Lesson 13
13.3 The Indian Ocean Tsunami
The Indian Ocean tsunami, which took place in late 2004, shocked and grieved the whole world. It swept many Indian Ocean countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. The death toll reached 300,000 of whom 100,000 were Indonesians. Lots of families lost their loved ones. During this unexpected disaster, the number of people who suffered directly or indirectly reached 5 million. The international community has given disaster relief aid and donations to the disaster-stri分书cken areas. The aid from the Chine government and people was over 1.2 billion RMB. Such a great disaster in the 21st century derves pondering. Reflecting upon the disaster, people ask why it happened and whether it could have been avoided. People now are revealing in-depth thought and analysis on the cau of the disaster.
First, it was a punishment for humanity’s behavior against nature. The primary cau of the catastrophe lay in the great number of hous built along the ocean shores and the gre
at damage done to the environment. Earthquakes and their resulting tsunamis are natural phenomena. However, this tsunami claimed tens of thousands of lives. We cannot wholly attribute it to nature becau human beings have expropriated places that should not be expropriated. Numerous hotels and restaurants were built along the afront in many countries in order to attract tourists. This has undoubtedly incread the risk of being struck by natural disasters. Some experts have pointed out that coral reefs and mangroves in the shallow water areas could have protected people from the tsunami. However, in the past 20 or 30 years, people have fished and farmed shrimp and logged mangroves in excess. As a result, people have paid a heavy price.
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Secondly, the lack of preventive and warning mechanisms against tsunami left people completely unprepared and unprotected. The earthquake itlf didn’t cau the huge damage, but the tsunami that followed it 2 hours afterwards when many areas had already felt the quake. Had there been an effective preventive and warning mechanism, the local people would have had enough time to get clear. The death toll and other loss would have been minimized.
After the disaster, some state leaders gave speeches urging the international community to take preventive measures风华正茂的意思 and to minimize the loss caud by natural disasters like the tsunami. People should learn lessons from it and 包谷粑粑的做法take on the responsibility to protect the global environment. The governments of the countries concerned should work together to establish a preventive and warning mechanism. The international community should also learn lessons from the Indian Ocean tsunami and find out what still needs to be done, and rai people’s awareness of how to survive earthquakes and tsunamis. Though we cannot avoid similar disasters, we can certainly minimize the loss through our concerted efforts.
13.4 绿化我们的生活
尊敬的来宾、女士们、先生们：
在座的各位贵宾面前发言，我颇决惭愧，我觉得自己有点像是在班门弄斧。
今天我讲话的根本目的在于告诉大家: 决不要低估一些下定决心的人改变世界的能力。如果
你们记不住我讲了些什么，请你们无论如何记住一点，那就是，你们每个人都能够使这个世界变得更好。更重要的是，只要大家团结一心，共同努力，那么个人的作用也会更大。认识到的英文
我们需要改变，因为我们的生存面临着非常现实而严峻的威胁。我么都知道，世上只有一个地球，但有些人对此不以为然。我们不断地破坏地球的生态环境，以至于它已经处在崩溃的边缘。
从地平面来看，地球似乎巨大而不可摧毁，但是，在那美丽的蓝色海洋的下面却潜伏着灾难与破坏。大量的化肥、杀虫剂、化学产品和煤粉都在不断地毒害和扼杀海洋生物。海底的许多地方已经变得非常贫瘠，因为拖网已经破坏了古老的珊瑚礁及那些还不为科学家所知的海洋生物群。许多种类的鱼、海洋哺乳动物和鸟类已经灭绝或濒临灭绝。世界各地的生态学家都警告我们正面临着海洋生态系统的崩溃。那也就意味着我们的捕鱼业将遭受灭顶之灾。
我们消耗了大量的化石燃料，包括煤、煤气和石油。一个直接后果就是气候的改变。我们对石油的消耗如此之大，以致我们在一个世纪之内就已经永尽了地球上石油储量的一半。当我们消耗掉地球上一半的石油达到那个所谓的“产出巅峰”后，无论我们怎么努力石油产
量也只能走下坡路了。
嵩草可是当我们达到单处巅峰后，需求量却人在不断增加，不仅是来自那些迄今已消耗了大部分石油的西方国家，还来自像中国和印度等其他国家。这些国家现在都在试图赶上我们的自动化和工业化的水平。试想那两个国家的20亿人民也和我们一样浪费资源的话，地球将变成什么样子？如果我们自己不减少使用的话，我们就不能期望他们限制消费。
身材英语大自然有它的极限，而我们正在迫使大自然突破这些极限。我们就是自己最大的敌人。我们以为技术能解决一切问题，但事实上许多技术，比如基因工程，本身已经成为大问题。我们无法战胜自然，我们必须与之共存，我们对自然资源因该取之有度，而非使其枯竭。
我们不能再让大自然继续加速朝着崩溃的边缘走去，而是应该放慢脚步，停止贪婪，绿化生活。
我们要改变我们的生活方式，工作方式，改变我们的经营方式，改变政府制定的法规。这需要个人与政府的共同努力。
13.5 对话环保
Anchor: Welcome to our show. Looking through the calendar, we e a number of memorable days. For example, March 12 is Arbor Day in China; March 22 is World Water Day; March 23 is Would Meteorological Day; June 5 is World Environment Day. The memorable days are very special becau they are related to environmental protection. In the eyes of people advocating environmental protection, the days are not just days to remember, but are also warnings and even expectations. So today, our topic is environmental protection. Now, let’s welcome our distinguished guest, Mr. Strong. First, would you like to introduce yourlf? How old are you for example?
斯特朗：我感觉自己就像是21岁，但是日历上说下个月我就要75岁了。
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Anchor: But we can feel that at this moment, you are young and energetic, and more like 21. Mr. Strong, it the past, due to the different interests of the South and the North, the ideas about environmental protection and the respective positions they took were quite different. Do you think personally the gap between the developed and the developing countries in this regard is becoming larger or smaller?
