各位同学们,为了督促帮助大家持续提升英语能力,培君老师们特意给大家准备了雅思每日一包。每天覆盖听说读写内容,坚持完成两周以上,就能见到自己的英语能力不断上涨哟。
1. 听写包答案:
As we saw in the last lecture,
a major cause of climate change is the rapid rise in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last century.
If we could reduce the amount of CO2, perhaps the rate of climate change could also be slowed down.
One potential method involves enhancing the role of the soil that plants grow in, with regard to absorbing CO2.
Rattan Lal, a soil scientist from Ohio State University, in the USA,
claims that the world's agricultural soils could potentially absorb 13 per cent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
the equivalent of the amount released in the last 30 years.
And research is going on into how this might be achieved.
Lal first came to the idea that soil might be valuable in this way not through an interest in climate change,
but rather out of concern for the land itself and the people dependent on it.
Carbon-rich soil is dark, crumbly and fertile, and retains some water.
But erosion can occur if soil is dry, which is a likely effect if it contains inadequate amounts of carbon.
Erosion is of course bad for people trying to grow crops or breed animals on that terrain.
In the 1970s and 80s, LaI was studying soils in Africa so devoid of organic matter
that the ground had become extremely hard, like cement.
There he met a pioneer in the study of global warming,
who suggested that carbon from the soil had moved into the atmosphere.
This is now looking increasingly likely.
Let me explain. For millions of years, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been regulated,
in part, by a natural partnership between plants and microbes — tiny organisms in the soil.
Plans absorb CO2 from the air and transform it into sugars and other carbon-based substances.
While a proportion of these carbon products remain in the plant,
some transfer from the roots to fungi and soil microbes, which store the carbon in the soil.
The invention of agriculture some 10,000 years ago
disrupted these ancient soil-building processes and led to the loss of carbon from the soil.
When humans started draining the natural topsoil,
and ploughing it up for planting, they exposed the buried carbon to oxygen.
This created carbon dioxide and released it into the air.
And in some places, grazing by domesticated animals has removed all vegetation, releasing carbon into the air.
Tons of carbon have been stripped from the world's soils — where it's needed — and pumped into the atmosphere.
So what can be done?
Researchers are now coming up with evidence
that even modest changes to farming can significantly help to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Some growers have already started using an approach known as regenerative agriculture.
This aims to boost the fertility of soil and keep it moist through established practices.
These include keeping fields planted all year round, and increasing the variety of plants being grown.
Strategies like these can significantly increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil,
so agricultural researchers are now building a case for their use in combating climate change.
在上一堂课我们已经看到了,
导致气候变化的一个主要原因就是自上个世纪以来,大气中二氧化碳含量迅速增加。
如果我们能减少CO2的含量,也许气候变化的速度就也能有所减缓。
一个可能的措施是加强培育植物的土壤在吸收二氧化碳方面的作用。
来自美国俄亥俄州立大学的土壤学家Rattan Lal声称,
全世界的农业土壤可能一共能够吸收大气中百分之十三的二氧化碳,
这一数字相当于过去三十年里释放的二氧化碳总量。
研究还在继续进行,以探究怎样才能做到这一点。
Lal最初产生土壤也许在方面非常重要这个想法,并不是通过对气候变化的兴趣,
而是出于对土壤本身以及靠它生存的人们的关心。
碳质丰富的土壤颜色很深,易碎且肥沃,而且还能留住一些水分。
但是如果土壤中所含碳质不足,可能就会很干,而这也许会导致侵蚀。
对想要在那块地上种植庄稼或者放牧动物的人来说,土壤侵蚀当然是件坏事。
二十世纪七八十年代时,Lal正在非洲研究土壤,那里的土壤有机物质十分匮乏,
以至于地面变得极其坚硬,就像水泥一样。
他在那儿遇见了一位研究全球变暖的先驱,
这位研究人员提出,土壤中的碳质都挥发进大气里了。
现在看来这一说法越来越可信。
我来解释一下,数百万年以来,大气中的二氧化碳水平都被控制着,
部分是由植物和土壤中的微小生物——细菌之间的天然合作关系控制的。
植物从空气中吸收CO2,并把它转化成糖分和其他碳基物质。
这些碳产品中一部分会留在植物中,
另一些会从植物根部转移到真菌和土壤细菌中,它们会将碳保留在土壤里。
大约一万年前,农业的发明
打乱了这些古老的土壤构成程序,导致了碳质从泥土中流失。
当人类耗尽自然表层土并开始为了耕种而犁田时,
他们就把土壤中掩藏的碳质暴露在了氧气中。
这一行为制造了二氧化碳并将其释放进了空气中。
在某些地方,家养牲畜将地表所有的植被都啃噬殆尽了,碳质也因此进入了空气里。
大量的碳都被从地球土壤中剥离了出来,灌进了大气中,但是土壤才是需要碳质的地方。
那么我们能做些什么呢?
研究人员现在正在拿出证据证明,
即使是耕种方法中的微小变化,也能在很大程度上帮助减少大气中的碳含量。
一些农民已经开始使用一种叫做再生农业的方法。
这种方法目的在于通过既有的惯常做法,增加土壤的肥力,保持土壤湿度。
包括保证土地上全年都有植物生长,并且增加种植的植物的多样性。
像这样的策略能够大量增加土壤中保留的碳含量,
所以农业研究人员现在正在建立一个他们能用来对抗气候变化的案例。
2.阅读包答案:
这些头头们是活生生的证据,证明预防是可行的,而且我们能处理一些随着年龄自然而来的健康问题。
3.写作包答案:
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it.There are no longer problems of the spirit.There is only the question:When will I blown up?Because of this,the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about,worth the agony and the sweat.
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