托福阅读文章鉴赏--地震时刻

    托福阅读考试的文章一直很接近生活，所以考生在备考托福阅读考试时应该多阅读一些不同领域的文章。小编为大家分享的是关于地震的一篇的文章。

 

    On the night of August 17, 1959, at about 20 minutes beforemidnight, the ground in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park began shakingviolently. At the time there was a rumbling sound, something like a huge truckwould make. Both the heaving of the ground and the noise were very frighteningbut lasted not quite 45 seconds.

    1959年8月17日的晚上，大约午夜前20分钟，黄石国家公园附近大地开始猛烈摇动。同时，大地发出如同重型卡车发出的轰响。大地的升降和啸叫都令人非常害怕，但是一切不超过45秒。

 

    What was even more frightening was the sound of huge boulders whichbegan rolling down the steep mountain. In one part of the upper reaches of theMadison River, a whole mountain began shifting, then came crashing down to fillthe deep valley and dam the great river with millions of tons rock and trees.

    更令人害怕是巨石开始从陡峭的山上滚下来的声音。在麦迪生河上游的一条支流处，一整座山开始移动，之后，它崩塌下来填满深深的山谷，上百万吨岩石和大树如坝般阻挡住大河。

 

    A dozen or more campers along the river were buried deep beneath thegreat landslide. Others were able to climb to safety, some of them badly hurt,but were trapped by the slide. Finally these people were saved, many of them byhelicopter.

    十几个，或许更多沿河的露营者被深埋在大滑坡下。幸存的野营者开始爬向较安全的地方，其中一些人伤得很重，仍然不时陷入滑坡。最后这些人都获救了，其中很多人得救于直升飞机。

 

    This earthquake near Yellowstone Park was just one of nearly amillion that happen every year all over the world. And as bad as this quakewas, many have been worse.

    在黄石公园附近发生的地震，仅仅是每年全世界发生的上百万次地震中的一次。若就地震灾害而论，有许多地震甚至更严重。

 

    Earthquake experts say that the Yellowstone quake of 1959 was aboutas bad as the one which hit San Francisco in 1906. But the San Francisco quakecaused more damage because it struck in a place where there were so many peopleliving. In San Francisco 700 person lost their lives.

    地震专家说，1959 年的黄石的地震，差不多相当于1906年发生在旧金山的地震。旧金山地震造成更多的破坏，它发生在人口密集地方。在旧金山约700人丧失生命。

 

    An earthquake in Japan in 1923 took 160,000 lives. In China in 1920an earthquake took 200,000 lives. It is easy to understand why earthquake areso feared.

    1923 年发生在日本的地震夺走了16万人的生命。1920年一场大地震发生在中国， 20万人死亡。因此，很容易理解人们为什么非常恐惧地震。

 

    What causes these terrible shakes of the very ground on which welive?

    是什么原因造成我们生活的这块土地发生可怕的摇动?

 

    To answer that question we must first understand some things aboutthe earth itself.

    要回答这个问题，必须首先要了解关于地球自身的某些事物。

 

    Forty miles deep in the earth is the edge of the outer crust of theearth, and there it is so hot that instead of hard rock there is material muchlike the hot lava that a volcano erupts.

    地表面下40英里深，是地球外壳的边缘：此处非常之热，如同火，山喷出的岩浆般的物质代替了坚硬的岩石。

 

    It is the earth's 40 mile deep crust with which we are concernedwhen we seek the cause of earthquake.

    若我们寻求地震的起因，这40英里地壳恰恰是我们应该关心的地带。

 

    地震等自然灾害一直都是我们的热门话题，所以，考生们在备考托福阅读时应该多看一些此类文章。