英语听力：自然百科 徒步南非：喀拉哈里大沙漠—8

 At last, the Orange River, the famous Orange River! It’s nice to see one with water in it. It is looking a bit low though. 

After the bare rock and sand of my first day, the Green Kalahari finally begins to live up to its name. But the Molopo River mouth isn't renowned¹ for places to stay and so I’ve arranged to be picked up, an overnight just upstream. Distances here, though, are rarely short. 

The new day means a return to the lush banks of the Orange and it’s an opportunity to learn about what the Green Kalahari is really capable of. 

H* here is helping² me plot my walk, but I found out last night he’s also a great farmer.

Grapes are a big business along the stretch of the Orange River and the ideal place to see the industry in action is looking down where I left off last night. 

There can’t be a lot you don’t know about this river, H*?

This river is the life of this area. Without this river, there’s nothing here. This is the lifeline and supports all the economic activity around this area.

It’s an incredible³ landscape, isn’t it? When you look behind us at these really arid⁴, dry rocks, it seems incredible that something like a grape can grow here.

This is ideal for them. You can’t get better. This got very good soil, very low rainfall, so you have a desert climate with a lot of water which is ideal for growing grapes, fresh grapes specifically. 

This is not to be mistaken for the wine that we enjoy, that’s not where they go.

No, no. But this area specifically is very famous for table grapes, exporting of grapes. 

So grapes we might eat, back in UK?

Yes, indeed. I think about 50% of all these grapes will go to the UK and you can buy that around Christmas time in Tesco, in Sans*. My dad started with grapes and he’s actually the first guy that started the export grape business in this area.

1 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

2 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。

3 incredible   

adj.难以置信的，不可信的，极好的，大量的

参考例句：

• Some planets run at incredible speed.某些星球以难以置信的速度运行着。
• Her answer showed the most incredible stupidity.她的回答显示出不可思议的愚蠢。

4 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。