外研版必修二册第六单元阅读讲解

Unit 6 Earth first

第62页阅读讲解

SHARKS:DANGEROUS OR ENDANGERED?
鲨鱼：危险动物还是濒危动物？

1 We see a woman swimming at night in a dark sea. Suddenly, she is pulled underwater. She surfaces, cries in fear, then disappears forever. This is the opening scene from the 1975 film Jaws, showing a shark attack. It tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers. Jaws was a great success, attracting huge audiences and winning many awards. It strengthened people's long-held idea of the great white shark as a dangerous animal.
我们看到一个女人夜晚在漆黑的海水里游泳。突然，她被什么东西拖到水下。她挣扎着浮出水面，发出惊恐的尖叫，然后就彻底消失了。这是1975年上映的电影《大白鲨》的开场画面，呈现了鲨鱼攻击人类的画面。电影讲述了一条大白鲨袭击并杀死游泳者的故事。电影大获成功，吸引了大量观众并赢得了众多奖项。这部电影也加深了人们对大白鲨的固有印象：这是一种危险的动物。

2 People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks, especially of the great white shark. Many people who saw the film started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea, afraid of the horrible creature from the film. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. At that time, nobody cared if sharks were killed, or how many were killed. People just wanted them killed.
人类本就害怕鲨鱼，而电影《大白鲨》使这种情况变得更糟。让人们对鲨鱼，特别是大白鲨，心生恐惧。许多看过这部电影的人开始相信，鲨鱼是吃人的有害动物。有些人因为害怕遇到电影里描述的这种可怕生物再也不去海里游泳了。而另外一些人则开始无所顾忌地捕杀鲨鱼。当时，没人在意鲨鱼是否杀死，也没人在意杀了多少。人们认为鲨鱼死有余辜。

3 After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. The fins are used in shark fin soup. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.
1975年之后，在美国附近海域里，大型鲨鱼的数量迅速下降，这一趋势很快蔓延到全球。这不仅仅是因为人类对鲨鱼的恐惧，还因为采割鱼鳍。采割鱼鳍是一种捕猎活动，人们捞到鲨鱼后将其鱼鳍割下，鲨鱼被扔回海里中缓慢而痛苦地死去，割下的鱼鳍用来做鱼翅汤。每年有数百万的鲨鱼因此丧命。

4 Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks' behaviour. “Sharks don't target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food, and they attack us by mistake. Only around six people are killed by sharks every year.
鱼鳍采割活动对《大白鲨》电影的原著作者——彼得·本奇利产生了意想不到的影响。1980年，本奇利在潜水时看到了可怕的一幕：渔民们正在这片海域采割鲨鱼的鱼鳍，海底遍布了死去的鲨鱼。本奇利亲眼目睹鲨鱼被杀，这引起了他内心的深刻转变。他意识到人类才是鲨鱼的威胁，而鲨鱼并非人类的敌人。从那天起，他开始为保护鲨鱼而努力。他承认自己书中关于鲨鱼行为的描述是不正确的。“鲨鱼并不以人类为攻击目标。”他说。专家们也已经证明了鲨鱼不会将人类视为食物，它们对人类的攻击都是无意的。每年因鲨鱼攻击致死的人数在六人左右。

5 Fortunately, not everyone who watched the film Jaws became afraid of sharks – some became interested in understanding them. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.
幸运的是，并非每个看过《大白鲨》这部电影的人都变得害怕鲨鱼——有些人变得更有兴趣去了解它们。如今，随着我们对鲨鱼了解的加深，越来越多的人愿意去保护它们免遭灭绝。

第68页阅读讲解

What's really green?
哪些才是真正的环保做法？

Most of us are aware that we must take care of the environment, and the majority of us take steps to save energy and reduce waste and pollution. But recently, some “green truths” have been shown to be only half true, or even completely false. Here are some common ones. Which are really green?
我们大多数人都意识到要保护环境，也采取了各种行动节约能源，减少浪费和污染。但是近来，一些“绿色环保真相”被证实并非完全是正确的，甚至是无稽之谈。下面列举了一些常见的环保观念，其中哪些是真正的环保做法？

(?) Paper shopping bags are better than plastic ones.
纸质购物袋比塑料袋好？

Plastic bags cause litter and are a danger to wild animals, which mistake them for food. It takes hundreds of years for plastic to break down, but much less time for paper. Because of this, people think paper bags are the better environmental choice. However, making a paper bag uses four times as much energy as making a plastic bag and up to three times the amount of water. The process also produces more greenhouse gases. In fact, both kinds of bags are bad for the environment. So, take a reusable bag with you when you go shopping.
塑料袋会变成垃圾，被野生动物误食后会对其造成伤害。塑料的分解需要数百年的时间，而纸的降解时间要短得多。因此人们认为纸袋是更为环保的选择。然而，生产纸袋所消耗的能源是塑料袋的四倍，而耗水则多达三倍。其生产过程也会产生更多的温室气体。事实上这两种袋子都不够环保，所以出门购物时请带上一个可重复使用的袋子。

(?) When you turn off a device, it stops using power.
关掉的电器不耗电？

When we turn off a device, such as television, it goes into stand-by mode. Devices in this mode still use power, and older devices in stand-by mode can use even more. This happens because electricity continues to leak from the device, even when it is turned “off”. To make sure your appliance is in fact off, remove the plug from its power supply.
当我们关掉电视等电器时，它会进入待机状态。这种状态下的电器仍然耗电，而且越旧的电器耗电越多。这是因为电器即使已经被“关掉”了，却依然有电流从电器中流失。为确保电器设备彻底关闭，请从电源上拔下电器插头。

(?) Eating local food is good for the environment.
吃本地食物更有利于环保？

It seems like common sense: eating local food should be better for the environment, because it does not need to be transported long distances and kept cold during transport. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. It is the production of food, not its transport, that uses most of the energy and produces most of the greenhouse gases. In some cases, local produce might have used more energy and produced more greenhouse gases than produce grown a long way away – even taking into account its transport.
这似乎是常识：吃本地产的食物更环保，因为不需要长途低温运输。然而事实没有那么简单。相比于运输，食物的生产过程才是消耗大部分能源及生产大部分温室气体的原因。在有些情况下，即使将运输因素考虑在内，本地的农产品也可能比距离遥远的外地种植的农产品耗能更多，产生的温室气体也更多。

(?) It's better to take a shower than a bath.
淋浴比泡澡更好？

It depends on how long you spend in the shower and how large your bath is. If you spend more than eight minutes in a shower, you'll use as much water as in a bath – about 50 litres of water. Therefore, the key is to keep your shower time as short as possible.
这取决于你淋浴的时间和你浴缸的大小。如果淋浴超过八分钟，那么耗水量就和泡澡一样多——大约为五十升水。所以，节水的关键在于尽量缩短淋浴的时间。

Environmental awareness is now part of daily life. But it's worth checking common ideas and opinions to see what's really green.
环保意识已经融入了人们的日常生活，但我们仍需仔细辨别我们已经习以为常的理念和观点中哪些才是真正“绿色环保”的。