加载中…【看纪录片学单词】之《家园》
(2013-05-09 17:28:31)
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作品简介：我们居住的这个蓝色星球已经存在了45亿年，她孕育出来的万千物种长期一直相互依存。但只有20万年历史的人类，却快速掌控了这个星球并为所欲为，过度索取资源，打破了亿万年来的固有生态平衡。为了满足日益增长的食物需要，全球一半的谷物用于饲养提供肉类的牲口；为了生产纸浆而砍伐原始森林大量种植桉树，生物的多样性被人为破坏……。过去50年，人类对地球的改变，比前面20万年还要多，令这个美丽的蓝星球千疮百孔：大河断流，资源枯竭；冰冠减少，气候反常，森林消失，物种灭绝。人类只有十年时间去扭转这一趋势，共同保护我们生存的“家园”
影片长度：120 分钟
词汇统计：
★ 四级词汇：288 个
★★ 六级词汇：108 个
★★★ 雅思、托福及以上词汇：248 个
学习指南：以下单词均出自影片台词，前面标一星的为四级词汇，二星的为六级词汇，三星的为雅思、托福及以上词汇。大家根据自己的考试要求选择性学习。【看纪录片学单词】可分三步进行，第一步：把影片完整看一遍，可看中文字幕，了解剧情和背景知识。第二步：看一小段，然后对照下面的单词进行学习。学完以后进行第三步，即再次把影片从头到尾看一遍，重温重点词汇和好的口语表达以及背景知识，最后还需反复浏览以下这些词句（可以打印出来，或者存手机）。
在线观看： http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/yX1ddHuYsok/
下载地址： http://yunpan.cn/cwqhXmiRCLQXC
★★★ Homo sapiens
Listen to me, please. You're like me, a Homo sapiens. A wise human.请听我说，你跟我一样，是智人，一个有智慧的人。
★★ disrupt
★ essential
Life, a miracle in the universe, appeared around four billion years ago, and we humans only 200,000 years ago. Yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance that is so essential to life on Earth. 生命是宇宙的奇迹，出现于约四十亿年前，而我们人类只有二十万年历史，但是我们却破坏了地球生命赖以生存的平衡。
★ trace
★ chaos
★★★ agglutinated
★★ dust particle
★★ cluster
These are traces of our origins. At the beginning, our planet was no more than a chaos of fire, formed in the wake of its star, the sun. A cloud of agglutinated dust particles, similar to so many similar clusters in the universe. Yet this was where the miracle of life occurred. 这是我们的起源的轨迹，最初，我们的星球不过是一个浑沌的火球，伴随它的恒星---太阳诞生而形成的，一团粘聚的尘埃颗粒，就像宇宙里面许多类似的星云，然而生命的奇迹就在此诞生。
★★ innumerable
★ succeed
Today, life，our life，is just a link in a chain of innumerable living beings that have succeeded one another on Earth over nearly four billion years. 今天，我们的生命，是地球上无数生物形成的生命链中的一环，在近40亿年里，这些生物被彼此继承取代。
★★★ sculpt
★ landscape
★ glimpse
★ molten
★ surge
★★★ solidify
★ crack
★★★ blister
★ crust
★★★ dormant
And even today, new volcanoes continue to sculpt our landscapes. They offer a glimpse of what our Earth was like at its birth molten rock surging from the depths, solidifying, cracking, blistering or spreading in a thin crust, before falling dormant for a time. 即使到了今天，新的火山继续改变我们的景观，它们让我们目睹了盘古初开时地球的样子。熔石从深处涌出，开始凝固，裂开，冒着泡，或摊开形成薄的外壳，然后再休眠一段时间。
★★★ wreath of smoke
★ curl
★★★ bowel
★ bear witness to
★★★ devoid
★ dense
★★ vapor
★ carbon dioxide
★★★ furnace
These wreaths of smoke curling from the bowels of the Earth, bear witness to the Earth's original atmosphere. An atmosphere devoid of oxygen. A dense atmosphere, thick with water vapor, full of carbon dioxide. A furnace. 这些从地球内部吐出缭绕的烟圈，是地球原始大气层的见证一个没有氧气的大气层，稠密的大气层，充满水蒸气和二氧化碳，一个熔炉。
★★ exceptional
★★ conserve
But the Earth had an exceptional future, offered to it by water. At the right distance from the sun, not too far, not too near. the Earth was able to conserve water in liquid form. 因为有水，地球有了一个与众不同的未来，地球与太阳之间的距离适中，不太远，不太近，因此地球上的水能够处于液体状态。
★★ water vapor
★ condense
★★★ torrential
★ downpour
Water vapor condensed and fell in torrential downpours on Earth, and rivers appeared. 水蒸气凝结后形成滂沱大雨降落在地球上，河流出现了。
★ channel
★★★ furrow
★ valley
The rivers shaped the surface of the Earth, cutting their channels, furrowing out valleys. They ran toward the lowest places on the globe to form the oceans. They tore minerals from the rocks, and gradually the freshwater of the oceans became heavy with salt. 河流改变了地球表面，刻削着河道，并冲刷出山谷，它们流向地球上最低洼的地方形成海洋，水溶解了岩石的矿物质，渐渐的，海洋中的淡水变成了咸水。
★ vital
★ irrigate
★★★ sterile
★ trace
★★ vein
★ vessel
★★★ sap
Water is a vital liquid. It irrigated these sterile expanses. The paths it traced are like the veins of a body, the branches of a tree, the vessels of the sap that it brought to the Earth. 水是生命必需的液体，它灌溉了这些广阔的不毛之地，水流就像人体的血管，树木的枝丫，是让大地苏醒的液体导管。
★ crucial
★ alliance
There they are -- matter and water, water and matter -- soft and hard combined, the crucial alliance shared by every life-form on our planet. 就是它们，物质和水，水和物质，软硬组合，这对地球上所有生物都是至关重要的。
★ copper
★★ sulfur
Minerals and metals are even older than the Earth. They are
stardust. They provide the Earth's colors. Red from iron, black
from carbon, blue from copper, yellow from sulfur.
金属矿物元素比地球还要古老，它们是星尘，它们让地球五彩斑斓。红色是铁，黑色是碳，蓝色是铜，黄色则是硫。
★ spark
★ primitive
★★★ archaeobacteria
Where do we come from? Where did life first spark into being? A miracle of time, primitive life-forms still exist in the globe's hot springs. They give them their colors. They're called archaeobacteria. 我们来自什么哪里？生命火花从哪里迸发？一个时光奇迹，地球上的温泉仍然有原始的生命存活，它们赋予温泉颜色，它们叫做“古细菌”。
★ feed off
★★★ cyanobacteria
★★★ algae
★ capacity
★ capture
★ vital
★ ancestor
They all feed off the Earth's heat all except the cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. They alone have the capacity to turn to the sun to capture its energy. They are a vital ancestor of all yesterday's and today's plant species. 它们都依靠地球热能生存，除了蓝细菌，或是蓝绿藻以外。只有它们可以向着太阳来吸取其能量，它们是古今所有植种的最重要的祖先。
★ bacteria
★★ descendant
★ destiny
★ transform
These tiny bacteria and their billions of descendants changed the destiny of our planet. They transformed its atmosphere. 这些微小的细菌及其数以亿计的后代改变了地球的命运，是它们改造了地球的大气层。
★★ imprison
★★ crust
★ chapter
★★★ Grand Canyon
★ reveal
What happened to the carbon that poisoned the atmosphere? It's still here, imprisoned in the Earth's crust. We can read this chapter of the Earth's history nowhere better than on the walls of Colorado's Grand Canyon. They reveal nearby two billion years of the Earth's history. 毒害大气层的碳去了哪里？它还存在，只是被“囚禁”在地壳。想要了解地球历史的这一篇章，卡罗拉多大峡谷的峭壁是最好的选择，它们展现了地球近20亿年的历史。
★★★ Grand
Canyon
★★ inhabit
★★★ microorganism
★★★ tap into 利用
★ dissolve
★ accumulate
★★★ strata
Once upon a time, the Grand Canyon was a sea inhabited by
microorganisms. They grew their shells by tapping into carbon from
the atmosphere dissolved in the ocean. When they died, the shells
sank and accumulated on the seabed. These strata are the product of
those billions and billions of shells.
