本集内容

Sapphire mining threat to rare lemurs 蓝宝石开采威胁稀有狐猴的生存

Helping cows to help the planet 减缓温室效应从给奶牛“减排”开始

文字稿

In the forests of Madagascar there's a new sound - the sound of men working. Poor men who want to get rich. Once virgin rainforest, felled and burned. Now look - mine shafts and spoil heaps stretch across the valley. See the damage it causes, threatening the habitat of one of the world's rarest animals, the Indri lemur. They spend their lives in the trees eating leaves and fruit and breeding only once every three years. There may be as few as two thousand left in the wild.

马达加斯加的森林里回荡着一种新的声音 — 这是人们在干活时发出的声响。这些贫困的人们想要变得富有。曾经的原始热带雨林，现在树木已被砍伐、烧毁。放眼望去，矿井和矸子山在山谷间绵延不绝。开采活动给当地环境造成了破坏，也给世界上最稀有的动物之一大狐猴的栖息地造成了威胁。狐猴在树上生活，以树叶和果子为食，而且每三年才繁殖一次。目前，野生的大狐猴数量大约只剩两千只了。

Christine Musasua’s farm only has five cows but it's part of a new battle against global warming because cows are a major contributor to climate change. By using a few simple techniques to change the way she farms, Christine has drastically cut her cows’ methane emissions. The techniques have been taught by a Swedish development organisation. Christine used to get one or two litres of milk a day. Now she’s getting over five litres a day. As a result, Christine will need fewer cows and fewer cows means less methane.

克里斯汀·穆萨斯亚的农场只饲养了五只奶牛，但她独特的养殖方式却是一场对抗全球气候变暖新斗争中的一环，这是因为奶牛是影响气候变化的主要因素之一。克里斯汀通过一些简单的技巧改变了她的养殖方法，从而大幅度减少了奶牛的甲烷排放量。这些技巧是由一家瑞典的研发机构所传授的。过去，克里斯汀每天收获一到两升牛奶，而现在，她每天可收获五升多。由于产奶量的增加，克里斯汀所需的奶牛数量会越来越少，从而意味着甲烷排放量也将随之降低。

词汇

habitat
（动植物的）栖息地

drastically
大幅度地，急剧地

练习

请从以下词汇中选择适当的答案来完成句子。注意：你可能需要改变单词的时态来完成句子。

habitat / drastically

1. The change to using electric vehicles will ______ cut air pollution in our cities.

2. Wildlife experts say that access to flower-rich ______ from spring through to summer is key to the survival of successive generations of the bees.

答案

1. The change to using electric vehicles will drastically cut air pollution in our cities.

2. Wildlife experts say that access to flower-rich habitats from spring through to summer is key to the survival of successive generations of the bees.