进屋该不该让客人脱鞋?家里来客人时，你是不是也经常纠结这个问题?

　　最新研究指出，鞋子带进室内的细菌数量一般都不足以让普通的健康人生病。所以，下次请人来做客时，敞开门欢迎人家就好了!

　　Are you one of those hosts who's immediately gripped by this conundrum as your guests step across the threshold into your home: Should you, or shouldn't you, ask them to remove their shoes?

　　客人跨进家门的时候，你是否也纠结过这个难题：应不应该让他们脱鞋呢?

　　conundrum: n. [kəˈnʌndrəm] 难题; 复杂难解的问题

　　On the one hand, it makes you look like a fussy host. On the other, what about the legions of disease-causing bacteria that will gleefully leap off their shoes and inevitably infest your home?

　　一方面，这让你看起来像个挑剔的主人。另一方面，如果大量的致病细菌大踏步地随着鞋子进入你家，并开始滋生，可怎么办呢?

　　Avoiding bacterial invasion at the risk of a little social awkwardness seems like a no-brainer. But are shoe bacteria something we should really be worried about in our homes? Here's what science tells us about how to navigate this conundrum.

　　冒着一点社交尴尬的风险来避免细菌入侵，这似乎是一个挺容易的选择题。但是，我们真的需要担心鞋子带进家里的细菌吗?下面来看看科学家是如何破解这个难题的。

　　no-brainer: n. 容易作出的决定;愚蠢的人(或行为)

　　To start with, there's no point in sugarcoating the pill: the average shoe harbors "hundreds of thousands of bacteria per square inch," according to Jonathan Sexton, an environmental microbiologist and research specialist at the University of Arizona.

　　首先，没有必要掩饰事实：美国亚利桑那大学环境微生物学研究专家乔纳森·塞克斯顿表示，普通的鞋子上“每平方英寸有数十万的细菌”，

　　The soles of our shoes are essentially a meet and greet for these microbes, and with each step we take, we pick up new attendants. "Pretty much wherever you go, you're going to be picking up stuff," Sexton told Live Science. (Beware, however: Some places like bathrooms do harbor more bacteria and a greater diversity, he said.)

　　我们的鞋底通常都聚集着大量的细菌，我们每迈出一步，鞋底都会粘上新的细菌。塞克斯顿告诉趣味科学网站说：“不管你去哪里，鞋底都会粘上细菌。”(但要注意的是，浴室等地方的细菌更多，种类也更多。)

　　But exactly what types of bacterial communities are hanging out on our shoes, and do they pose a legitimate health threat?

　　那么，我们的鞋底粘的是到底是哪种细菌?它们对我们有健康危害吗?

　　Well, previous studies have shown that almost all shoes in some research samples were coated with fecal bacteria, including one prominent bug called Escherichia coli (E.coli), which researchers discovered on 96 percent of shoe soles. While many types of E.coli are harmless to humans, some strains can cause severe diarrhea, urinary tract infections and even meningitis.

　　此前的研究显示，在一些研究样本中，几乎所有鞋子都带有粪便细菌，其中一种主要的细菌为大肠杆菌——研究人员在96%的鞋底上发现了这种细菌。虽然许多类型的大肠杆菌对人类无害，但某些菌株可能导致严重的腹泻、尿路感染甚至脑膜炎。

　　"Not necessarily on every shoe, but on a good majority, you can find some type of E.coli there," Sexton said.

　　塞克斯顿说：“并不一定在每只鞋子上，但在绝大多数鞋子上你都能发现某种大肠杆菌。”

　　Apart from this ubiquitous germ, other studies have also found evidence of things like Staphylococcus aureus, which underlies a wide range of skin infections, and more worryingly, infections of the blood and the heart.

　　除了这种普遍存在的细菌，还有一些研究发现了鞋子上存在金黄色葡萄球菌的证据。这种细菌可能导致多种皮肤感染疾病，更让人担忧的是，还会感染血液和心脏。

　　ubiquitous: adj. [juˈbɪkwɪtəs] 无所不在的; 普遍存在的

　　Another prominent study published in 2014 in the journal Anaerobe sampled 30 households in Houston, Texas, for the presence of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a bacterium with a long lifespan that commonly causes bowel problems like diarrhea.

　　在另一项重要的研究中，研究人员采集了30种家用物品的样本，以检验梭状芽胞杆菌是否存在。梭状芽胞杆菌的存活期很长，通常会导致痢疾等肠道疾病。这项研究在德克萨斯州休斯顿开展，研究结果于2014年发表在《厌氧菌》期刊上。

　　Of all the household items they sampled, the researchers found that shoes harbored more C. difficile than even the surface of a toilet — underscoring the power that grubby soles could have to spread germs through a home.