新世纪研究生公共英语教材阅读A第三单元翻译.doc

DesertA scorching sun,an endless sea of sand and a waterless, forbiddingly lonely landthat is the image most people have of deserts. But how true is this picture?炎热的太阳,无穷无尽的海洋沙子和干涸的土地，难以接近地孤独的土地这就是大多数人想象中的沙漠。但这是真实的画面吗? Deserts are dry lands where rainfall is low. This is not to say rain never falls in deserts:it may fall once or twice a year in a fierce torrent that fades almost as soon as it has begun, or which evaporates in the hot air long before it has got anywhere near the earth. It may fall in a sudden sweeping flood that carries everything in its path. Rains may only come once in five or six years for a decade or more.The Mojave desert in the United States remained dry for 25 years. 沙漠就是干涸的土地，在那里很少降雨。这并不是说沙漠从来都不下雨：它可能一年下一次或两次，雨一开始下就在一场奔腾的急流中消失，或者是雨水接近大地之前就被热空气蒸发。它可能加入到突发的、席卷性洪水，即它把它所到之处的所有东西都带走。大雨可能五年、六年、十年或更长时间只来一次。莫哈韦沙漠在美国干涸了25年。Without water no living thing can survive,and one feature of the true desert landscape is the absence of vegetation.With little rain and hardly any vegetation the land suffers under the sun. There are virtually no clouds or trees to protect the earths surface and it can be burning hot.Under the sun,soils break up and crack. Wind and torrential rain sweep away and erode the surface further.没有水,没有东西可以生存,沙漠的一个真实景象是没有植被。雨很少并且几乎陆地上所有植物暴晒在太阳下。几乎没有云或树来保护大地的表面并且它很炙热。在太阳下,土壤龟裂。风和暴雨席卷并且进一步侵蚀地表。 Thirty million square kilometers of the worlds land surface is desert. Throughout history deserts have been expanding and retreating again. Cave paintings show that parts of the Sahara Desert were green and fertile about 10,000 years ago,and even animals like elephants and giraffes roamed the land. Fossil sand dunes found in fertile and damp parts of the world show that these areas were once deserts.三千万平方公里的世界土地是沙漠。纵观历史沙漠的扩张和退去。洞穴绘画表明部分撒哈拉沙漠大约在10000年前是绿色和肥沃的,甚至像大象和长颈鹿等动物在这片土地上漫步。在世界上部分地区肥沃和潮湿的土地上发现的化石沙丘表明这些地区曾经是沙漠。But now the creation of new desert areas is happening on a colossal scale. Twenty million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Canada, is at a high to very high risk of becoming desert. With a further 1.25 million square kilometers under moderate risk, an area covering 30% of the earth land surface is desert, becoming desert, or in danger of becoming desert.但是现在新产生的沙漠地区形成了巨大的规模。二千万平方公里,相当于两倍加拿大面积的陆地,有很高的风险成为沙漠。另有125万平方公里的土地有中度风险成为沙漠，相当于30%的地球陆地是沙漠、或正在成为沙漠、或有风险成为沙漠。 The rate of growth of deserts is alarming. The worlds dry lands are under threat including some of the most important stock-rearing and wheat-growing areas and are the homes of 600-700 million people. These regions are becoming deserts at the rate of more than 58.000 square kilometers a year or 44 hectares a minute.In North Africa at least 100.000 hectares of cropland are lost each year. 沙漠增长的速率是令人惊恐的。世界的干涸土地受到威胁,其中包括一些最重要的 （）和小麦种植地区，那是6亿至7亿人的家园。这些地区以超过58.000平方公里每年或44公顷每分的速度成为沙漠。在北非每年至少100.000公顷的农田流失。 At this rate there is a high risk that we will be confined to living on only