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It is called the Roof of Africa. Rising 19,340 feet nearly 4 miles into the sky, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the entire African continent.
乞力馬扎羅山被稱為非洲屋脊。其高度達19340英尺近4英里直入云端，它是整個非洲大陸的最高點。
Located in northeastern Tanzania in east Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is about equal distant from Cairo to the north and Cape Town to the south, around 220 miles south of the equator. The majestic snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro have long captured the world's imagination. Thousandshavetraveled to Tanzania to climb the mountain, or to view its famous glacier-covered peak. One such visitor, the American author Earnest Hemingway, even wrote a story about it. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway described the mountain's ice fields as widest all overthe world, great, high and unbelievably white in the sun.
位于東非坦桑尼亞東北部的乞力馬扎羅山在赤道以南220英里,大約相當于開羅最北到開普敦最南的距離。雄偉的乞力馬扎羅山的積雪蓋頂早就引起了世界注意。成千上萬的人來到坦桑尼亞來攀登這座高峰,或觀看其著名的冰川覆蓋高峰。大名鼎鼎的美國作家海明威, 作為一名旅行者，甚至寫了一篇關(guān)于它的小說。在大雪紛飛的乞力馬扎羅山，海明威描述山的冰塊就如同世界一樣寬廣,高大及它在太陽底下所呈現(xiàn)出的難以致信的白色。
As spectacular as it is to see, the ice on top of Mount Kilimanjaro serves a much more important purpose. Formed more than 11, 000 years ago, the glaciers are a vital source of drinking and farming water for those who live in the surrounding areas. But for the last century the snows have been disappearing. Kilimanjaro's glaciers have shrunk by more than 80% since 1912. This can be seen in pictures that the NASA satellite Landsat has been taking of the mountain's ice cap for more than a decade. This is how it looked in 1993. And this is how it looked just 7 years later in 2000.
因為它的壯觀，乞力馬扎羅山頂上的冰現(xiàn)在被賦予了更重要的使命，那就是服務(wù)大眾。這些形成于超過11,000年前的冰川對于那些住在附近地區(qū)的人們來說是很重要的生存飲用水源及農(nóng)業(yè)用水源。但自上個世紀以來，冰雪已經(jīng)開始逐漸消失。自1912年以來，乞力馬扎羅山的冰川已經(jīng)縮小至原來的80%。這可以從美國NASA衛(wèi)星Landsat十年前拍攝的照片上看到。這是它在1993年的樣子。而這是7年后,即2000年的樣貌。
There are several theories as to why Mount Kilimanjaro's snow is disappearing so quickly. For one thing, the mountain is located in a tropical region. For this reason, its glaciers are especially vulnerable to climate changes. One type of climate change is called global warming, which is causing a constant rise in the Earth's temperature. Another possible reason that glaciers are melting is deforestation, which happens when trees are cut down in mass quantities. Trees keep the air cooler and add moisture to the atmosphere which helps create clouds and precipitation.
乞力馬扎羅山上的雪為何消失如此之快有幾種理論。首先,該山位于熱帶地區(qū)。因為這個原因,冰川尤其容易受氣候變化影響。一種類型的氣候變化被稱為全球變暖,這造成地球溫度的不斷上升。另一個可能的原因是樹木被大規(guī)模砍伐。樹木使空氣冷卻和增加濕氣,幫助造云和降水。
Regardless of the causes, the snows of Kilimanjaro continue to melt. Experts predict that the mountain's glaciers could disappear completely by the year 2020. The loss of Kilimanjaro's glaciers removes a source of water from the mountain's surrounding area. In addition, it would probably decrease the amount of tourism and the revenue it generates to Tanzania. Finally, the disappearing snow in Africa serves as proof thatthe Earth, with its changing climate and warming trends, cannot always sustain its natural treasures.
不管什么原因, 覆蓋著的冰雪仍舊繼續(xù)融化。專家預計冰川可能在2020年完全消失。乞力馬扎羅山冰川的消失使周邊地區(qū)少了一個水源。此外,旅游和坦桑尼亞的收入也可能會減少。最后,消失在非洲的雪證明了地球處于氣候變化和氣候變暖趨勢,不能總是維持其自然奇珍狀態(tài)。
詞語解釋：
- equal a. 同等的
- equator n. 赤道
- majestic a. 雄偉的
