Text 1
Postmortem with Strings
About Mozart：

    (born in Salzburg, 27 January 1756; died in Vienna, 5 December 1791)

    Son of Leopold Mozart, he showed musical gifts at a very early age, composing when he was five and when he was six playing before the Bavarian elector and the Austrian empress. Leopold felt that it was proper, and might also be profitable, to exhibit his children's God-given genius (Maria Anna, ‘Nannerl’, 1751-1829, was a gifted keyboard player): so in mid-1763 the family set out on a tour that took them to Paris and London, visiting numerous courts en route. Mozart astonished his audiences with his precocious skills; he played to the French and English royal families, had his first music published and wrote his earliest symphonies. The family arrived home late in 1766; nine months later they were off again, to Vienna, where hopes of having an opera by Mozart performed were frustrated by intrigues.

Language notes:

1. Down on the brick floor of the University of Maryland's Davidge Hall, a noted professor of medicine is about to perform a most unusual postmortem.

(在马里兰州立大学戴威基大厅里砖铺的地面上，一位著名的医学教授正准备进行一次极为奇特的尸检。)

Postmortem: an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death; an analysis or discussion of an event soon after it has occurred.

    e.g. an election postmortem on why the party lost.

2. Their succor amounted to a blood-letting and a few cold compresses.

(他们的救助方法无非是放血或用冷敷布降温。)

Succor: assistants and support in times of hardship and distress.

    e.g. They were busy providing succor to the injured.

3. The diagnosis — death by rabies — was topped off, appropriately enough, with a monologue from Poe's story "The Black Cat".

(最后的诊断结果为,他死于狂犬病，用选自坡所著的《黑猫》中的一段独白作为诊断的结束语很恰如其分。)

Top something off: finish something in a memorable or notable way.

    e.g. The festive celebration was topped off with the awarding of presents.

4. Rheumatic fever is triggered by an invading bacterium that elicits antibodies from the immune system.

(风湿热的形成是由于细菌入侵诱发免疫系统产生抗体。)

Elicit: evoke or draw out.

    e.g. Taboos can elicit quite violent reactions if they are broken.

5. One could say that the epidemic was immaterial to his death, that it was coincidental

(人们可以说那场流行病对他的死因并不重要，那只是巧合而已。)

Immaterial: unimportant under the circumstances, irrelevant.

    e.g. It is immaterial whether he comes himself or sends a substitute.

Text 2

Pay Attention, Rover

About The Australian Customs Service Detector Dog Unit:

    The Australian Customs Service Detector Dog Unit (DDU) plays an important role in the work of customs in helping to protect the Australian community from the importation of illicit drugs.

    Detector Dog teams are used to locate drugs concealed in baggage, cargo containers, vessels, vehicles, aircraft, international parcels/mail and carried on a person's body. The teams also work with Federal and State police forces and other government agencies in operations such as searches of houses and large buildings.

    From small beginnings, with two dogs in Sydney in 1969, the DDU has developed to become an integral part of Border Administration with its Canberra-based training program supporting operational units in all States and the Northern Territory.

Language notes:

1. Among the cavalcade of luggage passing beneath Florence's all-smelling nose is a nondescript hardback suitcase.

(行李连续不断地从佛罗伦斯无所不查的鼻子下通过，其中有一个毫不起眼的硬皮手提箱。)

Nondescript: lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics.

    e.g. She lived in a nondescript suburban apartment block.

2. Blips appear on a cluttered monitor infrequently, and at irregular intervals.

(在一个有杂乱回波的监视器上会出现不多的光点，而且间隔也不规则。)

Cluttered: crowded untidily

   e.g. All of the surfaces were cluttered with an assortment of equipments.

3. Vigilance tasks push the limits of attention by providing signals that are infrequent and unpredictable—which is exactly what is expected of the detector dogs when they are asked to notice just a few odour molecules in the air, and then to home in on the source.

(通过找寻不经常出现而且无法预测的信号，警觉测试任务进一步锻炼了注意力。这正是希望探测犬能够做到的一点，能在空气中嗅到很少一些气味分子，然后就直捣源头。)

Home in on: move or be aimed towards with great accuracy.

    e.g. More than 100 missiles were launched, homing in on radar emissions.

4. Others, like Robbins, envisage a more democratic mechanism.

(其他科学家，如罗宾斯，设想的是一种更民主化的机制。)

Envisage: contemplate or conceive as a possibility or desirable future event.

    e.g. The Rome Treaty envisaged free movement across frontiers.

5. Desmone's work on monkeys suggests that the activity in the prefrontal and visual cortex which creates the image of keys also inhibits other neuronal connections that would conjure up distracting images.

(戴西摩纳在猴子身上做的研究显示，脑额叶前部皮层与视觉处理皮层中的活动建立了钥匙这个形象，同时还阻止与神经元的其它联系产生分散注意力的形象。)

Conjure up: make something appear unexpectedly or seemingly from nowhere as if by magic.

    e.g. Ann conjured up a most delicious home-made hot pot.

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