★ drain
Thanks to them, the carbon drained from the atmosphere, and other life-forms could develop. 因为有了它们，碳从大气层中排出，其他生物才能得以发展
★ alter
★ enable
★ molecule
It is life that altered the atmosphere. Plant life fed off the sun's energy, which enabled it to break apart the water molecule and take the oxygen. And oxygen filled the air. 生命改变了大气层,植物靠太阳能存活,这能量使植物分离水分子,并释放出来氧气,空气因而充满氧气。
★ constant
★★★ renewal
★ waterfall
★★ vapor
★★★ glacier
★ successive
The Earth's water cycle is a process of constant renewal.
Waterfalls, water vapor, clouds, rain, springs, rivers, seas,
oceans, glaciers. The cycle is never broken.
★ trace
★★★ deploy
★★★ mantle
In Siberia, the frozen surfaces of the lakes in winter contain the traces of the forces that water deploys when it freezes. Lighter than water, the ice floats, rather than sinking to the bottom. It forms a protective mantle against the cold, under which life can go on. 在西伯利亚，冬季结冰的湖面，蕴含着水在结冰时展现的力量，冰比水轻因而浮于水面，不会沉到湖底。它形成御寒的保护罩，冰下的生命可以延续。
★★★ linkage
★ self-sufficient
★★★ inseparable
The engine of life is linkage. Everything is linked. Nothing is self-sufficient. Water and air are inseparable, united in life and for our life on Earth. 生命的引擎连锁结合，一切都连结起来，没有东西是自给自足的。水和空气不可分割，为了地球上的生命而结合。
★★★ peek
★★★ algae
★★★ tint
The green expanse peeking through the clouds is the source of oxygen in the air. Seventy percent of this gas, without which our lungs cannot function, comes from the algae that tint the surface of the oceans. 从云层窥望的大片绿色是空气中的氧气，七成氧气来自海藻，这些海藻给海洋表面染上了颜色。
★★ subtle
★ fragile
★ harmony
★★ shatter
★ coral
★★★ algae
★★★ Great Barrier
Reef
★ stretch
★★★ mollusk
★★★ equilibrium
A subtle, fragile harmony that is easily shattered. Thus, corals are born from the marriage of algae and shells. The Great Barrier Reef, Off the coast of Australia, stretches over 350,000 square kilometers and is home to 1,500 species of fish, 4,000 species of mollusks and 400 species of coral. The equilibrium of every ocean depends on these corals. 一种敏感而脆弱的和谐，极易破碎，于是海藻和贝壳的结合形成了珊瑚。澳大利亚沿海的大堡礁，绵延三十五万平方公里，哺育着一千五百种鱼类，四千种软体动物和四百种珊瑚，每个海洋的生态平衡都依靠这些珊瑚。
★★★ pinnacle
★★ sculpture
★ defy
★ gravity
★★ perpetual
★★★ unhurriedly
★ nourish
★★★ foliage
In the chain of species, trees are a pinnacle, a perfect living sculpture. Trees defy gravity. They are the only natural element in perpetual movement toward the sky. They grow unhurriedly toward the sun that nourishes their foliage. 在物种的链条中，树木是至高无上的，是完美的活的雕塑。它们蔑视地心吸力，它们是唯一永恒地朝向天空的自然元素，它们的枝叶不疾不徐地向着太阳生长。
★ inherit
★★★ minuscule
★★★ cyanobacteria
★ capture
★★★ decompose
★ indispensable
They have inherited from those minuscule cyanobacteria the power to capture light's energy. They store it and feed off it, turning it into wood and leaves, which then decompose into a mixture of water, mineral, vegetable and living matter. And so, gradually, the soils that are indispensable to life are formed. 它们从微小的古细菌继承了吸收光线能量的能力，它们储存并利用此能量，并使其变成木材和树叶，然后又分解成水，矿物，植物和生命物质的混合体，就这样，生命不可或缺的土壤逐渐形成。
★★ biodiversity
★★★ incessant
★★★ microorganism
★★★ aerate
★ transform
★★★ humus
★ fertile
Soils are the factory of biodiversity. They are a world of incessant activity where microorganisms feed, dig, aerate and transform. They make the humus, the fertile layer to which all life on land is linked. 土壤是生物多样性的工厂，它们是不断活动的世界，微生物觅食，挖掘，透气，蜕变。它们制造腐植土，在这肥沃的土层上所有陆上生命互相紧扣。
★ ritual
★★ pasture
★ blossom
Families of animals form, united by customs and rituals that survive today. Some adapt to the nature of their pasture, and their pasture adapts to them. And both gain. The animal sates its hunger, and the tree can blossom again. 动物的家族得以形成，至今仍存的习惯和仪式使它们凝聚。有些适应了环境，有些是环境适应它们。双方都受益，动物得到食物，而树木能够开花结果。
★★★ futile
★ balance out
In the great adventure of life on Earth, every species has a role to play, every species has its place. None is futile or harmful. They all balance out. 在地球上生命的伟大的历险中，每种生物各司其职。各有其位，没有多余或有害，它们互相抵消。
★★ fabulous
★★★ legacy
★★★ bequeath
★★ vulnerability
★ taken possession
of
★★ habitat
★ conquer
★★★ swaths of
★ territory
You benefit from a fabulous four-billion-year-old legacy bequeathed by the Earth. You're only 200,000 years old, but you have changed the face of the world. Despite your vulnerability, you have taken possession of every habitat and conquered swaths of territory like no other species before you. 你们得益于地球四十亿年的遗产，你们只有二十万年历史，但你们已经改变了世界的面貌。尽管你们脆弱，但你们占据了所有的栖息地，征服了所有土地，之前任何生物都未曾做过。
★★★ nomadic
★★★ clement
★★★ abound in
After180,000 nomadic years, and thanks to a more clement climate, humans settled down. They no longer depended on hunting for survival. They chose to live in wet environments that abounded in fish, game and wild plants. There, where land, water and life combine. 经过十八万年的游牧岁月，气候变得温和，人类开始定居下来。他们不再依靠打猎为生，他们定居于充满渔猎和野生植物的潮湿环境。这里土地，水和生命结合。
★ genius
★ inspire
★★★ canoe
★ horizon
★ navigator
Human genius inspired them to build canoes, an invention that opened up new horizons and turned humans into navigators. 人类的天赋让他们发明了独木舟，用于开拓新的视野，人类变成了航海家。
★ considerable
★ leap
★ craft
★ blend
The first towns grew up less than 600 years ago. It was a considerable leap in human history. Why towns? Because they allowed humans to defend themselves more easily. They became social beings, meeting and sharing knowledge and crafts, blending their similarities and differences. In a word, they became civilized. 最初的城镇出现在6000多年前，这是人类历史的一大步。为什么呢？因为这能使人类更容易的保护自己，他们变成了社会人，在一起分享他们的知识和手艺，融合他们的共性和不同。简而言之，他们文明化了。
★★★ at one's disposal
But the only energy at their disposal was provided by nature and the strength of their bodies. It was the story of humankind for thousands of years. It still is for one person in four- over one and a half billion human beings- more than the combined population of all the wealthy nations. 但他们可用的能量只是双臂和大自然赋予的东西。这是人类数千年来的故事，也是现今四分之一人类即十五亿人的故事比富裕国家人口的总和还多。
★★★ equitable
★ alliance
Taking from the Earth only the strictly necessary. For a long time, the relationship between humans and the planet was evenly balanced. For a long time, the economy seemed like a natural and equitable alliance. 他们只从地球获取必须的用品，很长一段时间，人类和地球的关系平衡对等，很长一段时间，经济看起来是自然公正的联盟。
★★ life expectancy
★★★ take its
toll
★ weigh on
★ asset
★★★ subsistence
But life expectancy is short, and hard labor takes its toll. The uncertainties of nature weigh on daily life. Education is a rare privilege. Children are a family's only asset, as long as every extra pair of hands is a necessary contribution to its subsistence. 但人类寿命短暂，艰苦劳动大行其道，大自然的不可预知加重日常负担。教育是罕有特权，子女是家庭唯一资产，每双手，对家庭的生存都要作出贡献。
★★ destiny
★★★ craftsman
★★★ peddler
★★ dweller
