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LESSON 15 The tropical world
第15課 熱帶地區(qū)
Part 1 The Western Hemisphere
第一部分 西半球
The tropical regions, more than any other part of the world, are suggestive of magnificence—of luxuriant vegetation and diversified animal life; yet they embrace but a small portion comparatively of the land of the globe. While the greater part of the North Temperate Zone is occupied by land, the floods of ocean roll over much the larger portion of the equatorial regions; for both torrid America and Africa appear as mere islands in a vast expanse of sea. This superabundance of water is one of the great provisions which Nature has made for mitigating the heat of the vertical sun. To this cause the Tropics are indebted for those copious rains and periodic winds and constant ocean currents, which endow them with such an amazing variety of climate. The Indian Archipelago, the Peninsula of Malacca, the Antilles, and Central America, are all undoubtedly indebted to the waters which bathe their coasts for a more temperate climate than they would have had if they had been grouped together in one vast continent.
熱帶地區(qū)比世界上任何其他地區(qū)都更能凸顯它的壯麗——繁茂的植被和多樣的動物生活，然而，熱帶地區(qū)的面積卻只占地球陸地相對較小的一部分。北溫帶上的大部分地區(qū)都被陸地所占據(jù)，海洋洪水則覆蓋了大部分的赤道地區(qū)，炎熱的美洲和非洲看上去就像是浩瀚大海中的迷你島嶼。豐富的水資源是大自然為減少太陽直射帶來的高溫熱量所做的重要準備之一，熱帶地區(qū)尤其要感謝豐富的降水量、周期性的大風和不間斷的洋流，是它們造就了熱帶地區(qū)驚人的多樣性氣候。毫無疑問，印度群島、馬六甲半島、安的列斯群島和中美洲都得益于這些雨水的滋潤，雨水使得它們的海岸能沐浴在更溫和的氣候當中，如果將這些地區(qū)全都拼湊在一塊巨大的大陸上便不會造就出此種氣候。
Another cause of the varieties of tropical climate is to be found in varied elevation of surface. Thus the high situation of many tropical lands moderates the effects of equatorial heat, and endows them with a climate similar to that of the temperate, or even of the cold regions of the globe.
熱帶氣候多樣性產(chǎn)生的另一原因是地表高度的變化，許多熱帶地區(qū)的高海拔因地表變化而緩和了赤道熱的影響，使得它們具有與溫帶地區(qū)甚至全球寒冷地區(qū)相似的氣候。
