英语音频杂志：河流

 　　Rivers: what do they mean to you? Are they just something boring you learn about in geography at school? For many people the answer is probably yes, but anyone who has ever lived beside one and gone for walks along its bank, swum in it, gone fishing, taken a boat or just looked down on it from a bridge, knows differently. Rivers are magic. Wouldn't you so much prefer to be right now gazing out over one instead of looking at your computer screen?

　　Take the names. Say each out loud, roll it round your tongue, listen to the sound of it and let your mind conjure¹ up what it will. The Seine, the Rio Grande, the Tigris, the Mekong.... What images do they evoke²? What legends and mystery? What promise of romance and adventure? How have they inspired our literature?

　　"The great grey green greasy³ Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees" *

　　What do you know about the quest for the source of the Nile? Who was David Livingstone? Close your eyes and picture feluccas, temples and pyramids. Baby Moses in the bulrushes. Imagine yourself on a paddle steamer on The Mississippi, sailing down to New Orleans and the Gulf⁴ of Mexico with jazz and blues⁵ and slavery in the air. Wave as you pass Huckleberry Finn fishing on a sandbank. Lean over the rail and watch the wake glittering…

　　Moon River, wider than a mile

　　I’m crossing you in style some day

　　Oh dream maker⁶, you heart breaker

　　Wherever you’re going I’m going your way……**

　　Shoot up to space and look down at The Amazon snaking through the jungle. Zoom⁷ back in close up to see freshwater dolphins, piranhas, and anacondas. Then switch over to the Congo. Not the longest but the largest river in Africa. Navigable from Kinshasa to Kisangani, the only link between these two cities, often severed⁸ because of war. Recently river traffic has resumed but for how long? Surrounded by green gloom, pygmies and forest elephants, habitats supporting the greatest diversity of life on the planet. And the inevitable⁹ waterway to the Heart of Darkness.

　　What images! And what despair at the apparently¹⁰ unstoppable destruction of it all!

　　The analogy of streams, rivers and their tributaries¹¹ as the veins¹² and arteries¹³ of the earth is not inappropriate. They are indeed the "lifeblood" of the world. Each river is part of a huge eco system. Major ones have catchment areas the size of half a continent. They are the natural habitat of zillions of animals, fish, insects, birds, plants and bacteria. Plus of course the greatest enemy to all of these - us.

　　Nearly every river in the world is under threat from humans. Rivers in Europe, Asia and North America are polluted and support very little life, though some admittedly have been cleaned up a bit. Salmon¹⁴ are now seen once again in the Thames, which not so long ago was basically London's great sewer¹⁵ to the sea.

　　In Africa, much of Asia and South America the greatest threat to rivers is deforestation. Vegetation acts like a sponge. It absorbs the rain and lets it out drop by drop. This either permeates¹⁶ the earth to form valuable underground reservoirs, or trickles¹⁷ down to form streams that merge¹⁸ into rivers. When people cut down trees you can imagine what happens. The entire catchment area turns into a desert and the river literally¹⁹ dries up and disappears. When rain does occasionally fall it briefly²⁰ resumes its existence as the water rushes in a great flood back down to the sea, carrying with it huge amounts of top soil and causing severe erosion, benefiting no one.

　　Thus, to take just one example, cutting trees in mountainous Nepal kills people in low-lying Bangladesh on a regular basis.

　　When a river dies so does the entire eco system. Plants, fish, birds and animals, even people lose their habitat and disappear. It is a disaster on an unimaginable scale, comparable to the worst nuclear war. The Sabi River in Zimbabwe (Rio Save in Mozambique) was once so wide and uncrossable all year round that a huge bridge, it was decided²¹, was needed. The engineer who designed Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia was engaged and the result was an almost identical steel suspension bridge, very impressive in the middle of Africa. Birchenough Bridge now spans a wide sandy waterless riverbed. It looks like its famous twin plonked in the middle of the Sahara. A paradise teeming²² with hippos and crocodiles has vanished. All that is left are poverty stricken people and goats.

　　Imagine if all the money spent on weapons, new airports, football stadiums, motorways²³ and presidents’ palaces was redirected to helping²⁴ people like that manage their resources properly! But no - we remain hell bent²⁵ on self-destruction, which we call "development".

　　We have known for years that the problems large dams cause far outweigh²⁶ the advantages. Dams may provide a good source of hydroelectric power but the damage they do to the ecosystem²⁷ of the river is immeasurable. The Aswan Dam on the Nile is a good example. Before it was built the Nile regularly flooded, depositing rich silt²⁸ along its banks, which then provided fertile soil for agriculture when it subsided²⁹. Now, because of the dam, the water level is controlled all year round and this does not happen. People resort to artificial fertilisers for their crops. These in turn get back into the river and pollute it. Before the dam was built there was a flourishing sardine³⁰ industry in the Nile Delta³¹, where it flows into the Mediterranean³². The sardines³³ fed on all the rich food brought down by the river. Now that industry no longer exists, along with the sardines and all the other marine³⁴ life that once thrived there. And there are similar cases all over the world.