★★★ barter
★ change
hands
Towns change humanity's nature, as well as its destiny. The farmer becomes a craftsman, trader or peddler. What the Earth gives the farmer, the city dweller buys, sells or barters. Goods change hands, along with ideas. 城镇改变人类本质和命运，农夫变成了工匠、商人和小贩，农夫收获，城镇居民购买，或是物物交换。商品交易，伴随思想交流。
★ extend
★★ frontier
★ territory
★★ endow
★★★ domesticate
Humanity's genius is to have always had a sense of its weakness. Humans tried to extend the frontiers of their territory, but they knew their limits. The physical energy and strength with which nature had not endowed them was found in the animals they domesticated to serve them. 人类的天份在于经常洞悉自已的弱点，他们很想扩张领土，但明白自身局限，大自然不曾赋予他们的能量和气力，他们在动物身上找到，并驯养它们为己服务。
★ transform
★★★ scavenge
The invention of agriculture transformed the future of the wild animals scavenging for food that were humankind. 农业的发明彻底改变了到处觅食的野兽本质，成为真正的人。
★ surplus
★ gave birth to
Developed barely 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, it changed their relationship to nature. It brought an end to the uncertainty of hunting and gathering. It resulted in the first surpluses and gave birth to cities and civilizations. 八千至一万年前开始，农业改变了人类与自然的关系。它终结了人类不稳定的狩猎和采集时代，第一次有了盈余，这催生了城市和文明。
★ harness
★★ extract
★★★ scrabble
★ fade
★ yield
★ variety
For their agriculture, humans harnessed the energy of animal species and plant life, from which they at last extracted the profits. The memory of thousands of years scrabbling for food faded. They learned to adapt the grains that are the yeast of life to different soils and climates. They learned to increase the yield and multiply the number of varieties. 为了农业生产，人类利用动物或植物的能量，并从中受益。数千年艰苦觅食的记忆逐渐淡忘，他们学会将谷类适应不同的土壤和气候，他们学会增加农作物的收成和种类。
★ principal
★ scarce
★★★ deploy
★★★ prodigious
★★★ arid
★★ acre
★★★ imprint
Like every species on Earth, the principal daily concern of all humans is to feed themselves and their family. When the soil is less generous and water becomes scarce, humans deploy prodigious efforts to mark a few arid acres with the imprint of their labor. 像地球上所有动物，人类每天的首要任务，是喂饱自已和家人，当土瘠水稀的时候，人类要为一点干燥土地，而拼命劳作。
★ devotion
★★★ sacrificial
★ ritual
Humans shaped the land with the patience and devotion that the Earth demands, in an almost sacrificial ritual performed over and over. 人类以极大的耐性和专注去模塑土地，近乎祭神仪式般不停地重复。
★ occupation
★★★ till
★ sweat
★★★ graft
★★★ toil
★★★ prerequisite
Agriculture is still the world's most widespread occupation. Half of humankind tills the soil, over three-quarters of them by hand. Agriculture is like a tradition handed down from generation to generation in sweat, graft and toil, because for humanity it is a prerequisite of survival. 农业仍然是世界上最普遍的职业，一半人类仍在耕种土地，超过四分之三仍是手工操作，农业像传统般一代接一代，有血有汗地薪火相传，因为它是人类生存的先决条件。
★ era
★★★ shackle
★★ unprecedented
★ radically
★ previous
With oil began the era of humans who break free of the shackles of time. With oil, some of us acquired unprecedented comforts. And in 50 years, in a single lifetime, the Earth has been more radically changed than by all previous generations of humanity. 石油令人类解除了时间的束缚，石油令一部分人得享从未有过的舒适，五十年里，仅仅一代人的时间，地球发生根本性的改变，是前人从未做过的。
★★ triple
Faster and faster. In the last 60 years, the Earth's population has almost tripled, and over two billion people have moved to the cities. 越来越快，过去六十年，人类人口倍增，超过二十亿人移居城市。
★★★ skyscraper
★ inhabitant
Faster and faster. Shenzhen, in China, with its hundreds of skyscrapers and millions of inhabitants, was just a small fishing village barely 40 years ago. 越来越快，深圳四十年前只是偏僻渔村，现在拥有数以百计的摩天大楼和数百万人口。
★★★ megalopolis
★ immigrant
★★★ unbridled
★★★ skyscraper
★ rank
New York. The world's first megalopolis is the symbol of the exploitation of the energy the Earth supplies to human genius. The manpower of millions of immigrants, the energy of coal, the unbridled power of oil. Electricity resulted in the invention of elevators, which in turn permitted the invention of skyscrapers. New York ranks as the 16th-largest economy in the world. 纽约，世界上第一个超级城市，是人类无止境地剥削地球资源的像征。数百万移民的人力资源，煤的能量及无约束的石油力量，电的出现发明了电梯，而电梯使得摩天大厦成为可能，纽约在全球经济排名中位列16。
★ harness
★★★ phenomenal
★★★ industrialist
★★ nonetheless
★ output
★ dominate
America was the first to discover, exploit and harness the phenomenal revolutionary power of black gold. With its help, a country of farmers became a country of agricultural industrialists. Machines replaced men. A liter of oil generates as much energy as 100 pairs of hands in 24 hours, but worldwide only three percent of farmers have use of a tractor. Nonetheless, their output dominates the planet. 美国最先发现和开发利用，珍贵而具革命性的能量“黑金” ，借助它，农夫变成了农业企业家。机器取代人力，一升石油等于一百双手在24小时产生的能量。但在全球只有3%的农民使用拖拉机，尽管如此，他们的粮食产出还是支配着地球。
★★★ livestock
★★★ biofuel
In the United States, only three million farmers are left. They produce enough grain to feed two billion people. But most of that grain is not used to feed people. Here, and in all other industrialized nations, it's transformed into livestock feed or biofuels. 美国只剩下三百万农民，他们出产的谷物可以养活二十亿人口，但大部分谷物并非用作食粮，就像其他工业国，谷物用来喂牲口或作生化燃料。
★ cultivated land
★★ parasite
★★★ pesticide
★★★ petrochemical
★★★ exterminate
★ famine
★ surplus
★★★ engender
In nature, everything is linked. The expansion of cultivated land and single-crop farming encouraged the development of parasites. Pesticides, another gift of the petrochemical revolution, exterminated them. Bad harvests and famine became a distant memory. The biggest headache now was what to do with the surpluses engendered by modern agriculture. 大自然的一切都互相连系，耕地的拓张和单一品种的种植增加了害虫的肆虐。石油化工革命带来的杀虫剂，把它们杀光，农作欠收和饥荒成为邀远回忆。眼前最头痛是，如何处理现代农业带来的残留。
★★ toxic
★★★ pesticide
★★★ seep
★ penetrate
But toxic pesticides seeped into the air, soil, plants, animals, rivers and oceans. They penetrated the heart of cells similar to the mother cell that is shared by all forms of life. Are they harmful to the humans that they released from hunger? 有毒的杀虫剂渗进空气，泥土、动植物、河流和海洋，它们入侵一切生命，赖以生存的细胞核心，它们对免于饥饿的人类有害吗？
★ abolish
★ fertilizer
★★ unprecedented
★★ plot
★ productive
The new agriculture abolished the dependence on soils and seasons. Fertilizers produced unprecedented results on plots of land thus far ignored. Crops adapted to soils and climates gave way to the most productive varieties and the easiest to transport. And so, in the last century, three-quarters of the varieties developed by farmers over thousands of years have been wiped out. 新兴农业免除了对土壤和季节的依赖，肥料令小片土地，出产前所未见的丰富收成，适应了土地和气候的谷物，被产量高和易于运输的品种所取代，于是在上一世纪，农民在过去数千年培育的，四分之三的品种绝种。
★ inhabitant
The more a country develops, the more meat its inhabitants consume. 国家越发展，国民对肉类的需求就越大。
