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1、专业好文档DesertA scorching sun,an endless sea of sand and a waterless, forbiddingly lonely landthat is the image most people have of deserts. But how true is this picture?炎热的太阳,无穷无尽的海洋沙子和干涸的土地，难以接近地孤独的土地这就是大多数人想象中的沙漠。但这是真实的画面吗?Deserts are dry lands where rainfall is low. This is not to say rain never fa
2、lls in deserts:it may fall once or twice a year in a fierce torrent that fades almost as soon as it has begun, or which evaporates in the hot air long before it has got anywhere near the earth. It may fall in a sudden sweeping flood that carries everything in its path. Rains may only come once in fi
3、ve or six years for a decade or more.The Mojave desert in the United States remained dry for 25 years.沙漠就是干涸的土地，在那里很少降雨。这并不是说沙漠从来都不下雨：它可能一年下一次或两次，雨一开始下就在一场奔腾的急流中消失，或者是雨水接近大地之前就被热空气蒸发。它可能加入到突发的、席卷性洪水，即它把它所到之处的所有东西都带走。大雨可能五年、六年、十年或更长时间只来一次。莫哈韦沙漠在美国干涸了 25 年。Without water no living thing can survive,and
4、 one feature of the true desert landscape is the absence of vegetation.With little rain and hardly any vegetation the land suffers under the sun. There are virtually no 专业好文档clouds or trees to protect the earths surface and it can be burning hot.Under the sun,soils break up and crack. Wind and torre
5、ntial rain sweep away and erode the surface further.没有水,没有东西可以生存,沙漠的一个真实景象是没有植被。雨很少并且几乎陆地上所有植物暴晒在太阳下。几乎没有云或树来保护大地的表面并且它很炙热。在太阳下,土壤龟裂。风和暴雨席卷并且进一步侵蚀地表。Thirty million square kilometers of the worlds land surface is desert. Throughout history deserts have been expanding and retreating again. Cave painti
6、ngs show that parts of the Sahara Desert were green and fertile about 10,000 years ago,and even animals like elephants and giraffes roamed the land. Fossil sand dunes found in fertile and damp parts of the world show that these areas were once deserts.三千万平方公里的世界土地是沙漠。纵观历史沙漠的扩张和退去。洞穴绘画表明部分撒哈拉沙漠大约在100
7、00年前是绿色和肥沃的,甚至像大象和长颈鹿等动物在这片土地上漫步。在世界上部分地区肥沃和潮湿的土地上发现的化石沙丘表明这些地区曾经是沙漠。But now the creation of new desert areas is happening on a colossal scale. Twenty million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Canada, is at a high to very high risk of becoming desert. With a further 1.25 million square ki
8、lometers under moderate risk, an area covering 30% of the earth land surface is desert, becoming desert, or in danger of 专业好文档becoming desert.但是现在新产生的沙漠地区形成了巨大的规模。二千万平方公里,相当于两倍加拿大面积的陆地,有很高的风险成为沙漠。另有 125 万平方公里的土地有中度风险成为沙漠，相当于 30%的地球陆地是沙漠、或正在成为沙漠、或有风险成为沙漠。The rate of growth of deserts is alarming. The
9、 worlds dry lands are under threat including some of the most important stock-rearing and wheat-growing areas and are the homes of 600-700 million people. These regions are becoming deserts at the rate of more than 58.000 square kilometers a year or 44 hectares a minute.In North Africa at least 100.
10、000 hectares of cropland are lost each year.沙漠增长的速率是令人惊恐的。世界的干涸土地受到威胁,其中包括一些最重要的 （）和小麦种植地区，那是 6 亿至 7 亿人的家园。这些地区以超过 58.000 平方公里每年或 44 公顷每分的速度成为沙漠。在北非每年至少 100.000 公顷的农田流失。At this rate there is a high risk that we will be confined to living on only 50% of this planets land surface within one more centu
11、ry unless we are able to do something about it.以这种速度，我们将有很大风险在一个多世纪内被限于在这颗星球 50%的陆地上生存,除非我们能为这做些什么。专业好文档Editors note: Judson Jones is a meteorologist, journalist and photographer. He has freelanced with CNN for four years, covering severe weather from tornadoes to typhoons. Follow him on Twitter: jn
12、jonesjr (CNN) - I will always wonder what it was like to huddle around a shortwave radio and through the crackling static from space hear the faint beeps of the worlds first satellite - Sputnik. I also missed watching Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon and the first space shuttle take off for the
13、stars. Those events were way before my time. As a kid, I was fascinated with what goes on in the sky, and when NASA pulled the plug on the shuttle program I was heartbroken. Yet the privatized space race has renewed my childhood dreams to reach for the stars. As a meteorologist, Ive still seen many
14、important weather and space events, but right now, if you were sitting next to me, youd hear my foot tapping rapidly under my desk. Im anxious for the next one: a space capsule hanging from a crane in the New Mexico desert. Its like the set for a George Lucas movie floating to the edge of space. You
15、 and I will have the chance to watch a man take a leap into an unimaginable free fall from the edge of space - live.The (lack of) air up there Watch man jump from 96,000 feet Tuesday, I sat at work glued to the live stream of the Red Bull Stratos Mission. I watched the balloons positioned at differe
16、nt altitudes in the sky to test the winds, knowing that if they would just line up in a vertical straight line “we“ would be go for launch. I feel this mission was created for me because I am also a journalist and a photographer, but above all I live for taking a leap of faith - the feeling of pushing the envelope into uncharted territory. The guy who is going to do this, Felix Baumgartner, must have that same feeling, at a level I will never reach. However
