新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第二册 unit02a_new

[by:和谐英语学习网|http://www.hxen.net|和谐英语||和谐英语学习网]
[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Environmental Protection Throughout the World
[00:05.22]Introduction
[00:09.40]In most parts of the world,environmental awareness does not exist.
[00:16.13]The great majority of nations concern themselves with economic development,
[00:23.69]regardless of its effect on the global ecology.
[00:29.16]But in recent years,as environmental damage has increased,
[00:35.24]signs of change have sprung up in various pockets around the world.
[00:42.19]The following are a few examples of countries
[00:47.34]undertaking new environmental initiatives.
[00:52.70]Canada
[00:55.37]When European explorers first came to the New World,
[01:01.81]the fishing grounds off what would become eastern Canada and New England
[01:08.54]held abundant cod and other species.
[01:13.62]The area,called the Grand Banks,
[01:18.08]was the most abundant fishing ground in the world.
[01:23.34]Now,500 years later,
[01:27.88]excessive fishing has reduced the number of fish to dangerously low levels.
[01:34.86]In response,Canada has closed the area to cod fishing
[01:41.12]and set strict limits on catches of other species.
[01:46.88]When Canada took similar measures to protect the supply of herring in the 1970s,
[01:54.26]the fish eventually recovered.
[01:58.62]But experts say that some species today have been so wasted,
[02:05.06]they may never recover.
[02:08.84]The government also faces protests from Canadian fishermen.
[02:14.82]About 40,000 are now unemployed as a result of the fishing bans
[02:21.55]and loss of their fish supply.
[02:25.80]Costa Rica
[02:28.75]This Central American country has one of the most ambitious programs in the world
[02:35.70]to reserve the ecological diversity of its tropical rain forests.
[02:42.86]Much of the country has already been clear-cut,
[02:48.01]and soil erosion has been extensive.
[02:52.48]But a series of new environmental laws,
[02:57.23]together with the creation of parks and nature preserves that cover one quarter of the country,
[03:04.90]are aimed at protecting Costa Rica’s remaining forests.
[03:11.05]Brazil
[03:14.94]Brazil is home to the world’s largest jungle rain forest, the Amazon.
[03:22.10]For decades,the government sought to colonize and develop the Amazon,
[03:28.76]bringing severe environmental disaster to the area and its people.
[03:35.42]But in 1991,under pressure from environmentalists around the world,
[03:44.17]Brazil reversed course.
[03:48.13]It ended tax favors that had encouraged clearing of the Amazon rain forest,
[03:55.08]and agreed to a plan to finance new forest protection projects.
[04:02.21]Cattle farmers,miners,and settlers
[04:07.39]have protested the move and continue to destroy the forests,
[04:13.76]although at a slower pace than before.
[04:18.41]The conflict enlarged last year
[04:23.16]when miners killed a group of Amazon Indians
[04:28.31]in order to seize their land.
[04:31.87]The government promises it will protect the region’s native people,
[04:37.63]but questions remain as to its true level of commitment.
[04:43.90]Eastern Europe
[04:48.07]The nations of Eastern Europe,including Poland,Hungary,
[04:54.05]and the Czech and Slovak Republics,
[04:58.51]are considered the most polluted of all the world’s industrialized countries.
[05:05.46]Heavy metals from coal mining have contaminated much of the area’s waters.
[05:12.52]Rivers,land,and forests are so contaminated that many are now biologically dead.
[05:21.26]In a special series of treaties,
[05:25.62]Eastern European countries and other nations,
[05:30.26]including the United States,
[05:34.33]have set up special funds for environmental cleanups
[05:40.09]and improving the region’s power plants.
[05:44.74]In addition,Germany and the Czech Republic
[05:51.11]have signed a treaty to protect the Elbe River from further contamination.
[05:58.24]Experts say the treaty could serve as a model
[06:03.06]for protecting other rivers in the region,
[06:07.63]including the Oder and Danube.
[06:12.28]Ghana
[06:14.90]Ghana’s population has been growing by 3.2 percent a year.