★★★ livestock
★★ meadow
★ manufacture
★★★ trample
★★★ blade
★ fleet
★★★ soy
meal
★ protein
★★★ granule
Faster and faster. Like the life cycle of livestock which may never see a meadow, manufacturing meat faster than the animal has become a daily routine. In these vast food lots, trampled by millions of cattle, not a blade of grass grows. A fleet of trucks from every corner of the country brings in tons of grain, soy meal and protein-rich granules that will become tons of meat. 越来越快，就像家畜一生都不会见到牧场，比动物生长更快的肉类生产成为日常程序。被数百万牛践踏的辽阔饲场，寸草不生。一队队卡车从全国各地运来，数以吨计的谷物，黄豆和丰富蛋白质的饲料最终变成一吨吨的肉。
★ diversity
★★★ standardization
Our agriculture has become oil-powered. It feeds twice as many humans on Earth but has replaced diversity with standardization. It has offered many of us comforts we could only dream of, but it makes our way of life totally dependent on oil. 我们的农业成了石油推动型，它能养活地球上双倍的人口，但多元性被标准化取代。它让我们享受到梦中才有的舒适，但却使我们的生活方式完全依赖石油。
★ rhythm
★★★ indefatigable
★ regularity
★★ reassure
★★★ hiccup
★★★ disarray
★★★ attentive
★★★ metronome
★ illusion
This is the new measure of time. Our world's clock now beats to the rhythm of these indefatigable machines tapping into the pocket of sunlight. Their regularity reassures us. The tiniest hiccup throws us into disarray. The whole planet is attentive to these metronomes of our hopes and illusions. 这是新的时间观念，我们的时钟随着那永不言倦的阳光机器的节奏一起摆动。它们的规律性让我们安心，极小的间断都会引发混乱，整个地球都注意到了我们寄托希望和幻想的节拍器。
★ illusion
★★★ proliferate
★★★ insatiable
★★★ profligacy
★★★ imminent
The same hopes and illusions that proliferate along with our needs, increasingly insatiable desires and profligacy. We know that the end of cheap oil is imminent, but we refuse to believe it. 同样的希望和幻想随着我们的需求，以及越来越难以满足的欲望和浪费而增加，我们知道廉价石油时代即将终结，但我们拒绝相信。
★★ embody
★ stretch
★ inhabitant
For many of us, the American dream is embodied by a legendary name: Los Angeles. In this city that stretches over 100 kilometers, the number of cars is almost equal to the number of inhabitants. 对大多数人来说，美国梦体现在一个传奇的名字上：洛杉矶，在这个方圆一百公里的城市，汽车的数量几乎与人口相等。
★ automobile
★ suburb
★★★ asphyxiate
★★ huddle
Faster and faster. Distances are no longer counted in miles but in minutes. The automobile shapes new suburbs where every home is a castle, a safe distance from the asphyxiated city centers, and where neat rows of houses huddle round dead-end streets. 越来越快，距离不再以英哩度量而是多少分钟车程，汽车重塑郊区面貌，每个房子都好像城堡般，跟令人窒息的市中心保持安全距离，一排排整齐的房子拥挤在死胡同四周。
★★ preach
The model of a lucky few countries has become a universal dream, preached by televisions all over the world. 少数发达国家的模式，通过遍及全球的电视节目，已变成了普遍梦想。
★ clone
★ reproduce
★ format
★ wipe off
★★★ pagoda
Even here in Beijing, it is cloned, copied and reproduced in these formatted houses that have wiped pagodas off the map. 即使在北京，这些模仿，抄袭和复制，千篇一律的房子已把古塔从地图上抹去了。
★★★ bore
★★★ rip
★ mineral
Faster and faster. The more the world develops, the greater its thirst for energy. Everywhere, machines dig, bore and rip from the Earth the pieces of stars buried in its depths since its creation: minerals. 越来越快，世界越发展，对能源的渴求就更高，到处都是挖钻矿物的机器，把盘古初开时埋在地下的星星挖出来，矿物。
★★★ ore
★★ extract
In the next 20 years, more ore will be extracted from the Earth than in the whole of humanity's history. 未来二十年人类从地球开采的矿物比人类历史上的总数都要多。
★ excessive
mining
★ reserve
Before the end of this century, excessive mining will have exhausted nearly all the planet's reserves. 到本世纪末，由于过份开采矿产，人类将会耗尽地球上的大部分资源。
★★★ shipyard
★★★ churn
out
★★ container
ship
★ tanker
★★ cater for
Faster and faster. Shipyards churn out oil tankers, container ships and gas tankers to cater for the demands of globalized industrial production. 越来越快，造船厂大量制造油轮、货柜船、煤气运输船，以应付世界性工业生产的需求。
★★★ hub
Ninety percent of trade goes by sea. 500 million containers are transported every year, headed for the world's major hubs of consumption, such as Dubai. 90%的贸易在海上进行，每年多达五亿的货柜，被运往主要的消费地区，例如迪拜。
★ artificial
Dubai is one of the biggest construction sites in the world a country where the impossible becomes possible. Building artificial islands in the sea, for example. 迪拜是世界上最大的建筑工地之一，一个将不可能变成可能的国家，例如在大海中建造人工岛。
★★ expend
★ immense
★★★ desalinate
★★★ skyscraper
★★ solar panel
★★★ culmination
★★★ totem
★★★ modernity
★ excessive
★★★ beacon
Dubai has no farmland, but it can import food. Dubai has no water, but it can afford to expend immense amounts of energy to desalinate seawater and build the highest skyscrapers in the world. Dubai has endless sun but no solar panels. It is the city of more is more, where the wildest dreams become reality. Dubai is a sort of culmination of the Western model, with its 800-meter high totem to total modernity that never fails to amaze the world. Excessive? Perhaps. Dubai appears to have made its choice. It is like the new beacon for all the world's money. 迪拜没有农田，但可以进口食物，迪拜没有水源，但可以花费大量能源，淡化海水并修建世界上最高的摩天大楼，迪拜阳光充沛但没有太阳能电池板。城市的需求永无止境，在这里最不着边的梦想也能变成现实，迪拜是西方模式的顶峰，它的800米高的图腾式建筑，一直让世界惊奇，过分吗？也许吧，迪拜似乎已作出选择，它恰似全球财富的像征。
★★★ deplete
Nothing seems further removed from nature than Dubai, although nothing depends on nature more than Dubai. The city merely follows the model of wealthy nations. We haven't understood that we're depleting what nature provides. 没有任何事物比迪拜更远离大自然，但没有任何事物比迪拜更依赖大自然，这城市只不过跟随富裕国家的模式，我们还不明白我们正在耗尽自然资源。
★★★ fivefold
★★★ deplete
Since 1950, fishing catches have increased fivefold, from 18 to 100 million metric tons a year. Thousands of factory ships are emptying the oceans. Three-quarters of fishing grounds are exhausted, depleted or in danger of being so. 自1950年起，渔业捕获量增加了5倍，由每年一千八百万吨增至一亿吨。数以千计的加工渔船淘空海洋，四分之三的渔场已枯竭，废弃或是频临废弃。
★ reproduce
Most large fish have been fished out of existence, since they have no time to reproduce. We are destroying the cycle of a life that was given to us. 大型鱼类已所剩无几，因为没有时间繁殖，我们把上苍赋予的生命循环摧毁了。
★★★ abound
★ colony
★★★ mammal
★★ vulnerable
★★ urbanization
★ famine
★ battle
★★ fishing
fleet
On the coastlines, signs of the exhaustion of stocks abound. Colonies of sea mammals are getting smaller. Made vulnerable by urbanization of the coasts and pollution, they now face a new threat: famine. In their unequal battle against industrial fishing fleets, they can't find enough fish to feed their young. 在海岸线上，到处都是资源耗尽的迹象，海洋哺乳动物的栖息地越来越小，海洋沿岸的城市化和污染已让它们变得异常脆弱。现在，它们又要面对一个新的威胁：饥荒，它们完全竞争不过工业化的捕鱼船队，无法获得足够的食物哺育后代。
★ boom
★★ fish
stocks
★★★ dwindle
In Dakar, traditional net fishing boomed in the years of plenty, but today, fish stocks are dwindling. 在达喀尔，传统的网具捕鱼在很久以前就很发达，但在今天，鱼类正在减少。
★★ staple
diet
★★★ envision
★★★ inconceivable
★★★ devoid
