The Copper Basin托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

The Copper Basin托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、The Copper Basin托福聽力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in an earth science class.The professor is discussing an area of the United States called the Copper Basin.MALE PROFESSOR:Now,you may not have heard of the Copper Basin.It's in the Eastern United States,in the Tennessee River Valley.It got its name because settlers discovered copper there in 1843.And soon afterwards,it supported one of the largest metal mining operations in America.At one time,four mining companies employed 2500 workers in the Copper Basin.For that time period,it was a huge operation.

Well,this mining operation turned the Copper Basin into a desert.In the 1840s,when mining operations started,it was a dense green forest.But in the 1940s,100 years later,it was as barren as the Moon.Efforts to reclaim the land and restore the basin to the fertile valley it once was...well,actually,those efforts are still ongoing.It's been a long and tedious process.In fact,it was many years before any results were seen.Copper mining had gone on there for more than 90 years!The damage couldn't be reversed overnight.

Although I should mention that by 1996,the water in one of the rivers flowing through the basin was clean enough that it was the site of the Olympic white water kayaking competition.And that river is still used now for recreation.

But anyway...So...let's analyze the problem.It wasn't the mining itself that caused such massive destruction.It was what happened after the copper ore was extracted from the mines.It was a process called heap roasting.Copper ore contains sulfur.And heap roasting was a way to burn away the sulfur in the copper,so they'd be left with something closer to pure copper.Well,in the process,large vats of raw copper ore are burned slowly,for two or three months actually,to lower the sulfur content.And this burning—well,let's look at the results.

First,the mines were fairly remote,so there was no way to bring coal or other fuel to keep the fires going.So they cut down local trees for fuel.And like I said,the fires burned for months—uh,that's a lot of fires and a lot of trees.Deforestation was occurring at a rapid rate.And it was accelerated by the smoke from the burning ore.Big clouds of sulfuric smoke,which was toxic to the trees,formed over the areas.Trees that hadn't been cut for fuel were killed by the fumes.The sulfur also mixed with the air and created sulfur dioxide.And the sulfur dioxide settled in the clouds fell to the land in droplets of rain and sank into the soil.This is what we now call acid rain.You've probably heard of it.But no one used the term back then.Anyway,the acid rain created highly acidic soil.Well,soon the soil became so acidic that nothing could grow,nothing at all.Vegetation and wild life disappeared.And it wasn't just the land and the air,it was the water too.What do you think happen to the rivers?Well,there are no trees to absorb the rain,and there was a lot of rain!So the rain eroded the soil and swept it into the rivers.This is called silting,when soil particles are washed into the rivers.And the silting continued at an alarming rate.But this was toxic soil and toxic runoff,the acid and metals in the soil made the once clear rivers flow bright orange.

So it was really that one step in the process of producing copper...the problems just built up and up until there was a desert where a beautiful forest used to be.OK.Now let's look at reforestation and land reclamation efforts.

二、The Copper Basin托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：聽地球科學(xué)課上的部分講座。教授正在討論美國的一個(gè)叫做銅盆地的地區(qū)。男教授：現(xiàn)在，你可能沒有聽說過銅盆地。它在美國東部，田納西河谷。它之所以得名，是因?yàn)?843年定居者在那里發(fā)現(xiàn)了銅。不久之后，它支持了美國最大的金屬開采業(yè)務(wù)之一。曾經(jīng)，四家礦業(yè)公司在銅盆地雇傭了2500名工人。在那段時(shí)間里，這是一項(xiàng)巨大的作業(yè)。

這個(gè)采礦作業(yè)把銅盆地變成了沙漠。19世紀(jì)40年代，當(dāng)采礦作業(yè)開始時(shí)，這里是一片茂密的綠色森林。但在20世紀(jì)40年代，也就是100年后，這里就像月球一樣貧瘠。為了開墾土地，并將盆地恢復(fù)到曾經(jīng)的肥沃山谷，事實(shí)上，這些努力仍在繼續(xù)。這是一個(gè)漫長而乏味的過程。事實(shí)上，很多年后才有結(jié)果。銅礦開采已經(jīng)在那里進(jìn)行了90多年！損害無法在一夜之間扭轉(zhuǎn)。

盡管我應(yīng)該提到，到1996年，流經(jīng)該流域的一條河流中的水已經(jīng)足夠干凈，成為奧運(yùn)會(huì)白水皮劃艇比賽的場地。那條河現(xiàn)在仍然用于娛樂。

