英语听力：自然百科 神奇水世界 Water-13

 But as it grew, the Khmer Kingdom faced the stumbling block. When the monsoon¹ finished each year, the fish and water would vanish. So each year, the inhabitants were plunged² into drought and hunger.

 

The Khmer rules off the challenge magnificently. They decided³ that rather than being at the whelm of the monsoon, they would make it work for them. This is part of a vast network of irrigations holds it crisscross the whole of Angkor. When the Khmers started digging this in the 9th century, people had seen nothing like them. This was plumming on a grand scale.

 

From the air, it's still visible today. Over 1,000 years ago, the Khmers managed to dive out a river pipe amazingly. They built canals that extended over an area of 400 square miles, and dug reservoirs could hold around 130 billion gallons of monsoon water. With this system, the Khmers seized control of the planet’s water cycle. They turned the seasonal⁴ rainfall of the monsoon into a reliable, all year round water supply. It was an enormous achievement enabling Angkor at its peak to support a population in excess of 1 million.

 

Thanks to the control of water, the Khmers had built the largest pre-industrial city in the world. The Khmers hung on its lead to the 15th century, which was when the Kingdom of Angkor finally went to the war. There were victims of the water success. The population went through the roof and they simply extracted the resources including despite all that incredible engineering, including the water supply. I guess there're limits to even the mighty⁵ monsoon can sustain.

 

Today, we control water on a massive scale. The world's reservoirs now hold/ up to 2,500 cubic miles of water. That's five times as much water as in all the rivers on Earth. And because most of it is pulled in the more populated northern hemisphere away from the equator, the extra weight has slightly changed how the earth's spins on its axis⁶. If not for lunar drag, it would have caused the Earth's rotation⁷ to speed up, shortening the day by two millionth of a second for the last 40 years.

 

1 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。

2 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

5 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

6 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

7 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。