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第一段
1 .Listen to part of a lecture in an earth science class.
听一段地球科学课程上的演讲
第二段
1 .The professor is discussing an area of the United States called the Copper Basin.
教授正在讨论美国一块叫做铜盆地的地区
2 .Now, you may not have heard of the Copper Basin.
你们可能没有听说过铜盆地。
第三段
1 .It's in the Eastern United States, in the Tennessee River Valley.
它位于美国东部，田纳西河流域
2 .It got its name because settlers discovered copper there In 1843.
它得此名是因为移民在1843年在那儿的发现了。
3 .And soon afterwards, it supported one of the largest metal mining operations in America.
后来，它支撑了美国其中一个最大的金属采矿工程。
4 .At one time, four mining companies employed 2500 workers in the Copper Basin.
在同一时间，四个矿业公司雇用2500工人在这个铜盆地工作。
5 .For that time period, it was a huge operation.
那段时间内，这是一个巨大的操作工程。
第四段
1 .Well, this mining operation turned the Copper Basin into a desert.
采矿使铜盆地变成了沙漠。
2 .In the 1840s, when mining operations started, it was a dense green forest.
在19世纪40年代，当时的采矿作业刚开始的时候，这里是一个茂密的绿色森林。
3 .But in the 1940s, 100 years later, it was as barren as the moon.
但在20世纪40年代，100多年后，这里变得如月球般贫瘠。
第五段
1 .Efforts to reclaim the land and restore the basin to the fertile valley it once was ... well, actually, those efforts are still ongoing.
努力开垦土地并把这片盆地恢复成肥沃的山谷，它曾经是......嗯，事实上，这些工作仍在进行中。
2 .It's been a long and tedious process.
这是一个漫长而繁琐的过程
3 .In fact, it was many years before any results were seen.
事实上，在有成效之前需经历很多年。
4 .Copper mining had gone on there for more than 90 years.
铜矿开采已经超过90年！
5 .The damage couldn't be reversed overnight.
这种损坏不可能在一夜之间逆转
第六段
1 .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 whitewater kayaking competition.
但是我应该指出，到1996年，流经这片盆地的其中一条小河的水源足够清澈了，还作为奥运激流皮划艇的比赛现场。
2 .And that river is still used now for recreation.
而这条河现在仍然用于娱乐。
第七段
1 .But... anyway... let's analyze the problem.
但是......无论怎样...让我们来分析这个问题。
2 .It wasn't the mining itself that caused such massive destruction.
并不是采矿本身造成如此巨大的破坏。
3 .It was what happened after the copper ore was extracted from the mines.
而是铜矿石从矿山提取后发生的事儿应该对破坏负责。
4 .It was a process called heap roasting.
这是一个被称为堆烧的工艺。
第八段
1 .Copper ore contains sulfur.
铜矿石中含有硫
2 .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.
堆烧烧掉了铜矿中的硫，留下的东西更接近纯铜。
3 .Well, in the process, large vats of raw copper ore are burned slowly, for two or three months actually, to lower the sulfur content.
那么，在这个过程中，大量的原料铜矿被慢慢焚烧，实际上要烧两三个月，降低硫含量。
4 .And this burning, well, let's look at the results.
而这个燃烧，嗯......让我们来看看结果。
第九段
1 .First, the mines were fairly remote, so there was no way to bring coal or other fuel to keep the fires going.
首先，铜矿所处位置相当偏僻，所以没有办法把煤或其他燃料运过来提炼铜，
2 .So they cut down local trees for fuel.
因此，他们砍伐树木作为燃料。
3 .And like I said, the fires burned for months.
就像我说的，大火燃烧了好几个月
4 .That's a lot of fires and a lot of trees.
。呃......很大的火和大量的树木。
5 .Deforestation was occurring at a rapid rate.
砍伐森林的情况越来越严重，
6 .And it was accelerated by the smoke from the burning ore.
它而燃烧产生的烟雾加速了这种破坏，
7 .Big clouds of sulfuric smoke, which was toxic to the trees, formed over the areas.
硫酸雾对树木是有毒的，
8 .Trees that hadn't been cut for fuel were killed by the fumes.
那些没有被砍伐作为燃料的树木被毒烟杀害了。
第十段
1 .The sulfur also mixed with the air and created sulfur dioxide
硫和空气反应，生成二氧化硫。
2 .And the sulfur dioxide settled in the clouds fell to the land in droplets of rain and sank into the soil.
二氧化硫形成酸雨并滴入泥土
3 .This is what we now call acid rain.
就就是我们现在所说的酸雨
4 .You've probably heard of it.
你可能已经听说过。
5 .But no one used the term back then.
但是，那时没有人用这个词。
6 .Anyway... the acid rain created highly acidic soil.
反正......酸雨导致高酸性土壤。
7 .Well, soon the soil became so acidic that nothing could grow, nothing at all.
很快土壤变得很酸，没有什么能够在这种土壤里生长，什么都没有。
8 .Vegetation and wild life disappeared.
植被和野生动物消失。
第十一段
1 .And it wasn't just the land and the air, it was the water too.
而且它不只是在陆地和空气中，在水中也有。
2 .What do you think happen to the rivers?
你觉得河流发生了什么？
3 .Well, there are no trees to absorb the rain, and there was a lot of rain.
有树木来吸收雨水，而且雨量很大！
4 .So the rain eroded the soil and swept it into the rivers.
所以雨侵蚀土壤并入河流。
5 .This is called silting, when soil particles are washed into the rivers.
这就是所谓的淤积，土壤颗粒被冲刷到河流中，
6 .And the silting continued at an alarming rate.
而淤积以惊人的速度持续。
7 .But this was toxic soil and toxic runoff.
但这是有毒的土壤和有毒径流，
8 .The acid and metals in the soil made the once clear rivers flow bright orange.
土壤中的酸和金属使得曾经清澈的河流变成亮橙色。
第十二段
1 .So it was really that one step in the process of producing copper.
所以就是这个在生产铜的过程中的一个步骤…
2 .The problems just built up and up until there was a desert where a beautiful forest used to be.
这个问题越来越严重，直到曾经是一片美丽森林的地方变成了一片沙漠。
第十三段
1 .OK. Now let's look at reforestation and land reclamation efforts.
好。现在，让我们来看看造林和土地复垦工作。