The effects of environmental change on birds劍橋雅思12-聽力原文翻譯及答案解析

一、The effects of environmental change on birds聽力原文：

OK,so we've been looking at how man-made changes in our environment can affect wildlife.

Now I'll discuss a particular example.

Let's take a look at mercury.

Mercury's one of the 120 or so elements that make up all matter,and it has the symbol Hg.

It's a shiny,silvery substance.

You may have seen it in old-fashioned thermometers,but it's not used much for domestic purposes now because it's highly toxic.

But the problem is that the amount of mercury in the environment's increasing.

The main reason for this is the power plants used to produce electricity.

The main source of energy that most of them use is still coal,and when it's burned it releases mercury into the atmosphere.

Some of this gets deposited into lakes and rivers,and if it's ingested by a fish it's not excreted,it stays in the fish's body and it enters the food chain.

So it's been known for some time that birds which eat fish may be affected,but what wasn't known until quite recently is that those that eat insects can also be affected.

So a woman called Claire Varian-Ramos is doing some research on how this is affecting birds.

And rather than looking at how many birds are actually killed by mercury poisoning,she's looking for more subtle sub-effects.

And these may be to do with the behavior of the birds，or with the effect of mercury on the way their brain works,so whether it leads to problem with memory for example.

And she's particularly focusing on the effects of mercury on bird song.

Now，the process of song learning happens at a particular stage in the birds'development,and what you may not know is that a young bird seems to acquire this skill by listening to the songs produced by its father,rather than by any other bird.

And Varian-Ramos has already found in her research that if young male birds are exposed to mercury,if they eat food contaminated with mercury,then the songs they produce aren't as complex as those produced by other birds.

So quite low-level exposure to mercury is likely to have an impact on male birds in a natural situation,because it can mean that they're less attractive to female birds,and so it can affect their changes of reproduction.

Now the way she's carrying out this research is worth thinking about.

She's using a mixture of studies using birds kept in laboratories,and studies carried out outdoors in the wild.

The lab-based studies have the advantage that you don't get all the variables you would in a natural setting.

so the experimenter has a much higher level of control,and that means they can be more confident about their results in some ways.

And of course they don't have to worry about going out and finding the birds in order to observe them.

So what are the implications here for humans?

Well,because many birds are migratory they may be transporting mercury far from contaminated sites.

For example,it's been found that ducks who'd been feeding at a contaminated site were later shot by hunters over a thousand kilometres away and presumably eaten.

But these birds likely had mercury levels high enough to warrant concern for human consumption.

In addition,going back to song learning by birds,we saw that this may be affected by mercury contamination.

Well,we also know that in humans,mercury causes developmental delays in the acquisition of language,and in fact this process is very similar in the brain regions it involves and even the genes that are involved.

But mercury contamination has other important implications for humans as well.

It's now known that an unborn child can be affected if the food eaten by its mother contains high level of mercury,and these effects can be quite substantial.

In the end,it comes down to whether more value is placed on human economic wellbeing or environmental wellbeing.

It's true there are new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants,but these will need billions of dollars to implement,and increase costs for everyone.

Some argue that's too much to pay to protect wildlife.

But as we've seen,the issues go beyond that,and I think it's an issue we need to consider very carefully.

二、The effects of environmental change on birds聽力中文翻譯：

好的，我們一直在研究我們環(huán)境中的人為變化如何影響野生動物。

現在，我將討論一個特定的示例。

讓我們看看水星。

水星是構成所有物質的120種左右的元素之一，它的符號是Hg。

這是一種閃亮的銀色物質。

你可能已經在老式的溫度計上看到了它，但由于它的劇毒性，現在它在家用上沒有太多用途。

但問題是環(huán)境中的汞含量正在增加。

主要原因是發(fā)電廠用來發(fā)電。

他們中的大多數人使用的主要能源仍然是煤炭，當煤炭燃燒時，會向大氣中釋放汞。

其中一些會沉積在湖泊和河流中，如果被魚攝入，則不會排泄，而是留在魚體內，進入食物鏈。

因此，一段時間以來，人們都知道吃魚的鳥類可能會受到影響，但直到最近才知道吃昆蟲的鳥類也會受到影響。

因此，一位名叫克萊爾·瓦里安·拉莫斯的女士正在研究這對鳥類的影響。

她并沒有研究汞中毒究竟導致多少鳥類死亡，而是在尋找更微妙的副作用。

這些可能與鳥類的行為有關，也可能與汞對其大腦工作方式的影響有關，例如，汞是否會導致記憶問題。

她特別關注水星對鳥類鳴叫的影響。

現在，學習歌曲的過程發(fā)生在鳥類發(fā)展的特定階段，你可能不知道的是，一只幼鳥似乎是通過聽其父親而不是任何其他鳥類發(fā)出的歌曲來獲得這種技能的。

瓦里安·拉莫斯（VarianRamos）在她的研究中已經發(fā)現，如果年輕的雄性鳥類接觸到汞，如果它們吃了受汞污染的食物，那么它們發(fā)出的歌曲就沒有其他鳥類發(fā)出的歌曲那么復雜。

