时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(十月)


英语课

 



Wind Turbines Take Steep Toll 1 On Birds And Bats


Estimates by the Department of Energy indicate that in the United States alone, there will be more than 100,000 wind turbines by 2030.


John Anderson is policy director at the American Wind Energy Association. “As time goes on, I think you will see wind replacing older plants that are being taken offline, but we are really capturing the new installation market," he said. 


But wind energy developers, in California and West Virginia, are being sued by environmental groups. A growing number of groups contend that hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are being killed every year by wind turbines, mostly at night when bats and migratory 2 birds fly around mountain ridges 3 where many wind farms are located. 


Kelly Fuller, with the American Bird Conservancy, said, “In 2009, an expert at the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated 440,000 birds were being killed by wind turbines a year. That was before we had more growth of the industry.”


West Virginia, in the eastern U.S., is a migratory corridor for birds. It's also an important habitat for bats -- millions of which have been dying from White Nose Syndrome 4. The illness has brought some species to the brink 5 of extinction 6. Now they face another threat. This amateur video shows bats flying at sunset near wind turbines in West Virginia. 


Judy Rodd is director of Friends of Blackwater, a West Virginia conservation group. She says this cave, close to a wind farm, houses thousands of hibernating 7 bats during the winter. “The first year, they found 430 dead bats and I think 50 dead birds in a very preliminary sketchy 8 study. The expert that analyzed 9 those numbers, Dr. Tom Kunz from Boston University, estimated that finding 430 dead bats meant that actually 10,000 bats had been killed in one year," she said. 


That's because the carcasses are scavenged by foxes, crows and other predators 10


The U.S. government supports wind energy development to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to fight global warming. 


David Cottingham is senior adviser 11 at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the service does not have the authority to halt a wind project that's on a migratory path. “But we do have the authority to prosecute 12 them for violating the endangered species act," he said. 


Despite efforts to reduce wildlife collisions, no permanent solution has been found. The wind industry opposes shutting down or limiting turbine operations. 


Industry, government, and environmental experts agree that choosing different locations for wind farms could be a good solution. But often the best wind currents are found in the paths that migratory birds and bats have been using for millions of years. 




n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
n.候鸟,迁移
  • Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
  • This does not negate the idea of migratory aptitude.这并没有否定迁移能力这一概念。
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊
  • The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
  • Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上,这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。
n.综合病症;并存特性
  • The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
  • Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿
  • The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
  • The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种
  • The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
  • The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。
(某些动物)冬眠,蛰伏( hibernate的现在分词 )
  • The hibernating animals reduce movement to far below the ordinary level. 冬眠的动物把活动量大大减少到低于一般的水平。
  • People find hibernating animals asleep. 人们发现冬眠动物处于休眠状态。
adj.写生的,写生风格的,概略的
  • The material he supplied is too sketchy.他提供的材料过于简略。
  • Details of what actually happened are still sketchy.对于已发生事实的详细情况知道的仍然有限。
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析
  • The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程,因为对他来说,爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 );奴役他人者(尤指在财务或性关系方面)
  • birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
  • The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.劝告者,顾问
  • They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
vt.告发;进行;vi.告发,起诉,作检察官
  • I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
  • Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据?
学英语单词
Actinostemma paniculatum Maxim.
animal lover
Anvera
artificial fever
ash cellar
Austrian orogeny
auto-tensiometer
Bennstedt
blackenized
boiler blow-off piping
Brasilia
Business Process Modeling Language
centre girder
commercial navigation
comoro
computerized hospital care
converging paper chromatography
CSF-LG
culvert section
dawson
dehydraiton
dialkylene
doublemetal
drive over
drives at
Dukathole
easiest
echinococcus
ecphylaxis
EHT
electric current metre
Fiorello La Guardia
food linkfood cycle
grandmet
grazing mark
gromril
guard rail (check rail)
habbaniyahs
handler parameter
heptaparallelohedra
high angle course
hospital light
house-boat
HSPDA
hydraulic surface grinding machine
hydroxyuracil
idiophanous crystal
igti
impacts of postwar
integer programming
inverse amplifier
irisated
isd
karamen
laser schlieren method
law enforcement official
lift a restriction on
make busy key
management style
mesalox glauciae
Mirfac
modicums
Moroccanism
multi-instruction signal data stream system
multiple microprocessor programming technique
napkin area dermatitis
one's eyes are bigger than the belly
one-thirty-second
overcenter
overvoltage method
palmar and plantar pits
paraplegic idiocy
pedicle of spleen
phosphohistidine
pipe type chamber
poor-laws
protobiology
Reckershausen
relative surplus population
relisten
ring dey
rock embankment
Roper Valley
self-testing-and-repairing computer
shitfloods
spiral to spiral
spore sacs
sterocilia
strategic behavior
symbolic machine code
synthetic drug(s)
system input
tanning leather
thermophones
transovarian
trowch
urethroscopes
werius
wide-band data
year end capacity
Zanthoxylum piperitum DC.