国家地理-2008-04-08 Coastal Cleanup 净滩大行动

Even as the first day of autumn hovers¹ over American shores, traces of summer linger.
So, every year at this time, nearly half a million people step forward to help, to volunteer in an international coastal² cleanup and the results can be staggering.  In the last couple of years alone, an average of 8 million pounds of trash is collected worldwide. 

Please, watch where you put your feet, watch what you grab with your hands, we have found in the past hypodermic needles, we found drug paraphernalia³.

From California to New Jersey⁴, and here along the banks of the Potomac River just outside Washington DC, people don protective gear and comb the coast for trash.

Thirty-five glass bottles...

From cigarette butts⁵ to candy wrappers, every little item is recorded by the Ocean Conservancy, the sponsor of the cleanup since it started in 1986. 

Because a lot of our trash that's found unfortunately is not coming off ships in the dark of night,it's coming from land, you know, areas, people who were at the beaches, people who were inland, and things are washing downstream. 

Disgusting, all that's out here, I was so shocked. When I came out here, I thought, oh, you know, people don't litter that much, and I just see stuff on the side of the road, then we've come up here, it's just everywhere.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Actually we can pick a lot of that up one day and then, the next day come back, and there just twice as much as it was the day before. So, it seems like there is no end to the, the trash.

At this site, 2,000 pounds of trash were collected in just an hour and a half. Despite their obvious progress, in many places such as here along the Potomac River, the work is far from over.

The river is going to require continued, maintained efforts for many generations to come but we are getting there, this is a sign that the next generation is going to care about the resource and is gonna wanna pass it on to the next generation improved.

Everywhere water meets land the goal of this cleanup is the same, to beatify and restore coastlines and to get people to think about how they dispose of their own garbage. So autumn's wind will blow cold but perhaps not so clattered⁶.

1 hovers   

鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovers in the sky. 一只老鹰在天空盘旋。
• A hen hovers her chicks. 一只母鸡在孵小鸡。

2 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

3 paraphernalia   

n.装备；随身用品

参考例句：

• Can you move all your paraphernalia out of the way?你可以把所有的随身物品移开吗？
• All my fishing paraphernalia is in the car.我的鱼具都在汽车里。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

6 clattered   

发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He dropped the knife and it clattered on the stone floor. 他一失手，刀子当啷一声掉到石头地面上。
• His hand went limp and the knife clattered to the ground. 他的手一软，刀子当啷一声掉到地上。