night: very late at night, when most people are asleep — 半夜；深夜, the evolutionary biologist: a scientist who studies how living things change over many generations — 进化生物学家 Pablo Burraco was on his first field trip: a research visit to a real-world location to gather data — 实地考察 to a troubled part of the world: a region marked by trouble or disaster — 饱受困扰的地方. By head-torch, he closed in on: moved gradually toward (something) until very near — 逐步逼近；接近 a noise in the abandoned, irradiated landscape: an area that has been exposed to radiation — 受到辐射的地区 around the ruined Chernobyl power plant: a large facility that produces electricity — 发电厂, site of the worst nuclear disaster: a major accident at a nuclear power station that releases radiation — 核灾难 in history. He plucked a male tree frog: a small frog that lives in trees — 树蛙 from a branch and saw the amphibian was unusually dark. The question that followed has been asked since 1986: had radiation from the stricken power station: a power station damaged by disaster — 遭重创的发电站 changed the creatures living near it?
in the aftermath of: in the period directly after (a major event) — 在……之后（重大事件之后） the catastrophic reactor explosion: a violent burst caused by failure of a nuclear reactor — 核反应堆爆炸 on 26 April 1986, an area of northern Ukraine roughly 37 miles wide was evacuatedevacuate: To move people from a dangerous place to a safe location. — 疏散；撤离；转移 and sealed off as an exclusion zone: an area people are not allowed to enter, set up around a hazard — 隔离区；禁区. Winds carried radioactive material: matter that gives off harmful radiation — 放射性物质 far and wide: over a very large area — 到处；广泛地, with radioactive dust: fine particles in the air that carry radiation — 放射性尘埃 reaching the UK, Norway and even North Africa; falloutfallout: The event of small airborne particles falling to the ground in significant quantities as a result of major industrial activity, volcano eruption, sandstorm, nuclear explosion, etc — 放射性沉降物 contaminationcontamination: The process of making a material or surface unclean or unsuited for its intended purpose, usually by the addition or attachment of undesirable foreign substances — 污染；污染物 settled most heavily on local fields and forests. Many feared such radioactive contamination: the presence of harmful radioactive substances in an environment — 放射性污染 on this poisoned land: land contaminated with toxic or radioactive substances — 受污染的土地 would devastatedevastate: To destroy or severely damage something; to cause someone severe emotional shock or distress. — 摧毁；使荒废；使震惊 the wildlife that, unlike people, could not leave.
Forty years on, the picture is stranger than that fear suggested. Researchers have cataloguedcatalogue: To make a catalogue of — 编入目录;详细记录 twisted trees, swallows troubled by tumours and an eerieeerie: Strange, weird, fear-inspiring — 怪异的;阴森的 black fungus inside the reactor ruins, yet the wider injured landscape: an environment that has been damaged — 受损的地貌环境 is also teeming with: extremely full of (something), especially living things — 充满；密布 life. Whether any species has truly adapted to ionising radiation: radiation with enough energy to remove electrons from atoms, causing biological damage — 电离辐射 remains notoriously hard to prove, and hotly debated: discussed with strong, opposing opinions — 争论激烈的.
Burraco's team have sampled more than 250 frogs. In a 2022 paper, they reported that frogs inside the zone are, on average, darker than those outside, with the gap sharpest where radiation hit hardest in 1986. Their hypothesis, which Burraco insists remains a hypothesis, is that this colour, attributedattribute: To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc — 归因于；归咎于 to higher melaninmelanin: Any of a group of naturally occurring dark pigments, especially the pigment found in skin, hair, fur, and feathers — 黑色素 levels, may act as a partialpartial: not complete or whole; existing only in part, or showing unfair bias towards one side — 部分的；不完全的；偏袒的 shield, and that darker frogs fared better. There is no hard proof: strong, conclusive evidence — 确凿证据. Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina argues the samplingsampling: The process or technique of obtaining a representative sample — 抽样;取样 is not comprehensive, and that present melanisation does not correlatecorrelate: To have or establish a mutual relationship or connection between two or more variables or phenomena. — 相关联；使相互关联 with present radiation. Burraco pushes back against: argues firmly in opposition to — 反驳；提出反对 this, noting the frogs came from sites with similar habitat but different radiologicalradiological: Of or pertaining to radiation, radioactivity or nuclear weapons — 放射性的;辐射的 histories. The radiobiologist Carmel Mothersill points out: draws attention to (something) — 指出 that the methodologymethodology: a system of methods and principles used in a particular area of study or activity — 方法论；方法体系 is sound.
That exchange is a classic example: a typical and well-known case of (something) — 典型例证；经典案例 of a disagreement that has bubbled away: continued at low intensity over a long time — 持续不断；持续发酵 for years. Whenever an unusual feature appears in some organism, the same problem returns: can anyone be sure radiation, not other contaminantscontaminant: That which contaminates; an impurity; foreign matter — 污染物;杂质 such as heavy metals: metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium that are toxic to living things even in small amounts — 重金属, is the cause? Similar uncertainty shadows the genomesgenome: The complete genetic information (either DNA or, in some viruses, RNA) of an organism — 基因组；基因组图谱 of the feral dogs: dogs that live in the wild after escaping or being abandoned by humans — 流浪犬；野化犬 descendeddescend: To move downward; to be a blood relative of a particular ancestor. — 下降；下来；是……的后裔 from pets abandoned in 1986, and the unusual genetic diversity in the mitochondria of bank voles: small rodents that live in woodland and along riverbanks — 岸鼩鼱；红背䶄（小型鼠类）. Such patterns might reflect mutations and chromosomalchromosomal: Of or relating to chromosomes — 染色体的 aberrationsaberration: A deviation of a tissue, organ or mental functions from what is considered to be within the normal range — 组织、器官或心理功能偏离正常范围的异常 driven by radiation, or they might not. Mothersill notes that pine trees, especially sensitive to fallout, died off in many places, letting birch take over: began to dominate or replace (others) — 取而代之；占主导 and produce a richer but quite different forest. Animals respond to that altered ecosystemecosystem: The interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment — 生态系统 rather than to radiation per se: by itself; in itself — 就其本身而言（拉丁语）.
