听力文本

The land of hemlock, douglas fir and giant redwood.
铁杉，花旗松，巨杉。
Here, water is never locked up in ice, and even if rains fail
这里，水再也不会冰封，即使不下雨，
the needles can extract moisture from the fogs that roll in from the sea.
针叶也可以从海上蜂拥而来的水雾中汲取水分。
The Sun's energy powers these forests, not for one month as it does in the Taiga but for half the year.
太阳给森林带来的生长能量，不是北极的一个月，而是半年。
These conifers grow at ten times the rate of those near the Arctic, and they live for thousands of years.
这些树木的生长速度是北极圈附近树木的10倍，寿命更可达数千年。

One grove of redwoods in California contains three of the tallest trees on Earth.
加利福尼亚的这块红杉林，世界树木高度排行前三名的树都在这里。
This one is over a hundred meters high, the size of a thirty story building.
这颗超过100米的树有30层楼房那么高。
These forests were growing here long before humans walked the Earth.
这片森林远在人类直立行走之前就出现了。
They were in their prime twenty million years ago,
2000万年前它们就已经在这里，
and existed before the Swiss Alps or the Rocky Mountains were even raised.
甚至比阿尔卑斯山和洛基山脉隆起的时间还要早。

视频及简介

在北极边缘有着大片针叶树林，那是矮小的针叶科树木寂静的世界。那些树或许真的很矮，但在高空拍摄下，树林显示出其真实的大小。世界有1/3的树木都生长在这里，在短暂的夏季里，这些树木制造了大量的氧气足以改变的大气的成份。