英国新闻听力 马达加斯加物种多样性堪忧

Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. The island is perhaps best known as the unique home of the lemur. But those lemurs live among some of the most rich and varied¹ flora² in the world. And so threatened is that flora that British and Malagasy scientists were involved in a project to retrieve³ seeds from the island to be stored ina British seed bank. The project is being overseen⁴ by the Royal Botanic Garden on the outskirts⁵ of London. The botanist⁶ Steward⁷ Cable is head of the conservation center there and a frequent visitor of the island. He spoke⁸ to Julian Marshall.

I mean Madagascar is well known as one of the top biodiversity hot spots in the world. Ithas perhaps 13,000 plant species. 90% of those are endemic to the country, i.e. found nowhere else in the world. But also many species, many of those species are only found in small areas. And I would say that probably about 80% of the population are dependent on subsistence farming. And a lot of their farming is slash⁹ and burn, shifting cultivation¹⁰ where farmers have to move to a new patch of forest every year. They cut it, they burn it and they can grow dry rice or cassava for a year or so or two years at most. And then the nutrients¹¹ are gone and they have to move to a new patch of forest. And for centuries that would not have been a problem with the low population and with long fallow periods but people return quite quickly now. And after three cycles perhaps with people returning after three five years something like that, then the forest reversed to grassland¹². So we are losing many of those species in Madagascar, those unique species.

And have you lost any already?

Well, we don’t know. It’s very difficult to prove extinction¹³ but we know that forest is disappearing fast especially the dry forest in the west and the humid forest in the east. We’ve had a project looking at the palms of Madagascar which are very special group. There are 200 species of palms and we found a threat level of 83%. And there are at least 12 species that haven’t been seen for 50 years. So those difficult to prove extinction, we think that things are disappearing quite quickly now.

So you are busy retrieving¹⁴ seeds.

Yes. So we’ve worked in Madagascar collecting seeds for 16 years and it’s part of a global programme. And in Madagascar we’ve collected maybe 4,000 seed collections of about 2,000 species. But what we’ve found is with groups we are looking at, we are looking at maybe70% of the species of Madagascar are threatened with extinction compared to global backgroundofmaybe 20%.

马达加斯加坐落于非洲东海岸的印度洋中，这个岛最著名的一点可能就是——狐猴的唯一栖息地，而这些狐猴居住在世界上最丰富多样的植物群中。这些植物群面临极大的威胁，以至于英国和马达加斯加科学家联手开展了一个项目，从该岛上回收种子，储存在英国的种子库中。该项目由伦敦市郊的皇家植物园监督，植物学家斯图尔德·开博尔是植物园保护中心的领导，他也经常拜访该岛。斯图尔德接受了朱利安·马歇尔的采访。

众所周知，马达加斯加是世界上生物多样性最好的热点地区之一，有大约1.3万个植物物种，其中90%是这个国家特有的，也就是说世界上其他地方没有。但其中很多物种都只有在小区域能找到。可以说，大概有80%的人口以自给农业为生，他们的耕作方式是刀耕火种、迁徙农业，农民每年得转移到一片新的森林里。他们伐木、焚烧，种大概一年最多两年旱稻或木薯，之后营养物流失，他们不得不转移到一片新森林。几百年来，人口较少和休闲期较长使得这种方式没有问题，但现在人们回来的速度非常快。大概三轮后，人们经过三五年回来时，森林变成了草地。所以说马达加斯加的很多物种在流失，都是些独特的物种。

意思就是说我们已经失去了一些物种？

这个我们不知道，很难证明一个物种的灭绝，但我们知道森林在快速退化，特别是西部的干燥林和东部的潮湿森林。我们设立了一个项目，专注于马达加斯加的棕榈植物，它们是一个非常特殊的群体。有200种棕榈树，我们发现威胁水平是83%。至少有12个物种50年都没见过。虽然证明物种灭绝很难，但我们认为现在事物消失的速度太快了。

那你们在忙着采集种子。

是的。我们在马达加斯加工作收集种子达16年了，这是国际项目中的一部分。在马达加斯加，我们大概采种4000个，共2000个种类。我们发现，我们关注的种群中70%的物种面临濒危，相比之下，这个概率在全球范围大概是20%。

1 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

2 flora   

n.(某一地区的)植物群

参考例句：

• The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
• All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。

3 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

4 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

5 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

6 botanist   

n.植物学家

参考例句：

• The botanist introduced a new species of plant to the region.那位植物学家向该地区引入了一种新植物。
• I had never talked with a botanist before,and I found him fascinating.我从没有接触过植物学那一类的学者，我觉得他说话极有吸引力。

7 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

10 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。

11 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 grassland   

n.牧场，草地，草原

参考例句：

• There is a reach of grassland in the distance.远处是连绵一片的草原。
• The snowstorm swept the vast expanse of grassland.暴风雪袭击了辽阔的草原。

13 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

14 retrieving   

n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Ignoring all, he searches the ground carefully for any cigarette-end worth retrieving. 没管打锣的说了什么，他留神的在地上找，看有没有值得拾起来的烟头儿。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Retrieving the nodules from these great depths is no easy task. 从这样的海底深渊中取回结核可不是容易的事情。 来自辞典例句