(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Large Animals Change the Land of a Former Military Base
Wild horses, bison and other large animals once moved freely in much of Europe. Now, these animals are changing a former military base outside of Prague, the Czech capital.
Where Soviet soldiers once held military exercises, large cattle called tauros now eat invasive plants that began growing on the property years ago. The animals are turning the former Milovice military base back into a kind of grassland or steppe.
Five years ago, conservationists released the large animals at Milovice. The animals' job is to improve diversity among local plants. They do this by eating invasive plants while saving rare or endangered ones, said Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife, an organization supporting the project.
"Nobody expected that the whole process would go ahead so fast and the area would change so much in just a few years," Dostal said.
He added the large animals are as important to saving the grassland "as trees are for forests."
This year, conservationists hope to increase the size of the wildlife sanctuary by one-third to 360 hectares.
David Storch is a professor at Charles University in Prague. Storch, who was not involved in the project, described it as "absolutely unique."
He believes that it shows that nature can be saved not only by protecting it from human activities, but also by using large animals to shape the environment. While wild horses like to eat invasive grasses, European bison and tauros enjoy eating larger plants like bushes.
The Czech project includes tauros that came from the Netherlands. There, a special breeding program attempted to bring back a creature that was like the aurochs, which are the wild ancestor of modern cattle. Aurochs died out in the 17th century.
The wild horses came from Britain's Exmoor National Park, while European bison came from Poland.
The project now has 25 tauros, about 70 wild horses, and 27 European bison.
The animals move freely. They can care for themselves, even in winter.
After the animals' release, the landscape quickly showed signs of change. Flowers started to appear as early as the second year of the project.
Today, the whole area changes colors over the course of the year, depending on which flowers are in bloom. One of the rarest is the star gentian, also known as a cross gentian. The blue flower is now growing at Milovice more than anywhere else in the Czech Republic.
Many other animals and insects are now plentiful at the former base. The Adonis blue butterfly has been seen there for the first time since 1967.
Miloslav Jirku, a biologist with the Czech Academy of Sciences, has been involved in the project from its beginning.
"If we give nature a chance, if we give it time and space, it can take care of many things," he said. "At the very beginning, I thought that lots of species that used to be here in the 1990s would have to be returned artificially. Today, a number of them are already here without us doing anything about it," he added.
I'm John Russell.
重点解析
1.died out 灭绝
Dinosaurs died out millions of years ago.
恐龙几百万年前灭绝了。
2.biologist 生物学家
The biologist advanced a new theory of life.
这位生物学家提出了一个有关生命的新学说。
3.species 物种
The male of the species has a white tail.
这一物种的雄性有一条白色的尾巴。
4.artificially 人为的
The cows are artificially inseminated.
这些母牛被人工授精。
5."If we give nature a chance, if we give it time and space, it can take care of many things," he said.
take care of 照顾
Don't worry yourself about me, I can take care of myself
你别担心我，我能照顾好自己。
I take care of them to the best of my abilities
我尽我所能地照顾他们。
6."At the very beginning, I thought that lots of species that used to be here in the 1990s would have to be returned artificially.
At the very beginning 一开始
You should make a plan at the very beginning of the term.
你们应该在学期一开始就制定好计划。
We are looking for something basic at the very beginning level of a problem or mystery.
我们在问题或难题出现之初就寻找其根本原因。
参考译文
捷克废弃基地变野生动物保护区
野马、野牛和其他大型动物曾经在欧洲大部分地区自由活动。现在，这些动物正在改变捷克首都布拉格郊外一处废弃的军事基地。
在苏联士兵曾经举行军事演习的地方，一种名为tauros的大型野牛现在以入侵的植物为食，这些植物几年前开始在这片土地上疯长。这些动物正在把以前的米洛维茨军事基地“改造”成草原。
五年前，环保主义者在米洛维斯放生了这些大型动物。这些动物的职责就是提高当地植物的多样性。支持该项目的欧洲野生动物组织(European Wildlife)的负责人达利博尔·多斯特尔(Dalibor Dostal)表示，他们在食用入侵植物的同时，也会保护珍稀或濒危植物。
多斯特尔说：“没有人预料到整个过程会进行得如此迅速，该地区会在短短几年内发生如此巨变。”
他补充说，野生动物对于拯救草原而言，重要性等同于“木之于林”。
今年，环保人士希望将野生动物保护区的面积扩大三分之一，达到360公顷。
大卫·斯托奇（David Storch）是布拉格查尔斯大学的教授。斯托奇没有参与这一项目，他形容该项目“绝对的独一无二”。
他认为，这表明，拯救大自然的方式不仅仅是保护其免受人类活动的影响，还可以通过利用大型动物来重塑环境。野马喜欢吃入侵的植物，而欧洲野牛和tauros喜欢吃像灌木丛这样的大型植物。
这一捷克项目包括来自荷兰的野牛tauros。在那里，一项特殊的育种项目试图培育出一种像aurochs野牛的生物——现代牛的野生祖先。Aurochs野牛在17世纪灭绝了。
野马来自英国埃克斯穆尔国家公园，而欧洲野牛来自波兰。
这个项目现在有25头tauros野牛，大约70匹野马和27头欧洲野牛。
这些动物自由活动。即使在冬季也可以自力更生。
这些动物被放生后，当地环境迅速出现了变化。项目启动的第二年，植物就陆续开花了。
如今，整个地区的四季会随着花朵盛开，不断变换颜色。其中最罕见的是星龙胆草，也被称为杂交龙胆草。如今，在米洛维茨生长的这种蓝色花朵比捷克共和国任何地方都多。
现在，这处废弃基地的许多其他动物和昆虫种类也十分丰富。自1967年以来，人们第一次在那里看到阿多尼斯蓝蝴蝶。
捷克科学院的生物学家米洛斯拉夫·吉尔库（Miloslav Jirku）从一开始就参与了这个项目。
“如果给大自然一个机会，如果给其时间和空间，大自然可以应付很多事情，”他说。“起初，我认为20世纪90年代在这里的许多物种必须得人工干预才能回归。如今，其中一些物种已经回归，而人类几乎没有进行干预。”
约翰·罗塞尔为您播报。
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