本集内容

Victoria Falls: Is Zimbabwe drying up? 维多利亚瀑布今非昔比 津巴布韦遇严重干旱

学习要点

有关 “disasters（灾害）” 的词汇

边看边答

How many elephants have starved to death in the last two months?

文字稿

When the Zambezi River is in full flow, you can see why the explorer David Livingstone called it ‘a view for the angels’. But look at the falls now. This is what Southern Africa's prolonged drought means - the volume of water is down by two thirds.

当赞比西河的河道满流时，你就会明白为什么英国探险家戴维·利文斯通称它为 “天使驻足之景”。但看看瀑布现在的样子。这是南部非洲持续干旱的结果——水量减少了三分之二。

Two hours north of Victoria Falls is Hwange National Park—a land dying of thirst. Hwange has the largest concentration of elephants in all of Africa. Drought is a killer. Two hundred elephants have starved to death in the last two months.

从维多利亚瀑布往北走两小时就是万基国家公园，这是一片即将渴死的土地。万基国家公园是非洲大象最集中的地方。干旱给了它致命一击：已有200头大象在近两个月内饿死。

Solar pumps stop waterholes drying out but in drought conditions the elephant population here is unsustainable. Beyond the park boundaries, subsistence farmers are also struggling to survive in a land dry as dust.

太阳能水泵可防止水坑完全干涸，但在干旱条件下，这里的大象总数难以为继。越过公园的边界，自给自足的农民们也在这片干燥如尘的土地上挣扎求存。

Prolonged drought is also an urban crisis. Half a million people live in sprawling Mbare in Harare. This place simply isn't equipped to cope with an environmental crisis. They've had no piped water here for months. Cholera and typhoid are a looming threat. And look what happens at sunset. Zimbabwe's power supplies have been crippled by a lack of hydropower. Mbare is enveloped in darkness.

持续干旱也是一场城市危机。有50万人居住在首都哈拉雷杂乱无序的麦拜尔地区。这个地方完全不具备应对环境危机的能力。这里已经一连数月没有自来水了。霍乱和伤寒是迫在眉睫的威胁。看看日落时会发生什么。津巴布韦的电力供应受到了水力发电不足的重创。麦拜尔被黑暗笼罩。

Zimbabweans have endured years of misrule and economic collapse. Drought makes it even harder to see a way out. Zimbabwe's present is grim. Its future could be much worse.

津巴布韦人民多年来忍受着政府管理不善和经济崩溃带来的影响。干旱使人们更难找到解决这些问题的办法。津巴布韦现状严峻。它的未来可能更加黯淡。

词汇

drought 干旱

unsustainable 难以为继的，无法持续的

crisis 危机

crippled 严重受创的

collapse 崩溃

问题答案

Two hundred elephants have starved to death in the last two months.