TOEFL老托福聽力PartC原文

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老托福聽力PartC原文1

Scientists are always on the lookout for alternative sources of energy.

科學(xué)家總是在尋找替代能源。

Today we're going to discuss one that's so plentiful they say it could supply more energy than all the coal and oil in the world.

今天我們將探討一種如此充足的，他們說能夠提供比世界上所有的煤炭和石油更多的能量。

It's found in something called gas hydrate and, believe it or not, that's a kind of ice.

它被發(fā)現(xiàn)于某種叫做氣體水合物(的東東)而且，信不信由你，那是一種冰。

That's right. But the water in this ice was way down below the Earth's surface when it was frozen, so it was under a lot of pressure.

是的，但是在這種冰里的水在當(dāng)它結(jié)冰時會降到地球表面下很深(的地方)，所以它會在很大的壓力之下(所以壓力很大)。

And trapped inside the crystals of ice are individual molecules of methane --- that's what's in natural gas.

被困在冰的晶體中的是單個的甲烷分子——這就是天然氣。

All this makes gas hydrate pretty strange stuff.

所有這些(狀況)使得氣體水合物(成為)很詭異的東西。

If you touch a match to a piece of this ice, it'll burst into flame.

如果你把一根火柴接觸到這樣的一塊冰上，它將一下子燃燒起來。

And when geologists bring a chunk of it up to the surface to study at normal air pressure and temperature, gas hydrate begins to hiss and bubble, and in less than half an hour, the ice melts and the methane inside escapes into the air.

當(dāng)?shù)刭|(zhì)學(xué)家把一大塊這種冰帶到(地球)表面上來研究時，在正常氣壓和溫度下，氣體水合物開始嘶嘶冒泡，在不到半個小時(的時間里)，冰就融化了，里面的甲烷逸入空氣中。

Now, as you might guess, this can make gas hydrate kind of hard for miners to handle.

現(xiàn)在，像你們可能猜到的，這使氣體水合物對于礦工來說有點難以處理。

And then there's the problem of where it's located in frozen arctic regions or in ocean waters off the Atlantic coast, and up to a mile down.

然后就是它所處的位置的問題，在冰凍的北極地區(qū)，或者在離開大西洋海岸達(dá)一英里的海水中。

Environmentalists warn that mining it could even be disastrous.

環(huán)境專家警告說開采它甚至可能是災(zāi)難性的。

Offshore drilling could allow seawater to seep down into the huge icy deposits and release tons of methane up into the atmosphere.

離岸鉆探可能會然海水滲入龐大的冰凍沉積物，并且釋放無數(shù)的甲烷上來進(jìn)入空氣中。

And methane, our listeners may recall, is a greenhouse gas that could really worsen the problem of global warming.

甲烷，咱們聽眾應(yīng)該能想起來，是一種溫室氣體，真的可以使全球變暖的問題更加惡化。

So, gas hydrate may offer some interesting possibilities.

因此，氣體水合物可能提供一些令人關(guān)注的發(fā)展可能性。

But, with all these drawbacks, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to fuel my furnace.

但是，隨著所有的這些缺點，我不會屏住我的呼吸來等待它燃燒我的爐子。

老托福聽力PartC原文2

Today, I want to talk about the Cariboo gold rush of 1858, which began when gold was discovered in the frontier town of Quesnel Forks in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

今天，我想談?wù)勱P(guān)于1858年Cariboo淘金熱，它開始于黃金在加拿大英屬哥倫比亞省的邊境小鎮(zhèn)Quesnel Forks被發(fā)現(xiàn)時。

By 1861 thousands of men had flocked to the region hoping to strike it rich.

到1861年，成千上萬的人涌到這個地區(qū)，希望大發(fā)橫財。

Naturally, as the town grew, supplies had to be brought in, and this was done with mules.

自然，隨著鎮(zhèn)子的成長，供應(yīng)品必須被帶進(jìn)來，這是由騾子來做的。

Now the mules were quite reliable, but there were some drawbacks.

騾子是很可靠的，但卻有些缺點。

For example, a mule carrying a heavy load could travel only 15 miles in a day, meaning that a typical trip into Quesnel could take as long as 20 days.

