英语听力：自然百科 澳大利亚大堡礁 Great Barrier Reef—9

 "Here it is. Got it, I think."

 

"A spring. And what’s actually coming out of this is fresh water. You can drink. You see this stuff bubbling out? This is what the traditional owners of this place call 'buiur bindi'—'fresh water in the ocean'." 

 

The locals call them "wonky holes", fresh water springs in the middle of the sea. 

 

"And it’s a really weird¹ feeling in there. You’re in the ocean here. You really think by all means all the water here should be salty, and it’s not."

 

But where does the fresh water come from?

 

There are at least 200 wonky holes. The biggest are up to 60 feet across, and some can be found 20 miles out to sea. The clue to their origins lies in their location. They are found opposite the mouths of rivers, because hidden below the surface are underground rivers from an ancient past. 

 

"It’s an evidence that at some point in the past, wherever we have the Great Barrier Reef nowadays, it still was not water, it was all land."

 

Today, below the surface are channels, carrying fresh water out to the sea. This hidden network was created during the last Ice Age. This whole place was transformed. The sea level dropped by 420 feet, leaving just the rivers flowing across this newly created land. They turned the seabed into a verdant² landscape where trees and shrubs³ flourished. This amazing transformation⁴ happened six or seven times in the last 150,000 years alone. This is the Great Barrier Reef’s alter ego—a world that has come and gone with every Ice Age. 

 

Surprisingly annihilation has been good for this reef. Each time the sea rises up again, the coral builds a new layer on top of the rubble⁵ from the old reef, another level on this limestone⁶ city. So with every wipeout, the reef has ended up even bigger.

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 verdant   

adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的

参考例句：

• Children are playing on the verdant lawn.孩子们在绿茵茵的草坪上嬉戏玩耍。
• The verdant mountain forest turns red gradually in the autumn wind.苍翠的山林在秋风中渐渐变红了。

3 shrubs   

灌木( shrub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gardener spent a complete morning in trimming those two shrubs. 园丁花了整个上午的时间修剪那两处灌木林。
• These shrubs will need more light to produce flowering shoots. 这些灌木需要更多的光照才能抽出开花的新枝。

4 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

5 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

6 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。