Fish is the staple diet of one in five humans. Can we envision the inconceivable? Abandoned boats, seas devoid of fish? 五分之一的人以鱼为主食。我们能想象难以置信的未来吗？废弃的渔船，无鱼的海洋？
★ scarce
★★ sparingly
★★★ replenish
★★ fossil
water
We have forgotten that resources are scarce. 500 million humans live in the world's desert lands, more than the combined population of Europe. They know the value of water. They know how to use it sparingly. Here, they depend on wells replenished by fossil water, which accumulated underground in the days when it rained on these deserts, 25,000 years ago. 我们忘记了资源是珍贵的，五亿人口住在沙漠地带，比欧洲人口还要多，他们懂得水的价值，他们也爱惜涓滴。在这里，他们依赖水井中的原生地层水，它是由二万五千年前降于沙漠的雨水聚集而成。
★★ fossil
water
★ derive
from
★ irrigate
★★★ central pivot
Fossil water also enables crops to be grown in the desert to provide food for local populations. The fields' circular shape derives from the pipes that irrigate them around a central pivot. 原生地层水令谷物得以在沙漠生长，为当地人口提供食粮。圆形的农田由围绕中心的管道进行灌溉。
★★ fossil
water
★★ nonrenewable
★★★ parchment
★ light
spot
★★★ patchwork
★★ plot
★ irrigation
★ reserves
★ severely
★★★ deplete
But there is a heavy price to pay. Fossil water is a
nonrenewable resource. In Saudi
★★★ arable
land
★★★ hothouse
★ irrigate
Israel turned the desert into arable land. Even though these hothouses are now irrigated drop by drop, water consumption continues to increase along with exports. 以色列把沙漠变成耕地，尽管温室使用滴灌方法，出口的增长还是令耗水量持续增加。
★★★ mighty
★★★ trickle
The once mighty river Jordan is now just a trickle. Its water has flown to supermarkets all over the world in crates of fruit and vegetables. 奔流的约旦河已成为涓滴细流，其河水伴随着一箱箱蔬菜水果飞往世界各大超市。
★ derive
★★★ salinity
★★ deprive
The Dead Sea derives its name from its incredibly high salinity that makes all life impossible. Deprived of the Jordan’s water, its level goes down by over one meter per year. Its salinity is increasing. 死海的名字来自它极高的盐度，没有生命可以生存。缺少了约旦河水，死海的海平面每年减少一米多，盐度一直在增加。
★★ evaporation
★★★ evaporite
★★★ sterile
Evaporation, due to the heat, produces these fine islands of salt evaporites- beautiful but sterile. 高温蒸发了海水,造成了这些漂亮的盐岛,美丽却不毛.
★ artificial
★ architect
★★ dedicate
In Rajasthan, India, Udaipur is a miracle of water. The city was made possible by a system of dams and channels that created an artificial lake. For its architects, was water so precious that they dedicated a palace to it? 在印度的拉贾斯坦邦，乌代布尔创造了一个水的奇迹，城市因这些大坝和水渠系统构成的人工湖而存在。对它的建设者来说，水是如此珍贵，值得为它建一座宫殿。
★★★ aquifer
★ reservoir
★★★ monsoon
★★★ replenish
The underground aquifers are drying out. Vast reservoirs will catch the monsoon rains to replenish the aquifers. In dry season, women from local villages dig them with their bare hands. 地下含水层开始干涸，巨大的蓄水池可以收集雨水补充含水层，在干旱季节，当地村中妇女以双手挖掘水库。
★ palm
★ tropical
★★ vegetation
★★★ lush
★★★ mirage
★★ prosper
Palm Springs is another desert city with tropical vegetation and lush golf courses. How long can this mirage continue to prosper? 棕榈泉是另一座沙漠城市，布满热带植物和葱绿的高尔夫球场，这幻影还可以繁荣多久？
★★ diminish
★★★ catchment
★★★ plummet
The Colorado River, which brings water to these cities, is one of those rivers that no longer reaches the sea. Even more alarmingly, its flow is diminishing at source. Water levels in the catchment lakes along its course are plummeting. 为这些城市提供水源的科罗拉多河是那些无法出海的众多河流之一，更令人担忧的是，它的源头水流正在逐渐减小，流域中的蓄水湖泊水位也在骤降。
★ abundant
★★★ unspoiled
Water shortages could affect nearly two billion people before 2025. Yet water is still abundant in unspoiled regions of the planet. The wetlands. 2025年前，水荒问题会影响二十亿人，不过地球上一些未破坏的地区仍然水量充沛，湿地。
★ crucial
★ marsh
★★ sponge
★ absorb
★ release
These wetlands are crucial to all life on Earth. They represent six percent of the planet. Marshes are sponges that regulate the flow of water. They absorb it in the wet season and release it in the dry season. 这些湿地对地球上的生命来说至关重要，它们占了地球表面积的6％，沼泽是调节水流的海绵，雨季时吸水，旱季时放水。
★ peak
★ give birth
to
★ landscape
★ diversity
★★ unequaled
The water runs off the mountain peaks, carrying with it the seeds of the regions it flows through. This process gives birth to unique landscapes, where the diversity of species is unequaled in its richness. 水从高山上流下，携带着流过区域的种子，这个过程造就了独特的风景，那里的物种多样性无比丰富。
★★★ veritable
★ ultimately
★ diversity
★ filter
★ digest
★ marsh
★ indispensable
★★★ regeneration
★★★ purification
Under the calm water lies a veritable factory where this ultimately linked richness and diversity patiently filters the water and digests all the pollution. Marshes are indispensable environments for the regeneration and purification of water. 在恬静的水面下有一个真正的工厂，这种极端的丰富与多样性的结合，过滤水份并消除所有污染，沼泽是水的再生和净化，必不可少的环境。
★★★ expanse
★★★ habitation
★ conquer
★★ reclaim
★★ pasture
★★★ livestock
These wetlands were always seen as unhealthy expanses, unfit for human habitation. In our race to conquer more land, we have reclaimed them as pasture for our livestock, or as land for agriculture or building. 这些湿地总会被认为不适合人类居住，人类为了开发更多土地，往往把沼泽变成牧场、耕地或用于建屋。
★ marsh
★ drain
In the last century, half of the world's marshes were drained. We know neither their richness nor their role. 在上一世纪，地球一半沼泽被消灭，我们竟不知它的富饶和所担当的角色。
★★ mist
★★★ canopy
★★ alleviate
★ impact
★ erosion
★★ humidity
Trees breathe groundwater into the atmosphere as light mist. They form a canopy that alleviates the impact of heavy rains and protects the soil from erosion. The forests provide the humidity that is necessary for life. They are the mother and father of rain. 树木呼吸地下水以薄雾形态送到大气中，它们形成遮篷缓和大雨的冲击，并保护泥土免于流失，森林为生命提供潮湿环境，它们也是雨水的来源。
★★ cornerstone
The forests store carbon. They contain more than all the Earth's atmosphere. They are the cornerstone of the climatic balance on which we all depend. 树林储蓄碳，它们含碳的份量比大气都多，是我们赖以生存的，气候平衡的基石。
★★ habitat
★★ biodiversity
★★ mammal
Trees provide a habitat for three-quarters of the planet's biodiversity, that is to say, of all life on Earth. Every year, we discover new species we had no idea existed, insects, birds, mammals. 树木提供地球四分之三生物品种的栖息地，换句话说，地球上所有生命，每年我们都能发现一些未知的物种，昆虫、鸟类和哺乳动物。
★ remedy
★ cure
★★★ secrete
These forests provide the remedies that cure us. The substances secreted by these plants can be recognized by our bodies. Our cells talk the same language. We are of the same family. 森林可以提供医治我们的药物，我们的身体可辨认这些植物分泌的物体，我们的细胞说同一语言，我们是同一家族。
★★★ mangrove
★★★ coral
reef
★ nursery
★★★ entwine
★ shelter
★★★ mollusk
★★★ tidal
wave
★ erosion
Mangroves are forests that step out onto the sea. Like coral reefs, they are a nursery for the oceans. Their roots entwine and form a shelter for the fish and mollusks that come to breed. Mangroves protect the coasts from hurricanes, tidal waves and erosion by the sea. Whole peoples depend on them. 红树林是海岸边的森林，像珊瑚礁一样，它们是海洋的托儿所，它们的根系缠绕着构成了鱼儿的庇护所并哺育软体动物，红树林保护海岸免于飓风、潮汐及海水的侵蚀，所有人类都要依赖它们。