但無論如何，所以讓我們分析一下這個(gè)問題。造成如此大規(guī)模破壞的不是采礦業(yè)本身。這是銅礦從礦山開采后發(fā)生的事情。這是一個(gè)叫做堆焙燒的過程。銅礦石含有硫。堆焙燒是一種燒掉銅中硫的方法，所以它們會(huì)留下更接近純銅的東西。好吧，在這個(gè)過程中，大桶粗銅礦石被緩慢燃燒，實(shí)際上持續(xù)了兩三個(gè)月，以降低硫含量。這個(gè)燃燒井，讓我們看看結(jié)果。

首先，礦井相當(dāng)偏遠(yuǎn)，因此沒有辦法帶來煤炭或其他燃料來維持大火。所以他們砍伐當(dāng)?shù)氐臉淠咀鳛槿剂稀＞拖裎艺f的，大火燒了好幾個(gè)月，嗯，那是很多火和很多樹。森林砍伐正在迅速發(fā)生。燃燒的礦石產(chǎn)生的煙霧加速了這一過程。在這些地區(qū)形成了對(duì)樹木有毒的大量硫酸煙霧。沒有被砍伐作為燃料的樹木被煙霧殺死。硫磺也與空氣混合，產(chǎn)生二氧化硫。沉降在云層中的二氧化硫以雨滴的形式落到地面，并沉入土壤中。這就是我們現(xiàn)在所說的酸雨。你可能聽說過。但當(dāng)時(shí)沒有人使用這個(gè)詞。無論如何，酸雨造成了高酸性土壤。很快，土壤變得如此酸性，什么都不能生長，什么都沒有。植被和野生生物消失了，不僅是土地和空氣，還有水。你認(rèn)為河流會(huì)發(fā)生什么？嗯，沒有樹來吸收雨水，而且下了很多雨！因此，雨水侵蝕了土壤，并將其沖入河流。當(dāng)土壤顆粒被沖入河流時(shí)，這被稱為淤積。淤積以驚人的速度持續(xù)，但這是有毒的土壤和有毒的徑流，土壤中的酸和金屬使曾經(jīng)清澈的河流變成了明亮的橙色。

所以在生產(chǎn)銅的過程中，有一個(gè)步驟，這些問題不斷累積，直到有一片沙漠，那里曾經(jīng)是一片美麗的森林。好吧。現(xiàn)在讓我們來看看重新造林和土地開墾的努力。

三、The Copper Basin托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.The environmental effects of heap roasting

B.The reforestation efforts in the Copper Basin

C.The process of mining and producing copper

D.Damages caused during an attempt to clean up industrial waste

Q2:2.What is the professor’s opinion about the effort to reclaim the land in the Copper Basin?

A.The techniques and materials used for the cleanup were probably outdated.

B.Some attempts to clean up the Copper Basin have made the problems worse.

C.It is not surprising that cleaning up the area has been extremely difficult.

D.The cleanup has taken longer than necessary.

Q3:3.What does the professor imply when he mentions an Olympic whitewater kayaking competition?

A.That many people are unaware of the environmental problems in the Copper Basin

B.That a successful reclamation of the Copper Basin may be possible

C.That some activities in the Copper Basin must go on despite the pollution

D.That the Olympic competition should have been held in a different location

Q4:4.According to the lecture,why was heap roasting used in the producing of copper?

A.To make copper ore easier to transport

B.To make copper ore safe for workers to handle

C.To transform copper ore into fuel

D.To remove impurities from copper ore

Q5:5.What factors led to the disappearance of trees in the Copper Basin?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.Mines were dug under areas where trees were growing.

B.Loose soil led to trees being washed into the rivers.

C.Trees growing near the mines were cut and used as fuel.

D.Clouds of sulfuric smoke killed trees in the area.

Q6:6.What resulted from the lack of trees near the copper-mining operation?

A.It became difficult to provide housing for all the workers.

B.Rivers became filled with toxic soil.

C.Coal and other fuel had to be transported into the area.

D.The heap-roasting process had to be completed far from the mines.

四、The Copper Basin托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：A

A2:正確答案：C

A3:正確答案：B

A4:正確答案：D

A5:正確答案：CD

A6:正確答案：B

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