劍橋雅思13Test4閱讀passage2真題翻譯(1)

劍橋雅思13Test4閱讀passage2真題翻譯(1) 關(guān)于這個(gè)問題下面小編就來為各個(gè)考生解答下。

劍橋雅思13Test4閱讀passage2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14^26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

SAVING THE SOIL

拯救我們的土壤

More than a third of the Earth's top layer is at risk. Is there hope for our planet’s most precious resource?

超過三分之一地表土坡正處于危險(xiǎn)之中。我們星球最寶貴的資源是否還有希望恢復(fù)?

A More than a third of the world’s soil is endangered, according to a recent UN report. If we don’t slow the decline, all farmable soil could be gone in 60 years. Since soil grows 95% of our food, and sustains human life in other more surprising ways, that is a huge problem.

A根據(jù)最近的聯(lián)合國報(bào)告顯示,世界上超過三分之一的土壤面臨威脅。如果我們不減緩這種衰退的趨勢(shì),60年后所有可耕種的土壤都會(huì)消失。因?yàn)橥寥乐猩L出了人類95%的糧食,并且還通過其他種種令人意想不到的方式維持著人類的生活,因此這的確是一個(gè)嚴(yán)峻的問題。

B Peter Groffman, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, points out that soil scientists have been warning about the degradation of the world's soil for decades. At the same time, our understanding of its importance to humans has grown. A single gram of healthy soil might contain 100 million bacteria, as well as other microorganisms such as viruses and fungi, living amid decomposing plants and various minerals.

That means soils do not just grow our food, but are the source of nearly all our existing antibiotics, and could be our best hope in the fight against antibioticresistant bacteria. Soil is also an ally against climate change: as microorganisms within soil digest dead animals and plants, they lock in their carbon content, holding three times the amount of carbon as does the entire atmosphere. Soils also store water, preventing flood damage: in the UK, damage to buildings, roads and bridges from floods caused by soil degradation costs ￡233 million every year.

B來自紐約卡里生態(tài)系統(tǒng)研究所的 Peter groffman指出,數(shù)十年來,土壤科學(xué)家一直在警告人們土壤退化的問題。與此同時(shí),我們也越來越認(rèn)識(shí)到土壤的重要性。每克健康的土壤除了含有一些微生物如病毒和真菌外,還可能含有1億個(gè)細(xì)菌,它們以分解植物和各種礦物質(zhì)為生。

這意味著土壤不僅可以長出我們的糧食,而且是我們幾乎全部抗生素的來源,還可能寄托著我們戰(zhàn)勝耐抗生素細(xì)菌的希望。土壤也可以幫助我們抵御氣候變化:隨著土壤中的徽生物分解死亡的動(dòng)植物,它們會(huì)固定住其中的碳性物質(zhì),其含量是大氣層中碳含量的3倍。土壤也可以保持水分,抵御洪水侵襲:在英國,每年因?yàn)橥寥劳嘶瘜?dǎo)致的洪水泛濫會(huì)淹沒房屋、街道和橋梁,損失高達(dá)2.33億英鎊。

C If the soil loses its ability to perform these functions, the human race could be in big trouble. The danger is not that the soil will disappear completely, but that the microorganisms that give it its special properties will be lost. And once this has happened, it may take the soil thousands of years to recover.

Agriculture is by far the biggest problem. In the wild, when plants grow they remove nutrients from the soil, but then when the plants die and decay these nutrients are returned directly to the soil. Humans tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil gradually becomes less fertile. In the past we developed strategies to get around the problem, such as regularly varying the types of crops grown, or leaving fields uncultivated for a season.

C假如土壤失去了這些作用,就會(huì)對(duì)人類的生存造成巨大的威脅。這個(gè)危險(xiǎn)并非指土壤的完全消失,而是土壤中的微生物會(huì)喪失這些特殊的作用。土壤一旦被破壞可能需要數(shù)千年的時(shí)間來恢復(fù)。

到目前為止,農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)是的致因。在野外,植物生長時(shí)從土壤中獲取養(yǎng)分,當(dāng)植物枯死腐化以后,其中的養(yǎng)分又回到了土壤中。人類通常不會(huì)把作物的無用部分返還到土壤中增肥,這就意味著土壤會(huì)逐漸失去肥力。過去,我們會(huì)米取一些方法繞過這個(gè)問題,比如通過定期種植不同的農(nóng)作物,或者采取休耕的方式。

由于篇幅的問題，以上只是一部分，更多內(nèi)容請(qǐng)繼續(xù)關(guān)注我們中國教育在線外語頻道。

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