Section Lesson 2 & Lesson 3Pre-readingNature is turning on usThe last few years have seen environmental disasters on a grand scale， and experts are predicting far worse to come. Jin Li reports on our Earths changeable weather patterns.AIn the last decade, thunderstorms， floods, earthquakes, typhoons， volcanic eruptions， tsunamis and forest fires have become increasingly common. There has been terrible flooding in Asia, Africa, America and Oceania. (1)_ Storms have been getting worse everywhere too, with a growing number of hurricanes hitting the US, and Central America. Reduced rainfall has affected large areas of Africa for years leaving irrigation canals dry and many other zones are becoming drier. (2)_ A number of nations have already been in armed conflict over water, and reduced rainfall in the west of the US has resulted in huge forest fires.see vt.某时/某地发生某情况，经历，经受，常用物作主语，以增添语言色彩。grand/grnd/adj.巨大的scale/skeIl/n.规模，范围on a large/grand scale 大规模的/地changeable/teIndbl/adj.多变的thunderstorm/ndstm/n.雷暴，雷雨typhoon/taIfun/n.台风eruption n爆发，发生tsunami/tsnmi/n.海啸increasingly adv.越来越多地，相当于more and more。with . hurricanes hitting .是“with宾语v.ing形式”的with的复合结构。rainfall/reInfl/n.降雨量irrigation/IrIgeIn/n.灌溉a number of许多，后接可数名词的复数形式。arm/m/vt.武装armed adj.武装的conflict n冲突，战斗be in conflict有冲突result in 导致result from 起因于，由于大自然对我们的报复第12段译文在过去的几年里，人们已经见证了大规模的环境灾难，专家们预测更为严重的灾难即将到来。金莉报道了关于地球多变天气的模式。A在过去的10年里，雷雨、洪水、地震、台风、火山爆发、海啸和森林火灾变得越来越频繁。亚洲、非洲、美洲和大洋洲都发生过非常严重的洪涝灾害。(1)_不断增多的飓风袭击美国和中美洲地区，与此同时各地的暴风雨灾害也越来越严重。多年来降雨量减少影响了非洲的大片地区，使得灌溉渠道干涸，而许多其他地方则变得更加干旱。(2)_已经有几个国家因为水的问题而发生武装冲突，而美国西部由于降水减少导致了森林大火。B Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have always been a threat in certain parts of the world. A volcanic eruption nearly wiped out the small island of Montserrat in 1997, and there have been serious earthquakes in many parts of Asia, Europe and South America. In the last three years, Indonesia has had a rough time， suffering several killer quakes and it is still recovering from the Asian tsunami caused by an offshore earthquake on December 26th, 2004. The tsunami killed 132,000 Indonesians and another 100,000 people of other nationalities. This catastrophe is still very fresh in the minds of people worldwide who have not yet got over their separation from loved ones lost in the tsunami.CSo why is nature beginning to turn on us? (3)_ The population of the world is growing at the disturbing rate of 10,000 people an hour, nearly 90 million a year, with most of the growth in the developing world. People in agricultural areas, without any means to earn their living， move to the cities, and then construct shabby homes from whatever materials they can find on poor clay soil. These homes, seldom made of bricks， can easily fall down in earthquakes or slip and slide downhill in landslides, especially in mountainous areas. (4)_ This has mainly been caused by the huge amounts of carbon dioxide produced by factories and vehicles, and the destruction of the worlds forests. As a result, a hotter ocean causes more powerful winds. Atlantic hurricanes their howling winds with speeds of over 300 kilometres an hour are 40% stronger now than they were 30 years ago.DVolcanoes and earthquakes are even more dangerous than in the past as around half the worlds population now lives in cities.There are more than 300 active volcanoes, about fifty of which erupt each year, and more than 500 million people now live within the range of a volcanic eruption. Because these natural disasters occur at random times, it is difficult to warn people in advance. In May 2006, thousands of Indonesians living near Mt Merapi (which means mountain of fire) had to flee as they thought it was about to erupt. An even greater number of people live at risk， to some degree， from earthquakes which have claimed more than 1.6 million lives in the last hundred years.EMost disaster experts believe there is the potential that things could get a lot worse. Professor Hou Ming, of Beijing University studies volcanoes and he warns that the world has not seen the worst nature can do. The worst eruption in human history was probably Mt Tambora in 1815, in Indonesia. Dust from the volcano rolled across the Earths skies and pretty much cancelled the following summer in Europe and America. (5)_ “It reduced temperatures by maybe 6 in some places and the whole planet was sent into winter for years. And there are about two of these events every 100,000 years .” threat nC威胁；恐吓wipe out 彻底毁灭，去除rough/rf/adj.艰难的have a rough time过得很艰难，过着艰难的生活suffer vt.遭受，承受quake/kweIk/n.地震suffering several killer quakes 是现在分词短语作伴随状语。recover from 从中恢复offshore/f/adj.在近海岸的caused by an offshore earthquake . 是过去分词短语作后置定语，修饰the Asian tsunami。catastrophe/ktstrfi/n.巨大的灾难get over 恢复