比如，一頭負(fù)重的騾子一天只能走15英里，(這)意味著一段到Quesnel的典型的旅程會花上長達(dá)20天。

So, as the demand for supplies continued to grow, a group of merchants and packers decided to try a new approach, believe it or not, they shipped in a herd of camels.

因此，隨著對供應(yīng)品的需求持續(xù)增長，一群商人和趕牲口運貨的人決定嘗試一種新方法，信不信由你，他們用一群駱駝運貨。

I know that sounds strange, but camel trains had been used quite effectively during the California gold rush some 10 years earlier.

我知道這聽起來很奇怪，但是駝隊在大約10年前的California淘金熱期間使用的非常有效。

But the results in the Cariboo region weren't quite the same.

但是在Cariboo地區(qū)的結(jié)果并不完全一樣。

In fact it was a disaster.

事實上這是個災(zāi)難。

The camels couldn't carry the heavier loads the merchants expected them to.

駱駝不像商人希望它們那般的能夠負(fù)重。

Their two-toed feet were perfect for desert travel, but they weren't suited for Cariboo's rugged mountain terrain.

它們的雙趾足對于沙漠行走來說是完美的，但是它們不能適應(yīng)Cariboo崎嶇的山嶺地區(qū)。

To make matters worse, the mules became very agitated whenever they came across a camel and that caused a lot of accidents on the treacherous mountain trails.

更糟糕的是，騾子會變得非常暴躁，不論何時他們遇見駱駝，這在危險的山道上造成了很多事故。

The mulepackers went so far as to threaten the camel owners with a lawsuit.

趕騾子送貨的人甚至用訴訟威脅駱駝主人。

But the reason the merchants finally got rid of the camels is because these animals simply weren't cut out for the job.

但是商人最終放棄駱駝的原因是因為這些動物勝任不了工作而已。

老托福聽力PartC原文3

Look at our topographical map and you'll see that the middle third of the North American continent from the Rocky Mountains almost to the Mississippi River is pretty flat.

看看咱們的地形圖，你將看到北美大陸的中間三分之一，從落基山脈差不多到密西西比河是相當(dāng)?shù)钠健?/p>

This is the Great Plains.

這就是大平原。

This kind of area is sometimes called a prairie, sometimes a steppe. That's s-t-e-p-p-e.

這種區(qū)域有時被稱作大草原，有時(被稱作)干草原。那是s-t-e-p-p-e。

The defining features are level terrain, dry climate, and an absence of trees.

最典型的特征是水平的地勢，干燥的氣候，還有樹木的缺乏。

The Great Plains are actually the former bed of a shallow inland sea.

大平原事實上是以前淺內(nèi)陸海的海底。

Over millions of years, sediment left by glaciers, water, and wind smoothed out the dry sea bed.

數(shù)百萬年以來，冰川留下的沉積物，水，和風(fēng)把干燥的海底弄平了。

As I said, the Great Plaints are bordered on the west by the Rocky Mountains.

像我說過那樣，大平原在西部同落基山脈接壤。

And it's really the Rockies that are responsible for the formation of the grasslands.

而且落基山脈真的是形成草原的原因。

The mountains are so high that they block the heavy moist air traveling eastward from the Pacific Ocean.

山脈是如此之高以至于它們擋住了來自太平洋的向東面行進(jìn)的比重大的潮濕空氣。

Lighter, drier air passes over the mountains.

輕一些，干燥一些的空氣越過了山脈。

Until people intervened with irrigation and farms, only grass could grow on the dry, windy plain.

在人們用灌溉和農(nóng)場干預(yù)之前，只有草能生長在干燥的，多風(fēng)的平原。

In fact, we can divide the Great Plains into three zones.

事實上，我們能把大平原分成三個區(qū)域。

In the west, where it's driest and windiest, the grass is very short.

在西面，那里是最干燥并且風(fēng)最多的，草是很矮的。

In the eastern zone, there's more rain and grass grows as high as 360 centimeters.

在東部地區(qū)，有更多的雨水，草長到高達(dá)360厘米。

In the middle third, there's a mix of grass species that grow to an intermediate height.

在中間的第三個(zone)，有一個長到中間高度的草地物種的混合體。

老托福聽力PartC原文4

Did you know you can catch a mood?

你知道你會感染情緒嗎?

