Dialogue 1
Jingjing: Mark, have you been reading anything about the forest fires in the Amazon?
京晶：馬克，最近你關(guān)注關(guān)于亞馬遜森林大火的報(bào)道了嗎？
Mark: You mean the river?
馬克：你是說(shuō)亞馬遜河？
Jingjing: No, I mean the area around the Amazon river—Amazonia. There are 80% more fires this year.
京晶：不，我是說(shuō)亞馬遜河周邊地區(qū)——整個(gè)亞馬遜河流域。今年的火災(zāi)增加了80%。
Mark: Wow, that's a big increase. How are these fires starting?
馬克：哎呀，增加了這么多。這些火都是怎么燒起來(lái)的？
Jingjing: People are arguing about that right now. It's the dry season now. Also, Brazil has a big beef industry. So, when land gets cleared, it typically gets used for grazing.
京晶：人們?yōu)榇苏隣?zhēng)論不休呢。現(xiàn)在是雨林旱季。此外，巴西擁有龐大的牛肉產(chǎn)業(yè)。所以，開辟出來(lái)的土地通常被用來(lái)放牧。
Mark: What a pity. That means, once an area of land burns, it doesn't regrow as forest.
馬克：真遺憾。這意味著，一塊土地一旦被燒毀，它就不會(huì)再生為森林。
Jingjing: That's right. So the land will be drier and won't do as much for the global oxygen supply.
京晶：對(duì)啊。因此，土地會(huì)變得更加干旱，對(duì)全球氧氣供氧量也就不那么大了。
Mark: I read somewhere that rainforests produce 20% of the world's oxygen.
馬克：我讀到過(guò)，亞馬遜雨林為地球提供20%的氧氣。
Jingjing: Yes. Even if it's just a small part of the rainforests that are destroyed, it's a great loss to the entire world.
京晶：是的。即使只是熱帶雨林的一小部分被損毀，對(duì)全世界來(lái)說(shuō)都是一個(gè)巨大的損失。
Mark: I know. We're pretty close to a point of no return.
馬克：可不是，我們幾乎走到無(wú)路可退之境。
Jingjing: What do you mean?
京晶：這話什么意思？
Mark: Well, if the earth's temperature rises too much, trees will shut down—that means no photosynthesis, and no oxygen being put into the atmosphere for longer periods each year. That would make global climate change happen faster and faster, possibly too fast for humans to stop.
馬克：嗯，如果地球溫度上升過(guò)多，樹木會(huì)功能關(guān)閉——也就是說(shuō)沒有了光合作用，那每年將有很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間沒有氧氣進(jìn)入大氣層。這將使全球氣候變化的速度越來(lái)越快，很可能快得連人類都已經(jīng)無(wú)法阻止了。
Jingjing: That's a scary idea. I believe the Earth has lots of ways of balancing itself.
京晶：這么一想好可怕。我相信地球還有很多方法來(lái)自我平衡。
Mark: Yeah, the Earth will probably be fine.
馬克：是的，地球可能會(huì)沒事的。
Jingjing: Hopefully humans can survive also.
京晶：也希望人類能繼續(xù)生存下來(lái)。
Mark: Exactly.
馬克：太對(duì)了。

New words : 習(xí)語(yǔ)短語(yǔ)
beef industry 牛肉產(chǎn)業(yè)
companies raising cows and selling meat
rainforest （熱帶）雨林
land covered with tall trees and many other kinds of plants (These areas produce their own rain.)
photosynthesis 光合作用
the process by which plants use sunlight and CO2 to produce oxygen
atmosphere （圍繞地球的）大氣，大氣層
the air all around the Earth
global climate change 全球氣候變化
rising temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans, melting polar ice caps, droughts and floods

