听力文本

A giant hop and skip north from the Grand Canyon would bring one to the State of Utah, where there is a great lake, but this Great Lake is different from the five “Great Lakes.” The water in the five Great Lakes is fresh, the water in this great lake is salt, so it is called Great Salt Lake, though it is really a little ocean. As in the case of the ocean, rivers run into the Great Salt Lake, but no rivers run out of it.

What makes it salt ?

The same thing that makes the ocean salt.

What makes the ocean salt?

The ground through which rivers flow is salt. If you ever tasted the ground, you would know it, but, of course, I don’t suppose you ever have, unless you have fallen and gotten some in your mouth or on your lips. Rivers, as they flow along, wash some of this salt out of the ground, carry it along, and dump it into the ocean. They carry so little salt at a time you would never know by tasting the river water that it was salt at all, but the rivers pour in this ever so little bit of salt all the time, all the time, and so the salt gradually does collect in the ocean and in Great Salt Lake, for there is no way for the salt to go out once it’s in the ocean or the lake. The water gets out of the lake as it does out of the ocean—by rising into the air as vapor—evaporating, we call it—but the salt doesn’t evaporate, it can’t rise into the air, and so it has no way of getting out.

The Great Salt Lake is getting saltier and saltier all the time. It is already much saltier than the ocean. Salt water holds up a person or anything in it much better than fresh water, and the saltier the water the more it holds the person up. So in Great Salt Lake you couldn’t drown whether you knew how to swim or not. You can stand in the water or sit in the water or lie down on the water as you would on a sofa. You can read the paper or eat your luncheon while sitting in the water, but you have to be very careful not to get any of the water in your eyes or in any small cut you may have on your hands or body, for the salt water is so strong it smarts. Some day the ocean will be as salty as Great Salt Lake, for the ocean too is slowly, very slowly, getting saltier and saltier all the time. Then, even if there were a shipwreck, people would not drown—they would bob about in the sea like corks.

参考译文

离大峡谷的北面不远处就是犹他州，那里有一个很大的湖，但是这个大湖不同于“五大湖”。五大湖的水是淡水，这个大湖里的水却是咸水，因此它被叫做“大盐湖”，其实它就是一个小海洋。大盐湖和海洋一样，只有流入的河，却没有流出的河。

是什么把湖水变咸的呢？

是把海洋也变咸的东西。

那么，是什么把海洋变咸的呢？

河水流经的土地含有盐分。如果你尝过泥土的味道你就会知道的，但是，我想你当然没尝过，除非你跌倒了，不小心嘴里或者嘴唇上沾了点土。河水流经土地时由于不断冲刷，带走了一些盐分，最后汇入海洋。河流一次带走的盐分很少，所以你尝河水是感觉不到咸味的，但是众多河流日复一日，年复一年地把盐分一点点带进海洋，海洋和大盐湖里的盐分就逐渐积累起来了，因为盐一旦进入海洋和大盐湖，就没有办法再出去。湖水和海水都是变成水蒸气升到空气中—我们称之为蒸发—但是盐是不能蒸发的，它不能升到空气中去，因此它没有任何办法出去。

大盐湖不断变得越来越咸。它已经比海水还咸。人和一些东西能在水里浮起来，盐水比淡水浮力更大，水越咸，浮力就越大。所以，在大盐湖不管会不会游泳你都不会溺水。你可以站在水里、坐在水里或者躺在水面上，就像躺在沙发上一样。你可以一边坐在水里，一边看报纸或者吃午餐，但是你得小心别把水弄到眼睛里或者手上或身上任何小伤口里，因为盐分很强会引起剧痛。有一天海洋也会变得像大盐湖一样咸，因为海洋也在一直非常缓慢地变得越来越咸。到那时，即使发生船只失事，也不会有人遇难了—人们会像软木塞一样在海上漂来漂去。