A bad mood isn't spread by a virus like the flu is, but it can be contagious.

壞的情緒不會像流感那樣通過病毒傳播，但是它有傳染性。

Moods sort of drift from person to person unconsciously.

情緒在一定程度上不知不覺的在人與人之間轉(zhuǎn)移。

Slight, unintentional signals carry the mood.

輕微的，無意識的信號攜帶著情緒。

You've probably experienced it yourself.

你們可能自己都經(jīng)歷過。

You're around someone who's feeling down and showing it—slumped shoulders, downcast mouth, subdued voice—all that sort of thing.

你在某人身邊，此人情緒消沉并且顯示出來——低垂的肩膀，沮喪的嘴角，弱弱的聲音——諸如此類的事。

Pretty soon you begin to feel depressed too.

很快你也會開始感覺壓抑。

Of course, good moods are also catching, not just bad ones.

當(dāng)然，好心情也會傳染，并不只是不好的(內(nèi)些)

Moods spread in steps.

情緒擴散(是)按步驟來的。

One person's facial expression or whatever is observed by another, who then unconsciously begins to mimic.

一個人的面部表情或者任何其他方面被另一個人觀察到，這個人就會不知不覺地開始模仿。

The process is automatic—a split second mimicry.

這個過程是無意識的 —— 一剎那間的模仿。

The person isn't even aware of the copying.

這個人甚至沒有注意到在模仿。

A full-blown case of mood transfer develops as this copying continues.

隨著這個模仿繼續(xù)，一個全面的情緒轉(zhuǎn)移形成了。

Not everyone picks up moods to the same degree.

不是每個人都在同一個程度上感染情緒。

Those who're most susceptible often have strong physiological responses to what's going on around them.

那些最容易受影響的，通常是對他們周圍發(fā)生的事有著強烈的生理反應(yīng)的人。

You know, people who break out in a nervous sweat easily and whose stomachs churn.

你們知道的，容易突然緊張出汗和胃部翻騰的人

People don't all send moods equally well either.

人們也不會都傳遞同樣的情緒。

The best mood senders are expressive people because mood contagion can't happen without signals.

最好的情緒傳遞者是有表現(xiàn)力的人，因為情緒傳染不能在沒有信號時發(fā)生。

If they aren't there—that is, the person gives no indication of the mood they're in—nobody will pick up the mood.

如果他們沒有——也就是說，該人沒有表露他們所處的情緒的跡象——沒有人將會沾染該情緒。

老托福聽力PartC原文5

We've probably all wondered how a new word gets into the dictionary.

我們可能都想知道一個新詞是如何進(jìn)入詞典中的。

Take the word "doofus," for example, spelled d-o-o-f-u-s, meaning a stupid or incompetent person.

用單詞“doofus”來舉個例子，拼寫是d-o-o-f-u-s，意思是愚蠢的或無能的人。

This word, which has been around since the late 1960's in a slang sense, made it into the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary only in 1993.

這個單詞，自二十世紀(jì)六十年代以來是以俚語的感覺存在的，到1993年才把它收入韋伯大學(xué)詞典。

Why did it take so long? Well, first of all, dictionary editors like to wait at least three years to be sure a word is going to last, especially a slang word.

為什么花這么長時間?好，第一，詞典編輯們喜歡等上至少三年來確定一個單詞將會延續(xù)，尤其是一個俚語單詞。

They don't want to put in a new word prematurely and then have to take it out in the next edition.

他們不愿意過早放入一個新詞，然后不得不在下一版把它拿出來。

But even for words that aren't slang, getting into the dictionary isn't easy.

但是即使是非俚語單詞，進(jìn)入詞典也并不容易。

New words have to pass a lot of editorial tests, including how difficult or easy they are to look up.

新單詞必須通過許多編輯測試，包括查找他們的難易程度。

There's also a limit to how thick a dictionary can be or how small its type can get before people feel they don't want to use it.

還有一個限制，在人們感覺他們不想使用它之前，詞典能達(dá)到的厚度或者它的類型能做到多小。

Some words have to come out before others can go in.

有些單詞在其他的(單詞)能放的進(jìn)來之前必須得(弄)出來。

The Collegiate Dictionary adds about ten thousand words to every edition, but it takes out only a few hundred, so choices have to be made very carefully.