新视野大学英语视听说教程 3 Unit 3-12

News Report
Prince More Precious Than the Diamond
Script
People have long known the saying “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” But this may be changing. There’s a new stone on the gem¹ market, tanzanite, and it is giving diamonds some serious competition.
Tanzanite was one of a number of gems² discovered in East Africa in the 1960s. The new colors and varieties changed the gem market. But the real gem among these stones was tanzanite, discovered in 1967 in Tanzania. The stone was named after its country of origin by New York’s Tiffany and Co. which introduced it to the world. It draws one’s attention quickly with its color—blue, purple or bronze, depending on the direction it is viewed from.
More important for its value, though, is its rarity. Tanzanite has been found in only one small area, near Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. And its supply will probably be fully³ mined in the next two decades.
As one mining official puts it, “It should never have really occurred in the first place. It did occur. And only this one deposit on this entire planet that is known…makes it more than a thousand times rarer than diamonds. And certainly within the next 15 to 20 years, there will be no more tanzanite to be mined.”
The current value of the tanzanite market, at U.S. $10 billion, is equivalent to that of diamonds. And so another saying “Diamonds are forever” may lose some of its meaning.

1 gem   

n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel

参考例句：

• The gem is beyond my pocket.这颗宝石我可买不起。
• The little gem is worth two thousand dollars.这块小宝石价值两千美元。

2 gems   

growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长

参考例句：

• a crown studded with gems 镶有宝石的皇冠
• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。