★ ongoing
★★★ shrimp
★ install
★★★ mangrove
★★★ ventilator
★★★ aerate
★★★ antibiotics
★★★ asphyxiation
One of the reasons for the ongoing disaster is these shrimp farms installed on the mangroves' rich waters. Ventilators aerate pools full of antibiotics to prevent the asphyxiation of the shrimps, not that of the mangroves. 这种灾难的原因之一，就是在营养丰富的红树林水域建立这些养虾场，充氧机替代了红树林，向这些含有抗生素的池中充气，防止虾子窒息。
★★★ deforestation
★★★ hectare
★ tropical
★★★ lumber
Since the 1960s, deforestation has constantly gathered pace. Every year, 13 million hectares of tropical forest an area the size of Illinois- disappear in smoke and as lumber. 自1960年代始，森林砍伐越来越快，每年，有1300万公顷的热带森林，面积等于伊利诺斯州，消失在烟雾中或是成为木材。
★★★ ranch
★★★ soybean
★★★ livestock
★★★ poultry
The world's largest rain forest, the Amazon, has already been reduced by 20%. The forest gives way to cattle ranches or soybean farms. Ninety-five percent of these soybeans are used to feed livestock and poultry in Europe and Asia. 阿马逊是世上最大的热带雨林，其面积已缩小20% ，森林让路给牛场和大豆田，95％的大豆用来喂饲欧亚两洲的禽畜。
★ release
★ account for
★ emit
★★★ deforestation
★ principal
When they burn, forests and their soils release huge quantities of carbon, accounting for 20% of the greenhouse gases emitted across the globe. Deforestation is one of the principal causes of global warming. 当它们焚烧时，森林及它们的土壤，释放出大量的碳，占全球释放的温室气体的20%，森林砍伐是全球变暖的主要原因之一。
★★ catastrophe
★ provoke
★★ palm
oil
★★ cater to
★★ cosmetic
★★★ detergent
★ alternative
fuel
This catastrophe was provoked by the decision to produce palm oil, the most consumed oil in the world, on Borneo. Palm oil not only caters to our growing demand for food, but also cosmetics, detergents and, increasingly, alternative fuels. 在婆罗洲生产全世界销量最高的棕榈油引发了这场大灾难，棕榈油不仅满足我们增长中的食品需求，还可用于生产化妆品，清洁剂和替代燃料。
★ diversity
★★★ monoculture
★ productive
The forest diversity was replaced by a single species- the oil palm. Monoculture is easy, productive and rapid. For local people, it provides employment. It is an agricultural industry. 森林的多样性被单一品种的棕榈取代，棕榈树的单一栽培容易，产量高而且生长快，这为本地人提供工作岗位，这是一种农业产业。
★ massive
★★★ deforestation
★★★ eucalyptus
★★★ paper pulp
★★★ fivefold
Another example of massive deforestation is the eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is used to make paper pulp. Plantations are growing, as demand for paper has increased fivefold in 50 years. 另一大量森林砍伐的例子是桉树，它用于制作木浆，种植场越来越多，因过去五十年纸张的需求增长了五倍。
★★★ monoculture
★ diversity
★★★ eucalyptus
★★ toxic
Monocultures of trees are gaining ground all over the world. But a monoculture is not a forest. By definition, there is little diversity. One forest does not replace another forest. At the foot of these eucalyptus trees, nothing grows, because their leaves form a bed that is toxic for most other plants. They grow quickly, but exhaust water reserves. 单一树种在全球广泛种植，但单一树种不是森林，从定义看，差别不大。一个森林不能取代另一个，在这些桉树下，寸草不生，因其掉下来的树叶覆盖地面令其它植物不能生长，它们生长快速，但耗水也多。
★★★ soybean
★★ palm
oil
★★★ eucalyptus
★ essential
★★★ superfluous
★ resort
Soybeans, palm oil, eucalyptus trees. Deforestation destroys the essential to produce the superfluous. But elsewhere, deforestation is a last resort to survive. 黄豆，棕榈油，桉树，森林砍伐是舍本逐末，但在其它地方森林砍伐是生存的最后手段。
★★★ charcoal
★★★ consumable
★★ pearl
In Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, charcoal is one of the population's main consumables. Once the pearl of the Caribbean, Haiti can no longer feed its population without foreign aid. 海地，世界上最穷的国家之一，碳是最主要的消耗品之一，曾经是“加勒比海明珠”，如今却要依赖外国援助才能养活人民。
★ strip
★ bare
★ absorb
★★ vegetation
★ reinforce
★ erosion
★★★ impoverish
★ suitability
On the hills of Haiti, only two percent of the forests are left. Stripped bare, the soil no longer absorbs the rainwater. With no vegetation and no roots to reinforce them, nothing holds the soils back. The rainwater washes them down the hillsides as far as the sea. Erosion impoverishes the quality of the soils, reducing their suitability for agriculture. 海地山坡上的树林只剩下2％，裸露的土壤无法吸收雨水，没有植物和根茎的加固，土壤被雨冲走，雨水把它们从山坡上冲进大海，雨水侵蚀令土壤贫瘠，不宜耕种。
★ erosion
★ spectacular
★ fragile
★ layer
★★★ humus
In some parts of Madagascar, the erosion is spectacular. Whole hillsides bear deep gashes hundreds of meters wide. Thin and fragile, soil is made by living matter. With erosion, the fine layer of humus, which took thousands of years to form, disappears. 在马达加斯加雨水侵蚀景像非常壮观，山坡布满数百米宽的深坑，土壤由生命物质构成，薄而脆弱，经过数千年形成的一层腐植土因雨水侵蚀而消失。
★ chop
★★★ lumber
★ erosion
★★★ canoe
The Rapa Nui chopped them all down for lumber. They then had to face widespread soil erosion. The Rapa Nui could no longer go fishing. There were no trees to build canoes. 当地人把树变木材,导致大量水土流失,当地人无法再出海捕鱼,因为已无树木用来做独木舟
★ brilliant
★★ innovative
★★★ sculptor
★★ exceptional
★★★ navigator
★★★ vise
★★★ dwindle
★★★ unrest
★ revolt
★ famine
★★★ cataclysm
And yet the Rapa Nui formed one of the most brilliant civilizations in the Pacific. Innovative farmers, sculptors, exceptional navigators, they were caught in a vise of overpopulation and dwindling resources. They experienced social unrest, revolts and famine. Many did not survive the cataclysm. 但复活岛人曾建立太平洋最耀眼的文明，富有创造力的农夫，雕塑家和杰出的航海家，如今却在人口过剩、资源减少的夹缝中挣扎，结果酿成社会动荡，叛乱和饥荒，巨变中很少人幸存。
★★ triple
★ fundamentally
★ alter
Since 1950, the world's population has almost tripled. And since 1950, we have more fundamentally altered our island, the Earth, than in all of our 200,000-year history. 自1950以来，世界人口增长了接近一倍，但从1950起，我们对自已的岛屿--地球，所作的根本改变比过去二十万年都要多。
★★★ disparity
★ maintain
Today, half the world's wealth is in the hands of the richest two percent of the population. Can such disparities be maintained? 今天，全球一半财富掌握在占人口比例2％的富豪手上，这种不对称还能维持吗？
★★★ megalopolis
★★★ demographic
★★ diminish
Lagos is one of the fastest-growing megalopolises in the world. The new arrivals are mostly farmers forced off the land for economic or demographic reasons, or because of diminishing resources. 拉哥斯是成长最快的特大城市之一，新人口中多数是因经济或人口问题或资源减少而背井离乡的农民。
★ radically
★ urban
★ swell
This is a radically new type of urban growth, driven by the urge to survive rather than to prosper. Every week, over a million people swell the populations of the world's cities. 这是完全新型的城市增长模式，移民不为致富，只求生存，每周全球共有一百多万人涌入各大城市。
★★★ precarious
★ necessity
★★★ sanitation
One human being in six now lives in a precarious, unhealthy, overpopulated environment, without access to daily necessities such as water, sanitation or electricity. 目前每六人有一人住在不安全、不健康或人口密集的环境，缺乏日常生活用品，比如水、卫生设施和电。
★★★ scrabble
★★ scrap
★★★ afield
★★★ unspoilt
★ territory