Dialogue 2
Jingjing: Mark, have you ever been to a rainforest?
京晶：馬克，你去過(guò)熱帶雨林嗎?
Mark: I've not been to Brazil, or anywhere with a tropical rainforest. Have you?
馬克：我沒去過(guò)巴西，也沒去過(guò)有熱帶雨林的地方。你去過(guò)嗎?
Jingjing: No, but I'd love to go—not when there's a forest fire, obviously. South America is on my list of places to visit.
京晶：沒去過(guò)，但我非常想去——但很顯然不是森林起火的時(shí)候。南美洲在我想去的名單上。
Mark: Same here. Actually, where I lived in the US was a temperate rainforest. Lots of it was cleared for houses. But there were a few parks that had the original old growth forests.
馬克：我也一樣。實(shí)際上，我在美國(guó)生活的地方就是一片溫帶雨林。很多土地被開墾出來(lái)以后蓋了房子。但還有一些公園是有原始森林的。
Jingjing: Wow. There must be lots of huge trees there.
京晶：哇哦。那里一定有很多參天大樹。
Mark: There are. They make a canopy. So, even on a hot summer day, you could go into the forest and be totally cool.
馬克：有的有的。 這些樹木形成了濃密的樹冠層。所以，即使在炎熱的夏天，你可以走進(jìn)森林，會(huì)感覺到非常涼爽。
Jingjing: It'd be great to have that. No wonder you like hiking so much. You grew up surrounded by forests.
京晶：這樣真好。難怪你這么喜歡徒步。你就在森林里長(zhǎng)大的啊。
Mark: I was lucky that way. I also got up into Washington state, where there are huge rainforests north-west of Seattle.
馬克：這方面我很幸運(yùn)。我還去了華盛頓州，西雅圖西北方向有大片雨林。
Jingjing: Isn't that also where there are lots of forest fires every year?
京晶：那里不也是每年有很多森林火災(zāi)的地方嗎?
Mark: There are a few forest fires east of the mountain range there. But most of the fires are in California, further south.
馬克：在山脈以東那里有幾處森林火災(zāi)。但是大部分火災(zāi)發(fā)生在加州，更靠南部一些。
Jingjing: Yeah, every summer, I hear about them in the news. People have to evacuate their homes. Days later, they come back and find their town is only a field of charcoal.
京晶：是的，每年夏天，我都能在新聞上聽到這些火災(zāi)。人們不得不撤離家園。過(guò)些日子他們回家后看到他們的小城只剩下一片焦灼之地。
Mark: I know. Living in a forest is a great idea, but maybe not where it gets really dry and is prone to fires.
馬克：我知道的。住在森林里是個(gè)不錯(cuò)的主意，但也許不是那些非常干旱而且容易著火的地方。
Jingjing: Right. It's quite a job to fight those fires once they get started.
京晶：對(duì)。一旦森林起火，滅火是一項(xiàng)非常艱巨的工作。
Mark: It sure is. I heard an interview on the radio of a firefighter who lost his home to a forest fire while he was off fighting a fire in another area.
馬克：的確是。我在廣播上聽到過(guò)一個(gè)消防員的采訪，他的房子被森林大火燒毀的時(shí)候他不在家，奮戰(zhàn)在另一個(gè)地區(qū)滅火。
Jingjing: Geez. That'd be a hard choice to make. Was his family ok?
京晶：天啊。那真是一個(gè)艱難的選擇。他的家人還好嗎?
Mark: Yeah. They'd been evacuated days before the blaze reached where they lived.
馬克：是的。在大火蔓延到他們的房子之前，他們已經(jīng)撤離了。


New words : 習(xí)語(yǔ)短語(yǔ)
old growth forest 原始森林
woodland that has never been cleared by humans, usually with big trees, many of which have lived for hundreds of years
canopy （樹林中的）天篷狀的樹蔭，樹冠
a covering above an outdoor area (for a forest, this means that the topmost branches of trees are all at the same height, forming a roof for the forest)
mountain range 山脈
a large number of mountains forming a chain (usually, the climate is different on each side of the mountain range, as with the Pacific Crest, where the coastal side is lush and the inland side is a high desert)
charcoal 木炭
black, burned wood
blaze 火災(zāi)，烈火，大火〔尤用于新聞報(bào)道〕
fire that is burning fiercely at very a high temperature