The Copper Basin托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

The Copper Basin托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、The Copper Basin托福听力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in an earth science class.The professor is discussing an area of the United States called the Copper Basin.MALE PROFESSOR:Now,you may not have heard of the Copper Basin.It's in the Eastern United States,in the Tennessee River Valley.It got its name because settlers discovered copper there in 1843.And soon afterwards,it supported one of the largest metal mining operations in America.At one time,four mining companies employed 2500 workers in the Copper Basin.For that time period,it was a huge operation.

Well,this mining operation turned the Copper Basin into a desert.In the 1840s,when mining operations started,it was a dense green forest.But in the 1940s,100 years later,it was as barren as the Moon.Efforts to reclaim the land and restore the basin to the fertile valley it once was...well,actually,those efforts are still ongoing.It's been a long and tedious process.In fact,it was many years before any results were seen.Copper mining had gone on there for more than 90 years!The damage couldn't be reversed overnight.

Although I should mention that by 1996,the water in one of the rivers flowing through the basin was clean enough that it was the site of the Olympic white water kayaking competition.And that river is still used now for recreation.

But anyway...So...let's analyze the problem.It wasn't the mining itself that caused such massive destruction.It was what happened after the copper ore was extracted from the mines.It was a process called heap roasting.Copper ore contains sulfur.And heap roasting was a way to burn away the sulfur in the copper,so they'd be left with something closer to pure copper.Well,in the process,large vats of raw copper ore are burned slowly,for two or three months actually,to lower the sulfur content.And this burning—well,let's look at the results.

First,the mines were fairly remote,so there was no way to bring coal or other fuel to keep the fires going.So they cut down local trees for fuel.And like I said,the fires burned for months—uh,that's a lot of fires and a lot of trees.Deforestation was occurring at a rapid rate.And it was accelerated by the smoke from the burning ore.Big clouds of sulfuric smoke,which was toxic to the trees,formed over the areas.Trees that hadn't been cut for fuel were killed by the fumes.The sulfur also mixed with the air and created sulfur dioxide.And the sulfur dioxide settled in the clouds fell to the land in droplets of rain and sank into the soil.This is what we now call acid rain.You've probably heard of it.But no one used the term back then.Anyway,the acid rain created highly acidic soil.Well,soon the soil became so acidic that nothing could grow,nothing at all.Vegetation and wild life disappeared.And it wasn't just the land and the air,it was the water too.What do you think happen to the rivers?Well,there are no trees to absorb the rain,and there was a lot of rain!So the rain eroded the soil and swept it into the rivers.This is called silting,when soil particles are washed into the rivers.And the silting continued at an alarming rate.But this was toxic soil and toxic runoff,the acid and metals in the soil made the once clear rivers flow bright orange.

So it was really that one step in the process of producing copper...the problems just built up and up until there was a desert where a beautiful forest used to be.OK.Now let's look at reforestation and land reclamation efforts.

二、The Copper Basin托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：听地球科学课上的部分讲座。教授正在讨论美国的一个叫做铜盆地的地区。男教授：现在，你可能没有听说过铜盆地。它在美国东部，田纳西河谷。它之所以得名，是因为1843年定居者在那里发现了铜。不久之后，它支持了美国最大的金属开采业务之一。曾经，四家矿业公司在铜盆地雇佣了2500名工人。在那段时间里，这是一项巨大的作业。

这个采矿作业把铜盆地变成了沙漠。19世纪40年代，当采矿作业开始时，这里是一片茂密的绿色森林。但在20世纪40年代，也就是100年后，这里就像月球一样贫瘠。为了开垦土地，并将盆地恢复到曾经的肥沃山谷，事实上，这些努力仍在继续。这是一个漫长而乏味的过程。事实上，很多年后才有结果。铜矿开采已经在那里进行了90多年！损害无法在一夜之间扭转。

尽管我应该提到，到1996年，流经该流域的一条河流中的水已经足够干净，成为奥运会白水皮划艇比赛的场地。那条河现在仍然用于娱乐。

但无论如何，所以让我们分析一下这个问题。造成如此大规模破坏的不是采矿业本身。这是铜矿从矿山开采后发生的事情。这是一个叫做堆焙烧的过程。铜矿石含有硫。堆焙烧是一种烧掉铜中硫的方法，所以它们会留下更接近纯铜的东西。好吧，在这个过程中，大桶粗铜矿石被缓慢燃烧，实际上持续了两三个月，以降低硫含量。这个燃烧井，让我们看看结果。

首先，矿井相当偏远，因此没有办法带来煤炭或其他燃料来维持大火。所以他们砍伐当地的树木作为燃料。就像我说的，大火烧了好几个月，嗯，那是很多火和很多树。森林砍伐正在迅速发生。燃烧的矿石产生的烟雾加速了这一过程。在这些地区形成了对树木有毒的大量硫酸烟雾。没有被砍伐作为燃料的树木被烟雾杀死。硫磺也与空气混合，产生二氧化硫。沉降在云层中的二氧化硫以雨滴的形式落到地面，并沉入土壤中。这就是我们现在所说的酸雨。你可能听说过。但当时没有人使用这个词。无论如何，酸雨造成了高酸性土壤。很快，土壤变得如此酸性，什么都不能生长，什么都没有。植被和野生生物消失了，不仅是土地和空气，还有水。你认为河流会发生什么？嗯，没有树来吸收雨水，而且下了很多雨！因此，雨水侵蚀了土壤，并将其冲入河流。当土壤颗粒被冲入河流时，这被称为淤积。淤积以惊人的速度持续，但这是有毒的土壤和有毒的径流，土壤中的酸和金属使曾经清澈的河流变成了明亮的橙色。

所以在生产铜的过程中，有一个步骤，这些问题不断累积，直到有一片沙漠，那里曾经是一片美丽的森林。好吧。现在让我们来看看重新造林和土地开垦的努力。

三、The Copper Basin托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.The environmental effects of heap roasting

B.The reforestation efforts in the Copper Basin

C.The process of mining and producing copper

D.Damages caused during an attempt to clean up industrial waste

Q2:2.What is the professor’s opinion about the effort to reclaim the land in the Copper Basin?

A.The techniques and materials used for the cleanup were probably outdated.

B.Some attempts to clean up the Copper Basin have made the problems worse.

C.It is not surprising that cleaning up the area has been extremely difficult.

D.The cleanup has taken longer than necessary.

Q3:3.What does the professor imply when he mentions an Olympic whitewater kayaking competition?

A.That many people are unaware of the environmental problems in the Copper Basin

B.That a successful reclamation of the Copper Basin may be possible

C.That some activities in the Copper Basin must go on despite the pollution

D.That the Olympic competition should have been held in a different location

Q4:4.According to the lecture,why was heap roasting used in the producing of copper?

A.To make copper ore easier to transport

B.To make copper ore safe for workers to handle

C.To transform copper ore into fuel

D.To remove impurities from copper ore

Q5:5.What factors led to the disappearance of trees in the Copper Basin?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.Mines were dug under areas where trees were growing.

B.Loose soil led to trees being washed into the rivers.

C.Trees growing near the mines were cut and used as fuel.

D.Clouds of sulfuric smoke killed trees in the area.

Q6:6.What resulted from the lack of trees near the copper-mining operation?

A.It became difficult to provide housing for all the workers.

B.Rivers became filled with toxic soil.

C.Coal and other fuel had to be transported into the area.

D.The heap-roasting process had to be completed far from the mines.

四、The Copper Basin托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：A

A2:正确答案：C

A3:正确答案：B

A4:正确答案：D

A5:正确答案：CD

A6:正确答案：B