All over the planet, the poorest scrabble to survive on scraps, while we continue to dig for resources that we can no longer live without. We look farther and farther afield, in previously unspoilt territory and in regions that are increasingly difficult to exploit. 地球上到处都是拾荒为生的人，但我们却继续挖钻并非生活必需的资源，我们觊觎更远的，未被破坏，但更难开发的地区。
★★ extract
★★★ tar
sand
★★★ bitumen
★★★ colossal
★★★ catastrophic
★ urgent
★ priority
We can still extract oil from the tar sands of Canada. The biggest trucks in the world move thousands of tons of sand. The process of heating and separating bitumen from the sand requires millions of cubic meters of water. Colossal amounts of energy are needed. The pollution is catastrophic. The most urgent priority, apparently, is to pick every pocket of sunlight. 我们仍可从加拿大的含油沙中提炼，世上最大的卡车运来数千吨沙，加热沙子和从中分离沥青的过程需要数百万立方米的水和大量的能量，此举带来灾难性的污染，最迫切的显然是尽量利用太阳能。
★★★ inconceivable
★★★ deforestation
★★ gigantic
★ molecule
★ upset
It would have been inconceivable for a boat to be here just a few years ago. Transport, industry, deforestation, agriculture- Our activities release gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide. Without realizing it, molecule by molecule, we have upset the Earth's climatic balance. 数年前在这找到一艘船是不可思议的，运输，工业，森林砍伐，农业，这些活动释放巨量的二氧化碳，不知不觉中那些分子破坏了地球的气候平衡。
★ visible
★ passage
★ via
★★★ Arctic
★★★ ice cap
All eyes are on the poles, where the effects of global warming are most visible. It's happening fast very fast. The Northwest Passage that connects America, Europe and Asia via the pole is opening up. The Arctic ice cap is melting. 全部目光都集中于南北两极，这里地球暖化的影响最明显，一切来得太快。经由北极连接美欧亚的西北航道打开了，北极的冰冠开始融化。
★★★ ice cap
★ shrink
★ prediction
Under the effect of global warming, the ice cap has lost 40% of its thickness in 40 years. Its surface area in the summer shrinks year by year. It could disappear before 2030. Some predictions suggest 2015. Soon these waters will be free of ice several summer months a year. 在全球变暖的影响下，四十年来冰冠的厚度减少了40%，它在夏天的表面积逐年下降，可能2030年会全部消失，有些则预言2015年，很快这些水就会在夏天的几个月里脱离冰川。
★★★ sunbeam
★ reflect
★ penetrate
The sunbeams that the ice sheet previously reflected back now penetrate the dark water, heating it up. The warming process gathers pace. 本来被大冰原反射的阳光现在直照深海并加热海水，这加速了暖化过程。
★ excessive
★ exploitation
★★★ accentuate
★ extinction
★★ disrupt
Is excessive exploitation of our resources threatening the lives of every species? Climate change accentuates the threat. By 2050, a quarter of the Earth's species could be threatened with extinction. In these polar regions, the balance of nature has already been disrupted. 资源的过度开发正威胁所有品种的生存？气候变化使危机加深，到2050年，地球上四分之一物种面临绝种的危险，在南北两极，大自然的平衡已瓦解。
★ ecosystem
★ border
★★★ repercussion
★ asset
Our ecosystem doesn't have borders. Wherever we are, our actions have repercussions on the whole Earth. The atmosphere of our planet is an indivisible whole. It is an asset we share. 我们的生态系统并无疆界，无论在那里，我们的行为在全球各地引起回响，地球的大气层是不可分割的整体是我们共享的资产。
★★ merge
★★★ burrow
★★★ ice sheet
★★ iceberg
More and more of these glacier-fed rivers are merging together and burrowing through the surface. It was thought the water would freeze in the depths of the ice. On the contrary, it flows under the ice, carrying the ice sheet into the sea, where it breaks into icebergs. 越来越多源自冰川的河流，汇集并在表层下穿过，人们以为河水会在冰的深处结冰，但恰恰相反，它在冰下流过，把冰原带进海洋，并碎裂成冰山。
★iceberg★
ice sheet
★★★ seep
As the freshwater of Greenland's ice sheet gradually seeps into the salt water of the oceans, low-lying lands around the globe are threatened. 当格陵兰的冰原淡水慢慢渗入海洋的咸水，地球各处低洼地区将受到威胁。
★★ coral
reef
★ sensitive
★ slight
★ essential
Coral reefs, for example, are extremely sensitive to the slightest change in water temperature. Thirty percent have disappeared. They are an essential link in the chain of species. 例如，珊瑚礁对海水温度的，轻微变化非常敏感，三成已消失它们是生物链中重要一环。
★ alter
★ modify
★ inhabitant
★★★ hospitable
In the atmosphere, the major wind streams are changing direction. Rain cycles are altered. The geography of climates is modified. The inhabitants of low-lying islands here in the Maldives, for example, are on the front line. They are increasingly concerned. Some are already looking for new, more hospitable lands. 在大气层，主要的季风已改变方向，雨水循环被改变，气候地理也被更改。住在像马尔代夫这样的低洼岛屿的居民处于最前沿，他们越来越感到忧虑，有些开始寻找新的，更适宜居住的土地。
★★★ river
estuary
★ invade
★★★ water
table
★★ deprive of
★ inhabitant
Seventy percent of the world's population lives on coastal plains. Eleven of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coastline or river estuary. As the seas rise, salt will invade the water table, depriving inhabitants of drinking water. 全球70%的人口住在沿海平原，十五个最大城市有十一个位于海岸线或河口，如果海水上升，咸水会侵入地下水，令居民失去饮用水。
★★★ migratory
★ inevitable
Migratory phenomena are inevitable. The only uncertainty concerns their scale. 人口迁徙已无可避免，唯一不能肯定的只是其规模。
★★★ Himalayas
★ eternal
★★★ glacier
★★ recede
★ essential
★ trap
★★★ monsoon
★ release
Even on the world's highest peaks, in the heart of the Himalayas, eternal snows and glaciers are receding. Yet these glaciers play an essential role in the water cycle. They trap the water from the monsoons as ice and release it in the summer when the snow melts. 即使在喜马拉雅山的世界最高峰，终年积雪和冰川也在减少，这些冰川在水循环中扮演重要角色，它们冷凝雨季的水变成冰，夏天冰雪溶化时再变回水。
★★★ delta
★★★ landmass
★ subject to
★★★ devastating
On the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, Bangladesh is directly affected by the phenomena occurring in the Himalayas and at sea level. This is one of the most populous and poorest countries in the world. It is already hit by global warming. The combined impact of increasingly dramatic floods and hurricanes could make a third of its landmass disappear. When populations are subjected to these devastating phenomena, they eventually move away. 位于恒河和雅鲁藏布江三角洲，孟加拉直接受到喜马拉雅山的变化和海面上升的影响，它是地球上人口最多又最贫困的国家之一，已经因全球变暖遭受打击，越来越严重的河水泛滥和飓风的蹂躏，将令其土地消失三分之一，当人们遭受这些灾难，最终只能迁移。
★★ spare
★★ drought
Wealthy countries will not be spared. Droughts are occurring all
over the planet. In
★ compromise
We are in the process of compromising the climatic balance that has allowed us to develop over 12,000 years. 我们正在向哺育我们一万二千多年的气候平衡作出妥协。
★★★ encroach
on
★★★ exacerbate
★★ disrupt
More and more wildfires encroach on major cities. In turn, they exacerbate global warming. As the trees burn, they release carbon dioxide. The system that controls our climate has been severely disrupted. The elements on which it relies have been disrupted. 越来越多的森林大火侵害主要城市，反过来，它们加剧全球变暖，树木燃烧时释出二氧化碳，调节我们气候的机制已被严重扰乱，它所依赖的环境已被破坏。
★ magnificent
★ landscape
★★★ permafrost
The clock of climate change is ticking in these magnificent landscapes. Here in Siberia and elsewhere across the globe, it is so cold that the ground is constantly frozen. It's known as permafrost. 在这壮丽风景背后气候改变的时钟正在嘀嗒响，在西伯利亚等严寒地区，因气候寒冷大地常年被冰冻，称为永久冻土带。