The change that may matter most is the withdrawal of humans: humans leaving an area completely — 人类的撤离. Where villages once stood, wolves, bears and bisonbison: A similar North American animal, Bison bison — 北美野牛 now roam, and populations of deer, wild boar: a wild relative of the domestic pig, found in forests — 野猪 and elk have flourished. Wolf numbers inside the zone are roughly seven times those of surrounding nature reserves: areas of land protected by law where wildlife and habitats are preserved — 自然保护区, perhaps because prey is so abundant. The Eurasian lynxlynx: Any of several medium-sized wild cats, mostly of the genus Lynx — 猞猁 has returned; brown bears, unsighted here for over a century, were caught on a camera trap: a camera triggered automatically to photograph wildlife passing by — 红外感应相机 in 2014. None of this proves the animals tolerate radiation; it shows they thrive once people stop hunting and building.
Whether anything has truly evolved a defence is the most controversial question. A genuine evolutionary adaptation: a trait inherited over generations because it helps survival — 进化适应 must be inherited and give an organism an edge in their environment: a slight advantage that helps them survive and reproduce — 在环境中拥有的优势. There are hintshint: A clue — 提示. A 2012 study suggested soybeans grown in contaminated soil cope better with radioactivityradioactivity: Spontaneous emission of ionizing radiation as a consequence of a nuclear reaction, or directly from the breakdown of an unstable nucleus — 放射性 and heavy-metal stress, and Chernobyl's bank voles appear more resistant to DNA damage: harm done to the genetic material inside cells — DNA损伤. Mousseau argues the dark fungus on the reactor itself supports the idea that melanin offers protection, though there is zero evidence the fungus has evolved to harness radiation as energy. For Mothersill, the priority is to tease out: carefully separate or work out (something complicated) — 梳理出来；细致分析 whether mutations that emerged after 1986 have been passed down: transferred from one generation to the next — 代代相传 as transgenerational mutations: genetic changes passed from one generation to the next — 代际遗传突变；跨代突变. Research from 2006 found aberrations in the chromosomeschromosome: [Reproduction and Genetics] A linear arrangement of condensed DNA and associated proteins (such as chaperone proteins) which contains the genetic material (genome) of an organism — 染色体 of bank voles persistedpersist: to continue firmly in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition — 坚持；持续；执意 when the animals were bredbreed: To cause animals to produce offspring in a controlled way; to give rise to or be the cause of something. — 繁殖；培育；滋生 in clean laboratories, which is at least suggestivesuggestive: Tending to suggest or imply — 有暗示性的;意味深长的.
Not every species is thriving. The combined pressure of radioactive contamination and rising temperatures is placing growing strain on: putting more and more pressure on (something or someone) — 对……带来越来越大的压力 Chernobyl's barn swallows, and global warming: the long-term rise in average temperatures across the Earth — 全球变暖 looks set to worsen their position. Nor is the disaster's reach confinedconfine: To keep or restrict someone or something within certain limits of space, scope, or quantity. — 限制；局限；禁闭 to the immediate vicinity: the area very close to (something) — 紧邻区域；周边地区 of the plant: trace radionuclides dispersed in 1986 still turn up in Polish mushrooms, US blueberries and Greek firewood. As the geographer Jonathon Turnbull warns, the spectacular framing of Chernobyl as a place that either died or miraculously revived does not go deep. What exists is a menagerie of: a varied collection of (things) — 形形色色的（一群事物） subtle responses. Forty years on, it is no surprise so many questions still litter this landscape: are scattered all over (this place) — 散布在……各处.
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Which statement best captures why the article treats Burraco's tree-frog finding as suggestive rather than conclusive?
- 02
Read the sixth paragraph (about wolves, bears and bison). What underlying claim about Chernobyl wildlife does this passage most strongly support?
- 03
Which view of the wider Chernobyl story does the article, taken as a whole, most clearly endorse?
- 04
Argue whether the evidence presented in the article supports the claim that Chernobyl's wildlife has genuinely evolved to cope with radiation. Use at least two specific examples from the text.
Suggested length: ~100 words
- 05
Assess the claim that the apparent recovery of large mammals inside the exclusion zone tells us very little about the biological effects of radiation.
Suggested length: ~100 words
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Which statement best captures why the article treats Burraco's tree-frog finding as suggestive rather than conclusive?
- 02
Read the sixth paragraph (about wolves, bears and bison). What underlying claim about Chernobyl wildlife does this passage most strongly support?
- 03
Which view of the wider Chernobyl story does the article, taken as a whole, most clearly endorse?
- 04
Argue whether the evidence presented in the article supports the claim that Chernobyl's wildlife has genuinely evolved to cope with radiation. Use at least two specific examples from the text.
Suggested length: ~100 words
- 05
Assess the claim that the apparent recovery of large mammals inside the exclusion zone tells us very little about the biological effects of radiation.
Suggested length: ~100 words