因此，在自然環(huán)境中，極低水平的汞暴露可能會對雄性鳥類產生影響，因為這可能意味著它們對雌性鳥類的吸引力較低，因此可能會影響它們的繁殖變化。

現在，她進行這項研究的方式值得思考。

她將實驗室飼養(yǎng)的鳥類與野外進行的研究結合起來進行。

以實驗室為基礎的研究有一個優(yōu)勢，那就是你無法獲得在自然環(huán)境中可能得到的所有變量。

因此，實驗者的控制水平要高得多，這意味著他們可以在某些方面對自己的結果更有信心。

當然，他們也不必擔心為了觀察它們而去尋找鳥類。

那么，這對人類意味著什么呢？

嗯，因為許多鳥類都是候鳥，所以它們可能將汞運輸到遠離污染場所的地方。

例如，有人發(fā)現，在受污染的地方喂食的鴨子后來被1000公里外的獵人射殺，可能被吃掉了。

但這些鳥類的汞含量可能足夠高，足以引起人們的關注。

此外，回到鳥類的歌唱學習，我們發(fā)現這可能受到汞污染的影響。

嗯，我們也知道，在人類身上，汞會導致語言習得的發(fā)育遲緩，事實上，這一過程在它所涉及的大腦區(qū)域甚至所涉及的基因中都非常相似。

但汞污染對人類也有其他重要影響。

現在已經知道，如果母親吃的食物中含有高水平的汞，未出生的孩子可能會受到影響，而這些影響可能相當嚴重。

歸根結底，這取決于人們是更重視人類的經濟福祉還是環(huán)境福祉。

的確，對于發(fā)電廠的汞排放有新的規(guī)定，但這些規(guī)定需要數十億美元才能實施，并增加每個人的成本。

一些人認為，保護野生動物的費用太高了。

但正如我們所看到的，問題遠遠不止于此，我認為這是一個我們需要仔細考慮的問題。

三、The effects of environmental change on birds聽力問題：

Question 31-40

Complete the notes below.Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.The effects of environmental change on birds Mercury(Hg)?Highly toxic?Released into the atmosphere from coal?In water it may be consumed by fish?It has also recently been found to affect birds which feed on

Research on effects of mercury on birds?Claire Varian-Ramos is investigating:-the effects on birds'or mental processes,e.g.memory-the effects on bird song(usually learned from a bird’s)?Findings:-songs learned by birds exposed to mercury are less-this may have a negative effect on birds’?Lab-based studies:-allow more for the experimenter

Implications for humans?Migrating birds such as containing mercury may be eaten by humans?Mercury also causes problems in learning?Mercury in a mother’s body from may affect the unborn child?New regulations for mercury emissions will affect everyone’s energy

四、The effects of environmental change on birds聽力答案：

31.insects

32.behavior/behaviour

33.father

34.complex

35.reproduction

36.control

37.ducks

38.language

39.food

40.cost/price/bill/costs/prices/bills

五、The effects of environmental change on birds聽力答案解析

31.聽前預測：定位詞為feed on，此處應填名詞。題目解析：原文為“what wasn't known until quite recently is that those that eat insects can also be affected."，故填insects。

32.聽前預測：定位詞為birds’，此處應填名詞。題目解析：本題較容易，原文跟題目表達基本一致，定位至"And these may be to do with the behavior of the birds”，故填behavior。

33.聽前預測：定位詞為learned from，此處應填名詞。題目解析：定位至"Listening to the songs produced by its father”。故本題填father。

34.聽前預測：定位詞為less，此處應填形容詞。題目解析：本題出題句為“aren’t as complex as those produced by other birds.”，本題所需的詞為complex。

35.聽前預測：定位詞為negative effect，此處應填名詞。題目解析：根據“it can affect their changes of reproduction"可知要填reproduction。

36.聽前預測：定位詞為more，此處應填名詞。題目解析：考點句為“so the experimenter has a much higher level of control”，此處填名詞control。

37.聽前預測：定位詞為migrating birds，此處應填名詞。題目解析：定位至“Well,because many birds are migratory they may be transporting mercury far from contaminated sites.For example，it's been found that ducks who'd been feeding at a contaminated site were later shot by hunters over a thousand kilometres away and presumably eaten.”，故本題空處需填ducks。

38.聽前預測：定位詞為problem,learning，此處應填名詞。題目解析：出題句為“we also know that in humans.Mercury causes developmental delays in the acquisition of language”，本題答案為language。

39.聽前預測：定位詞為from,此處填名詞。題目解析：定位至“It's now known that an unborn child can be affected if the food eaten by its mother contains high level of mercury”，故此填food。

40.聽前預測：定位詞為energy,此處填名詞。題目解析：定位至“It's true there are new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants,but these will need billions of dollars to implement,and increase costs for...”，故此填cost。

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