国家地理-2008-08-04 海湾地区重兴珍珠采集业

Tucked away in the United Arab Emirate’s northernmost region, a very delicate experiment is underway to bring some luster¹ back to the region’s pearl industry. Since 2005, one company has been cultivating pearls commercially, the first such modern operation of its kind in the Gulf².

 “Well, for thousands of years, the whole region depended and, depended totally on pearl fishing. And within a few years, let’s say that two decades, because of the discovery of oil and the invention of pearl culture, the whole industry collapsed³.”

 Al-Suwaidi says that the UAE is the first Gulf nation to renew pearl cultivation⁴, and for good reason. His stock of over 100,000 pearl-producing mollusks are kept in pans and painstakingly⁶ cleaned and tended, increasing their potential to grow and produce large high-quality pearls.

 Oysters are a very delicate species of mollusk⁵ whose lives and prosperities are measures of the environmental conditions they inhabit. Al-Suwaidi’s business partner, Imura Daiji, says the link between the pearl and its environment is very important. The bigger and healthier the pearl oyster⁷, the larger the pearl it can produce.

 “Oyster pearl cultivation and the environment is a very very deep relationship.”

 The untouched quality of this protected ecosystem⁸ has allowed him to see a faster span of production time than he had seen in Japan, the birthplace of the industry.

 In years past, pearl divers would plunge without apparatus more than 100 feet beneath the sea, making as many as 30 or more dives a day with only an estimated…

1 luster   

n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉

参考例句：

• His great books have added luster to the university where he teaches.他的巨著给他任教的大学增了光。
• Mercerization enhances dyeability and luster of cotton materials.丝光处理扩大棉纤维的染色能力，增加纤维的光泽。

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

4 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

5 mollusk   

n.软体动物

参考例句：

• I swear I have never seen such a mollusk with thorns all over its body.我敢发誓我从来没有见过这种全身长满棘刺的软体动物。
• The colour varies with the mollusk and its environment.颜色因母体及其环境的不同而异。

6 painstakingly   

adv. 费力地 苦心地

参考例句：

• Every aspect of the original has been closely studied and painstakingly reconstructed. 原作的每一细节都经过了仔细研究，费尽苦心才得以重现。
• The cause they contrived so painstakingly also ended in failure. 他们惨淡经营的事业也以失败而告终。

7 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

8 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。