【一起听英语】保护热带雨林

热带雨林有着地球的“肺”的称号，所以说热带雨林对于地球环境的贡献是巨大的，我们应该好好保护雨林。

Callum: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Callum Robertson and with me

today is Kaz, hello Kaz.

Kaz: Hello Callum.

Callum: Today we're going to be talking about the rainforest and in particular the

rainforest in Borneo. In 2007 there was an agreement to protect a large area of

rainforest and environmental scientists have just revealed some of the strange

and rare animals and insects that live there.

Kaz, have you ever been to Borneo or any other rainforests?

Kaz: I've been to rainforests and I've been lucky enough to have been to Borneo too.

I spent two years there.

Callum: Fantastic, right, well you'll be an expert on this topic. And I have a question for

you Kaz. It's estimated that there are about 10 million different species on the

planet. How many have so far been discovered? Is it:

a: 750,000

b: 1.7 million

c: 2.4 million

Kaz: Difficult one Callum, but I would probably say 2.4 million but I'm not sure, so

I might go with 1.7. 

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Callum: Make a decision!

Kaz: OK, let's say 2.4.

Callum: OK, We'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme.

David Norman from the World Wide Fund for Nature, the WWF, spoke 1 to the

BBC about the Borneo rainforest and the discoveries there. He talks about

rainforests being some of the most biologically diverse habitats on earth. Kaz,

what does he mean by a biologically diverse habitat?

Kaz: Well Callum, as I understand it, biologically diverse means that there are lots

and lots of different living things living in that particular area, that particular

ecosystem 2. So there are many different species living in the same place.

Callum: OK. Let's listen to David Norman. He mentions some of the diverse wildlife in

Borneo and specifically four different animals. What are they?

David Norman

These are some of the most biologically diverse habitats on the whole of the Earth. It's one of

only two places on Earth where you have elephants, and orang-utans and rhinoceros 3 and

clouded leopards 4 all living in the same territory. So it's really extraordinarily 5 rich tropical

rainforest.

Callum: Kaz, what animals did he mention?

Kaz: He mentioned: elephants, orang-utans, which are large apes, rhinoceros and

clouded leopards.

Callum: And in your time in Borneo did you ever see any of these, these animals? 

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Kaz: In a protected area I saw orang-utans and that was in Sabah, that's the northern

part of Borneo. But in my wonderings around the rainforests of Borneo I saw

many birds, many insects and many different kinds of apes and monkeys,

gibbons in particular.

In the rainforest you tend to hear more than you see. And the rainforest sounds

a bit like this. This is a recording 6 that I made at night. And the animals are

mainly frogs.

Rainforest recording

Callum: Fantastic, that's really, there's a lot of atmosphere there, isn't there?

Kaz: It's a very atmospheric 7 place. And as I said you tend to hear things before you

see them.

Callum: David goes on to talk about some of the more unusual creatures that have been

discovered in the Borneo rainforest. Here he talks about two different species.

What are they, and what is particularly unusual about them?

David Norman

You know quite remarkable 8 insects just found nowhere else on earth. There's the world's

longest insect has been discovered here. This is about half a metre long, so if this thing lands

on your head, its tail is somewhere down near your hand. It's amazing that only three

examples of this have ever been discovered, that's how rare it is, it's up in the forest canopy 9.

There's a frog, for example, as well, that has no lungs, this is extraordinary. This is a creature

that has evolved to breathe entirely 10 through its skin, so you know, extraordinary stories from

the natural world.

Callum: Extraordinary stories from the natural world indeed. What two discoveries did

he mention Kaz? 

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Kaz: He mentioned a frog that has no lungs. So, I have lungs, I breathe like this.

This frog, doesn't have lungs, it breathes through its skin. And he also

mentioned the world's longest insect at half a metre. Now just imagine that

landing on your head Callum!

Callum: I'd rather not! How about you Kaz, how do you feel about things like insects

and spiders?

Kaz: Well, insects and spiders, creepy-crawlies, I have no problem with them.

Callum: You don't mind touching 11 and holding creepy-crawlies?

Kaz: I don't mind them, in fact, as a young boy I used to keep stick insects at home.

Callum: Right, fascinating!

Kaz: But they weren't half a metre long, these were small, these were about four

inches long.

Callum: Well it's time to answer the question from the beginning of the programme. It's

estimated that there are about 10 million different species on the planet. How

many have so far been discovered? Kaz, you said …

Kaz: I thought 2.4 million.

Callum: To find the answer we're going to listen again to David Norman from WWF.

David Norman

There are about 10 million species perhaps on the planet and we've only discovered 1.7

million of those. 

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Callum: So the answer was 1.7 million. And you nearly got there, I kind of persuaded

you to choose one option.

Well, that's all from us today but do join us again for more 6 Minute English.

Thank you very much Kaz, Goodbye.

Kaz: Goodbye Callum.