北师大初中英语八年级上册 Unit3 12-1（MP3+LRC）

[00:01.59]UNIT 3

[00:07.61]Lesson 12

[00:13.52]Exercise 1.2

[00:16.30]The Disappearing Sea

[00:18.87]The Aral Sea is a large lake in Central Asia.

[00:23.46]There are two large rivers

[00:25.45]that give water to the lake.

[00:27.98]Around 1960, farmers started to take water

[00:31.93]from the rivers to use it on their farms.

[00:35.32]This happened for a long time but nobody saw

[00:39.38]that there was a danger.

[00:41.54]Then, during the 1980s,

[00:44.44]very little water-or sometimes no waster at all

[00:49.16]-reached the Aral Sea.

[00:51.15]In 1988, the lake separated into

[00:54.87]the Large Aral Sea and the Small Aral Sea.

[00:59.00]Over the years a lot of the lake disappeared.

[01:02.66]But still the government did nothing.

[01:06.29]The Disappearing Towns

[01:08.99]The water became very salty

[01:11.96]and this was not good for plant and animal life

[01:15.81]Now the water of the Aral Sea is nolonger clear

[01:20.36]There are no more fish.

[01:22.96]Fishermen who worked on the lake

[01:25.88]cannot work any more.

[01:28.09]There were many towns at the side of the lake

[01:31.40]before 1960.

[01:33.55]Now these towns are many miles from the water.

[01:38.28]There isn't anything there--

[01:40.56]just old fishing boats lying on the sand.

[01:40.56]