　　Local people are always the ones with the most to lose, and the least power to do anything about these enormous projects. When the Kariba dam was built in the 1950's the Batonka, who lived along the Zambesi, were moved to a dry, barren place where they had to change from being fishermen to farmers. They lost their entire livelihood³⁵, way of life and culture and have virtually ceased to exist as a tribe. Their descendants however still remember the terrible curse that Nyaminyami the River God put on the dam. And they wait for the day when Nyaminyami will rise again to destroy it, causing an earthquake and a flood of biblical proportions, wiping out the whole of modern Zimbabwe (and poor Mozambique which has the misfortune to lie downstream).

　　Rivers can unite or divide people and countries in many ways, and there are often severe tensions between countries which share a river. When the Ataturk Dam was built on the Euphrates in Turkey it immediately raised fears downstream in Syria and Iraq for their water supply. Similar tensions exist between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Nile and politicians shamelessly exploit the situation for their own purposes. Yet these countries have to co-operate or die. There are predictions of wars over water in the future. That may very well happen, but even the winners of those wars will be losers when the water they have fought so hard over dries up completely.

　　Water is life. We need to think about every drop we use, and the consequences of every single thing we do that may endanger it. Do you really have to use detergent³⁶ to wash your clothes? Ordinary biodegradable soap may not make your shirts really white but they will be perfectly³⁷ clean. Just not dazzling white. Can't you wear some other colour? The state of our rivers reflects not only the state of our entire planet but the state of our states of mind. If rivers are sick it is because we are mentally so.

　　* quote from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.

　　** “Moon River” from the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Music by Henry Mancini, lyrics³⁸ by Johnny Mercer.

1 conjure   

v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法

参考例句：

• I conjure you not to betray me.我恳求你不要背弃我。
• I can't simply conjure up the money out of thin air.我是不能像变魔术似的把钱变来。

2 evoke   

vt.唤起，引起，使人想起

参考例句：

• These images are likely to evoke a strong response in the viewer.这些图像可能会在观众中产生强烈反响。
• Her only resource was the sympathy she could evoke.她以凭借的唯一力量就是她能从人们心底里激起的同情。

3 greasy   

adj. 多脂的，油脂的

参考例句：

• He bought a heavy-duty cleanser to clean his greasy oven.昨天他买了强力清洁剂来清洗油污的炉子。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

4 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

5 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

6 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

7 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

8 severed   

v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

10 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

11 tributaries   

n. 支流

参考例句：

• In such areas small tributaries or gullies will not show. 在这些地区，小的支流和冲沟显示不出来。
• These tributaries are subsequent streams which erode strike valley. 这些支流系即为蚀出走向谷的次生河。

12 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

15 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

16 permeates   

弥漫( permeate的第三人称单数 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透

参考例句：

• Studies show that water vapor quickly permeates plastic packaging material. 研究证明水蒸汽能迅速渗入塑料封装材料。
• Democracy permeates the whole country. 民主主义（的思想）普及全国。

17 trickles   

n.细流( trickle的名词复数 )；稀稀疏疏缓慢来往的东西v.滴( trickle的第三人称单数 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动

参考例句：

• Trickles of sweat rained down my head and neck. 我颈上头上的汗珠，更同盛雨似的，一颗一颗的钻出来了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
• Water trickles through an underground grotto. 水沿着地下岩洞流淌。 来自辞典例句

18 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

19 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

20 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

22 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

23 motorways   

n.高速公路( motorway的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most of Britain's motorways radiated from London. 英国的大多数公路从伦敦向四方延伸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cuba is well served by motorways. 古巴的高速公路四通八达。 来自辞典例句

24 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

25 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

26 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

27 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

28 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

29 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

30 sardine   

n.[C]沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• Every bus arrives and leaves packed as fully as a sardine tin.每辆开来和开走的公共汽车都塞得像沙丁鱼罐头一样拥挤。
• As we chatted,a brightly painted sardine boat dropped anchor.我们正在聊着，只见一条颜色鲜艳的捕捞沙丁鱼的船抛了锚。

31 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

32 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

33 sardines   

n. 沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• The young of some kinds of herring are canned as sardines. 有些种类的鲱鱼幼鱼可制成罐头。
• Sardines can be eaten fresh but are often preserved in tins. 沙丁鱼可以吃新鲜的，但常常是装听的。

34 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

35 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

36 detergent   

n.洗涤剂；adj.有洗净力的

参考例句：

• He recommended a new detergent to me.他向我推荐一种新的洗涤剂。
• This detergent can remove stubborn stains.这种去污剂能去除难洗的污渍。

37 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

38 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。