★ time
bomb
★★★ methane
★★★ permafrost
★ release
★ predict
★ literally
★ territory
Under its surface lies a climatic time bomb: methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. If the permafrost melts, the methane released would cause the greenhouse effect to race out of control, with consequences no one can predict. We would literally be in unknown territory. 在它的地表下的是一颗气候定时炸弹：甲烷，它比二氧化碳的温室效应强二十倍。如果永久冻土融化，释出的甲烷会令温室效应加剧而无法控制产生无法预料的后果，我们也许会处于未知地带。
★ humanity
★ reverse
★ trend
★ territory
Humanity has no more than 10 years to reverse the trend and avoid crossing into this territory life on Earth as we have never known it. 人类只有十年时间逆转暖化趋势，以免人类闯入这未知地带并过上从未试过的生活滋味。
★ intimately
★ reflection
★★★ call to account
We have created phenomena we cannot control. Since our origins, water, air and forms of life are intimately linked. But recently, we have broken those links. Let's face the facts. We must believe what we know. All that we have just seen is a reflection of human behavior. We have shaped the Earth in our image. We have very little time to change. How can this century carry the burden of nine billion human beings if we refuse to be called to account for everything we alone have done? 我们炮制了自已都无法控制的现像，从我们起源开始，水，空气和生命形态都密切相连，但近年来，这些连结已经遭到破坏。让我们面对事实，我们要信自已的知识，我们刚才看到的一切是人类行为的反映，我们按自已的想象改变了地球，我们只有很少时间去作出改变。这个世纪怎能肩负九十亿人的重担？如果我们拒绝为自已的所作所为负责。
★ refugee
★★★ sprawl
★★ solidarity
★ misery
The cost of our actions is high. Others pay the price without having been actively involved. I have seen refugee camps as big as cities, sprawling in the desert. How many men, women and children will be left by the wayside tomorrow? Must we always build walls to break the chain of human solidarity, separate peoples and protect the happiness of some from the misery of others? 我们的行为代价昂贵，其他没有积极参与的也会付出代价，我见过在沙漠上绵延的难民营，大得像个城市，明天会有多少男女老幼又将流离失所？我们一定要筑墙，来破坏人类团结分隔人种，维护某些人的幸福而不管其他人死活？
★ proportionally
★★ innovation
★★★ inexhaustible
Lesotho, one of the world's poorest countries, is proportionally the one that invests most in its people's education. Qatar, one of the world's richest states, has opened its doors to the best universities. Culture, education, research and innovation are inexhaustible resources. 莱索托是世界上最穷的国家之一，他们投放在国民教育经费上比例最高。卡塔尔是全球最富的国家之一，他们引进最优秀的大学，文化，教育，研究，革新是无穷无尽的资源。
★★ solidarity
In the face of misery and suffering, millions of N.G.O.'s prove that solidarity between peoples is stronger than the selfishness of nations. 面对悲惨和痛苦，数百万非政府组织证明人与人之间的团结，比各国的自私自利更强大。
★★★ Antarctica
★ immense
★ claim
★ reserve
★ treaty
★ humanity
Antarctica is a continent with immense natural resources that no country can claim for itself, a natural reserve devoted to peace and science. A treaty signed by 49 states has made it a treasure shared by all humanity. 南极洲有丰富自然资源，它们不属于任何国家，其自然储备只作为和平和科学用途，一份49国签署的协定使其成为人类共享的宝库。
★ preservation
★ harmony
★ exception
The first natural parks were created just over a century ago. They cover over13% of the continents. They create spaces where human activity is in step with the preservation of species, soils and landscapes. This harmony between humans and nature can become the rule, no longer the exception. 首批自然公园成立于一个世纪前，占大陆面积的13％，它们创造了人类可以保护物种、土壤和景观的空间，人类和大自然的和谐成为定律，而不再是例外。
★★★ devastate
★★★ reforestation
In South Korea, the forests have been devastated by war. Thanks to a national reforestation program, they once more cover 65% of the country. More than 75% of paper is recycled. 在南朝鲜，森林遭到战争破坏，归功于全国性的造林计划，全国森林覆盖率再次达到65％，75%的纸张能够循环利用。
★ military
★ conservation
★★★ ecotourism
★ primary forest
Costa Rica has made a choice between military spending and the conservation of its lands. The country no longer has an army. It prefers to devote its resources to education, ecotourism and the protection of its primary forest. 哥斯达黎加在军费开支和土地保护之间作出了选择，这个国家已经没有军队。它宁愿把资源投放到教育，生态旅游和保护原始森林方面。
★ enforce
★★★ selective
★★★ logging
★★★ hectare
★★ regenerate
★ guarantee
★ sustainable
★★★ mandatory
Gabon is one of the world's leading producers of wood. It enforces selective logging not more than one tree every hectare. Its forests are one of the country's most important economic resources, but they have the time to regenerate. Programs exist that guarantee sustainable forest management. They must become mandatory. 加蓬是全球最大的木材生产国，它强制执行选择性砍伐，每公顷只能砍一棵树，它的森林是国家最重要的经济来源，但它们现在有足够时间再生，现在已有保证可持续的森林管理计划，但必须强制执行。
★ justice
★★ prosper
★ decent
★ equity
★★ subsidy
For consumers and producers, justice is an opportunity to be seized. When trade is fair, when both buyer and seller benefit, everybody can prosper and earn a decent living. How can there be justice and equity between people whose only tools are their hands and those who harvest their crops with a machine and state subsidies? Let's be responsible consumers. Think about what we buy. 无论消费者或生产者，都必须争取公平，贸易公平买卖双方才能都获益，那样人人才能成功，生活舒适。一些人以双手作为工具，另一些人有农用机械和国家补贴，试问何来公正和平等？让我们做负责任的消费者，想想我们买什么？
★ eco-friendly
I have seen houses producing their own energy. 5,000 people live in the world's first ever eco-friendly district, in Freiburg, Germany. Other cities partner the project. 我见到过能自已产生能量的房子，五千人住在地球上首个生态友好区，它位于德国弗赖堡，许多城市成为合作伙伴。
★★ renewable
★ top priority
The governments of New Zealand, Iceland, Austria, Sweden and other nations have made the development of renewable energy sources a top priority. 新西兰，冰岛，奥地利，瑞典等国政府决定把再生能源发展作为最优先项目。
★★★ generating
plant
★★★ prototype
★ release
Every week, two new coal-fired generating plants are built in China alone. But I have also seen, in Denmark, a prototype of a coal-fired plant that releases its carbon into the soil rather than the air. 仅在中国，每星期就建成两座火力发电厂,但我在丹麦也见过一个火力发电厂的原型,它把释放的碳送到地底而不是送到天空。
★ imitate
★ capture
★★★ inexhaustible
★ cultivate
Can humans not imitate plants and capture its energy? In one hour, the sun gives the Earth the same amount of energy as that consumed by all humanity in one year. As long as the Earth exists, the sun's energy will be inexhaustible. All we have to do is stop drilling the Earth and start looking to the sky. All we have to do is learn to cultivate the sun. 人类可否像植物一样捕捉太阳的能量？每小时，太阳投向地球的能量相当全人类一年的消耗，只要地球存在，太阳的能量就会取之不尽，我们要做的是停钻地球把目光移到天空，我们要学会栽培太阳。
★★ testify
★★★ moderation
All these experiments are only examples, but they testify to a new awareness. They lay down markers for a new human adventure based on moderation, intelligence and sharing. 这些实验只是例子，但表明了新的认知，它们以节制，智慧，分享为本，为新的人类冒险奠下基石。
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