时间:2019-01-02 作者:英语课 分类:晨读英语美文60篇


英语课

The Dry Lands


 In most people’s minds the term desert conjures 1 up an image of undulating sand dunes 2 beneath the hot sun. There are, however, many other kinds of desert. Antarctica, Greenland and the polar ice packs are cold deserts where the water is locked up in ice. As for the Earth’s arid 3 regions, they exist both in areas such as Arabia where the climate is permanently 4 hot, and in others such as the steppes of central Asia where the winters are cold. The common denominator between them is that on average more water evaporates than falls as rain.Where there is practically no rain, as in the Sahara and the Gobi, there is virtually no life.


 Regions in which enough water falls to allow grazing and perhaps some dry farming are described as semi-arid. There are many of these in Africa, India, Argentina and Australia. Arid and semi-arid regions make up more than a third of the world’s land surface, whereas cultivated land accounts only for one-tenth. They are concentrated in two zones straddling the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, on each side of the Equator.


 The main cause of aridity 5 is to be found in the circulation of the atmosphere above our revolving 6 globe. The almost permanent ridges 7 of high pressure that predominate around the 30olatitude mark stop rain from forming. Great distance from the oceans or the presence of mountain barriers are other factors that contribute to the aridity of regions like central Asia or the American Midwest.


 So deserts have not been created by humankind, as is something claimed, though people do contribute to decertification. In our time increased population pressure and over-intensive agriculture and grazing are accelerating soil degradation 8 and worsening the effects of drought in semi-arid regions such as the African Sahel and northeastern Brazil.


 There is another way in which human activity may affect the evolution of arid regions. It is thought that the accumulation in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide from automobile 9 engines, heating or industry and other gases of industrial and agricultural origin can lead to global warming through the ‘greenhouse effect’. It is not yet possible to predict the consequences of such global warming for different regions, but it may well be that in a few decades some arid regions will be direr still while others will be less so. In that case, people will have brought about a significant climatic change, comparable to those that have taken place in the course of geological history.



用魔术变出( conjure的第三人称单数 ); 祈求,恳求; 变戏法; (变魔术般地) 使…出现
  • The word 'birthday' conjures up images of presents and parties. “生日”这个词使人想起礼物和聚会的情景。
  • The name Sahara conjures up images of a desert of aridity. "撒哈拉"这个名字使人想起干旱的沙漠情景。
沙丘( dune的名词复数 )
  • The boy galloped over the dunes barefoot. 那男孩光着脚在沙丘间飞跑。
  • Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat. 将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。
adj.干旱的;(土地)贫瘠的
  • 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。
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地
  • The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
  • The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
n.干旱,乏味;干燥性;荒芜
  • The name Sahara conjures up images of a desert of aridity. "撒哈拉"这个名字使人想起干旱的沙漠情景。 来自辞典例句
  • The name conjures up images of a desert of aridity. “撒哈拉”这个名字使人想起“干旱”的沙漠情景。 来自互联网
adj.旋转的,轮转式的;循环的v.(使)旋转( revolve的现在分词 );细想
  • The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
  • The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。
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.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变
  • 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。
  • Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。
n.汽车,机动车
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
学英语单词
a horse of another color
agricultural surplus
ako
all-girl
Almirante Brown Canyon
Annobón, I.de
apricot jam
Aprigliano
Ashton Irwin
AZS automatic zero set
back away from
Bar Hebraeus
benzoglycolisacid
bezoglioxaline
brass alloys
capillary refill
capital cover
centralized school
chance events
clinical symptoms
compact nebula
composite functor
current-balance relay
damnably
dry unit
eiusdem generis
electrostatic oscillograph
elix
endoliths
Eulamellibranchia
eupelmus tachardiae
exchange-correlation
extraction eluting resin
family typhlopidaes
flyspecks
free-agents
ghotbzadehs
GMSS
gonostomatid
grouped column
hemiketal
hydro-vac power brake
instinct with
internal external rotary pump
intra-industry
jahorina
job subsidies
junk collector
kronrod bit matrices
Lagrange Peak
laminar model
light loadline
live guy
live-work
logical calculus
master-of-ceremonies
neoglycoconjugates
non-ionic surface-active detergent
noncoherent combing loss
off-site backup
oil immersed self cooled transformer
oligotoma greeniana
paratextualities
pfl-activase
phosphoglucosamine mutase
pinnatella ambigua
pitches
pledged asset
post-nuptial molt
propellant handling
protein maintenance requirement
pulse repetition frequency jitter
purpura scorbutica
quercus ilexes
radionuclide kinetics
re-jigger
regenerative oscillation
regiones dorsalis manus
restructurer
shaded pole type
shrouds
signalised
slow-spiral drill
solution Thiersch's
spatial charging
successio ab intestato
Sungaigerong
switch tender
tally charge
terminal sinus
thermal stabilizer
trig function
tsering
turbidity transmitter
uniformly absolutely continuous
upper oil-header
vena gastrica-dextra
Venetian School
warrantying
waveform changes
win a lawsuit
Xiao Hong