本集內容

Victoria Falls: Is Zimbabwe drying up? 維多利亞瀑布今非昔比 津巴布韋遇嚴重干旱

學習要點

有關 “disasters（災害）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

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.

當贊比西河的河道滿流時，你就會明白為什么英國探險家戴維·利文斯通稱它為 “天使駐足之景”。但看看瀑布現在的樣子。這是南部非洲持續干旱的結果——水量減少了三分之二。

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.

從維多利亞瀑布往北走兩小時就是萬基國家公園，這是一片即將渴死的土地。萬基國家公園是非洲大象最集中的地方。干旱給了它致命一擊：已有200頭大象在近兩個月內餓死。

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.

太陽能水泵可防止水坑完全干涸，但在干旱條件下，這里的大象總數難以為繼。越過公園的邊界，自給自足的農民們也在這片干燥如塵的土地上掙扎求存。

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.

持續干旱也是一場城市危機。有50萬人居住在首都哈拉雷雜亂無序的麥拜爾地區。這個地方完全不具備應對環境危機的能力。這里已經一連數月沒有自來水了?；魜y和傷寒是迫在眉睫的威脅。看看日落時會發生什么。津巴布韋的電力供應受到了水力發電不足的重創。麥拜爾被黑暗籠罩。

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.

津巴布韋人民多年來忍受著政府管理不善和經濟崩潰帶來的影響。干旱使人們更難找到解決這些問題的辦法。津巴布韋現狀嚴峻。它的未來可能更加黯淡。

詞匯

drought 干旱

unsustainable 難以為繼的，無法持續的

crisis 危機

crippled 嚴重受創的

collapse 崩潰

問題答案

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