(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
For years, most people thought of small organisms called plankton as food for whales and other large sea animals. But a four-year long study discovered that plankton are a major supplier of oxygen on our planet.
Plankton are a group of different ocean creatures, algae, bacteria and other organisms. They live close to the water's surface in oceans, seas and lakes. Plankton cannot be seen without a microscope. But they are the main source of food for larger animals, like whales.
Recently, 200 scientists from 45 countries took turns researching plankton on a two-mast schooner. The boat set sail in September 2009. It visited 210 areas. The scientists collected 35,000 samples of plankton. The researchers followed the lives of plankton, examined their genetic material and watched their movements.
A French non-profit group called Tara Expeditions launched the project, known as Tara Oceans. Chris Bowler was the project's scientific coordinator. He says the researchers found that plankton are very important to the health of our planet.
"Generating the oxygen we breathe, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generally maintaining this Earth in a state that is habitable for us human beings."
Mr. Bowler says almost half of the oxygen we breathe comes from very small algae called diatoms. These plants live in the part of the water where the sun reaches.
"That basically means every fifth time that you breathe, you're breathing oxygen -- which we can directly trace back to diatoms, so they're sort of as important as a tropical rain forest in terms of their global contribution."
Romain Troublé is the executive director of Tara Oceans. He believes the study shows that the ocean greatly affects the earth's climate.
"We believe that the ocean is also a main driver of the climate change, a main, main mitigator in the way that the ocean and the life in the ocean is storing carbon dioxide, storing heat. And this machinery works because the ocean is in good health."
Different groups of researchers studied different things. One group identified more than 40 million plankton genes formerly unknown to scientists.
The collected information will be used to identify which of the plankton have little or no trouble reacting to changing water conditions.
Results of the study appeared in the online scientific journal Science. The publication says many experts will be examining the study.
I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise.
词汇解释
1.plankton n. 浮游生物（总称）
The fish live on the plankton.
这种鱼靠吃浮游生物为生。
2.habitable adj. 可居住的；适于居住的
Making the house habitable was a major undertaking.
把这房子收拾得可以住人是个大工程。
3.expedition n. 远征；探险队；迅速
The expedition started out before sunrise.
太阳出来之前探险队就出发了。
4.schooner n. [船] 纵帆船；大酒杯；大篷车
My stomach got worse when the schooner was becalmed.
当双桅帆船因无风而抛锚停泊时我的胃病加重了。
内容解析
1.Recently, 200 scientists from 45 countries took turns researching plankton on a two-mast schooner.
take turns 依次，轮流(说、做等)，轮班
He and Carla Torgerson take turns as the band's lead vocalist.
他和卡拉·托格森轮流担当乐队的主唱。
Males and females take turns brooding the eggs.
雄鸟和雌鸟轮流孵蛋。
2.That basically means every fifth time that you breathe, you're breathing oxygen -- which we can directly trace back to diatoms,
trace back to 可追溯到；追溯到…的起源(或来由)；找出根源；追查到，追究到：
His family can trace its history back to the Qing Dynasty.
他的家族史可追溯到清朝。
The rumour was traced back to Tom.
这个谣言追究到汤姆身上。
参考译文
多年来，大多数人认为名为浮游生物的微生物是鲸鱼等大型海洋动物的食物，但一项历时四年的研究发现，浮游生物是地球上氧气的主要提供者。
浮游生物是由不同海洋生物、藻类、细菌等生物构成的群体，它们生活在海洋和湖泊的表面。浮游生物只能通过显微镜才能看到，但它们却是鲸鱼等大型动物的主要食物来源。
最近，来自45个国家的200名科学家轮流在一艘两桅帆船上研究浮游生物，这艘船是2009年9月开始航行的，已经访问了210个地区。科学家们收集了3.5万个浮游生物样本，研究者追踪浮游生物的生活，研究它们的遗传物质并观察它们的活动。
法国一个名为塔拉科学考察的非盈利组织发起了这个名为塔拉海洋的项目，克里斯·鲍勒是项目的科学协调员，他说研究者发现浮游生物对我们地球的健康很重要。
“浮游生物制造我们呼吸的氧气，将二氧化碳从大气中清理走，并使地球大体上保持适合人类生存的状态。”
鲍勒说我们呼吸的近一半的氧气来自名为硅藻的微小藻类，这些植物生活在太阳能抵达的水中。
“这基本上意味着我们呼吸的五分之一的时间，是在呼吸硅藻制造的氧气，所以就对地球的贡献来说，硅藻就像热带雨林那样重要。”
罗曼是塔拉海洋的总裁，他认为这项研究表明海洋在很大程度上影响了地球的气候。
“我们认为海洋也是导致气候变化的主要推动力和主要的调节器，海洋和海洋生物能储存二氧化碳和热量，这一机制之所以有效是因为海洋健康状态良好。”
不同的研究者小组研究不同的方面，一个小组识别出之前不为科学家所知的4000多万中浮游生物基因。
他们收集的信息将被用来识别哪种浮游生物对水状况变化没有反应或没问题。
研究结果发表在在线科学期刊《科学》上，出版方称很多专家都能将审核这份研究。
我是克里斯多夫·克鲁斯。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
