美語情景對話 第281期:Global Warming 全球變暖

Todd: Christine you're from Papua New Guinea?

託德：克里斯汀，你來自巴布亞新幾內亞？

Christine: Yes, we're a small island in the South Pacific.

克里斯汀：對，我的國家是南太平洋上的一個小島國。

Todd: And that is near Australia?

託德：離澳大利亞很近吧？

Christine: Just above Australia.

克里斯汀：就在澳大利亞以北。

Todd: Like how far is it from Australia?

託德：那距離澳大利亞有多遠呢？

Christine: To Brisbane it's 3 hours by plane. To the tip of Australia it's about an hour and a half by boat.

克里斯汀：坐飛機到布里斯班需要3個小時的時間。坐船到澳大利亞最北部大概需要1個半小時。

Todd: We were talking earlier about global warming and how this can be a problem for your island.

託德：我們之前談了全球變暖問題，這個對你們國家來說是問題嗎？

Christine: Oh, absolutely, because we're surrounded by water, obviously it creates a problem when the tides rise.

克里斯汀：哦，絕對是個問題，因爲我們四面環海，顯然當潮水上漲時，這就引發了問題。

Todd: Because the tides rise, and the water...

託德：因爲漲潮，所以水……

Christine: The tides rise, and a lot of people build their homes and villages around the e the ocean is where we get our food from, most of our costal villages are based there, so, yeah!

克里斯汀：潮水上漲，而許多人都把房屋和村落建在了海水附近……因爲那片海是我們獲取食物的地方，大部分沿海村落就建在那附近並依靠那片海，所以，就是這樣！

Todd: The people put their houses close to the water.

託德：人們把房子建在海水附近。

Christine: Close to the water or on the water

克里斯汀：建在海水附近或是就建在海面上。

Todd: So what do you think about global warming? I mean, what do you think should be done?

託德：那你怎麼看全球變暖？我的意思是，你認爲應該做些什麼？

Christine: Like we were talking about it earlier, I am very much for the Kyoto Protocol I think that industrial countries, industrialized countries need to act now before there's too much, how do you say?, before even more damage is done. Obviously being from a small country where people aren't educated about these things we don't realize what is really happening, but we are really starting to realize now and we and other small nations have spoken out about it and it's good to know that bigger countries are doing something about it, and I think thing needs to be done now, rather than waiting, which is happening with governments which are under economical stress right haven't done know the situation, they know they're responsible for it. We're the ones who are suffering because of it even though we don't add to it. Yeah, so I think they should do something.

克里斯汀：就像我們之前談過的，我非常支持《京都議定書》，我認爲工業國家，工業化國家現在就要採取行動，在問題更嚴重之前採取行動，要怎麼說，在造成更多破壞之前。顯然小國家的人們並沒有接受這方面的教育，我們並沒有意識到到底發生了什麼事，但是我們現在漸漸開始意識到了，我們和其他小國家要說出這個問題，知道大國家正在爲解決這個問題努力非常好，我認爲現在就需要做些事情，而不是等待，政府也要做些事情，他們目前也面臨着經濟壓力……他們做得還不夠……他們瞭解情況，他們知道他們要爲此負責。我們是正在受難的人，可是卻不是我們加劇了問題。對，所以我認爲他們應該做些事情。

重點講解：
1. be surrounded by
圍繞；環繞；
eg. The small churchyard was surrounded by a rusted wrought-iron fence.
不大的教堂墓地周邊圍着一圈生鏽的熟鐵柵欄。
eg. We are surrounded by dangers.
我們的處境危機四伏。
2. speak out
公開表白；大膽說出；
eg. He has the courage to speak out what he thinks right.
他敢於說出他認爲正確的東西。
eg. Even then, she continued to speak out at rallies around the country.
即便到了那個時候，她還繼續在全國各地的集會上公開發言。
3. rather than
而非；勝於；而不是；
eg. The problem was psychological rather than physiological.
問題是心理方面的而不是生理方面的。
eg. It is better to express your anger, rather than bottle it up.
生氣最好發泄出來而不要悶在肚內。