新德里污染尤为严重：净化空气刻不容缓

屈联西

Cleaning up Delhi's air 净化新德里的空气


　　Solving South Africa's power crisis 解决南非能源危机


　　It's morning rush-hour in Delhi. Cars slowly inching. A city that's slowly choking. Delhi's air is the worst in the world. It's 25 times more toxic than the safe levels set by the World Health Organisation and cars are responsible for nearly half of the most dangerous pollutants. Every week more than 3,000 new cars are added to the roads of this city. The government's been trying to restrict their use and has banned cars that are more than 15 years old.


　　新德里清晨的高峰期，车流缓慢地向前挪动。这是一个逐渐被呛得透不过气来的城市。新德里的空气质量目前是世界上最差的，其空气有毒性指数已高出世界卫生组织设定的安全指数25倍，而其中近一半的最危险的污染物来自于汽车。每周仍有超过3000辆的新车加入到这座城市的道路中，尽管政府一直试图限制车辆的使用，并已禁止车龄超过15年的汽车上路。


　　Power from the sun. In South Africa's Northern Cape, sunshine is in abundance. Harnessing that power would seem to be a logical step towards solving part of the country's energy crisis. It's a crisis which is well documented – a strained grid, blackouts and now a price increase. As South Africa's predominantly coal-powered power plants strain to meet the demand, renewable energy is becoming more attractive.


　　来自太阳的能量！南非北开普省日照充足，而利用这些来自太阳的能量解决国家部分能源危机的问题看上去是一个合乎逻辑的步骤。一个超负荷的电网、经常性的断电和日益上涨的能源价格都充分的证明着能源危机的存在。目前，作为南非主要依靠的煤炭动力发电站已很难满足需求，可再生能源正变得越来越具有吸引力。


　　词汇


　　choking


　　透不过气来的，令人窒息的


　　toxic


　　有毒的


　　abundance


　　充足，盈余


　　predominantly


　　占绝大多数地


　　练习 


　　请从以下词汇中选择适当的答案来完成句子。注意：你可能需要改变单词的时态来完成句子。


　　choking / toxic / abundance / predominantly


　　1. Hundreds of fish were killed when _______ chemicals leaked into the river.


　　2. The film was _______ an action move but there was some romance in it too.


　　3. There was an _______ of wildlife when we went on safari in Kenya.


　　4. The smoke from the steam train _______ us as we went through the tunnel.


　　答案


　　1. Hundreds of fish were killed when toxic chemicals leaked into the river.


　　2. The film was predominantly an action move but there was some romance in it too.


　　3. There was an abundance of wildlife when we went on safari in Kenya.


　　4. The smoke from the steam train choked us as we went through the tunnel.