听力文本

At Brooklyn's recycling depot, discarded metal and plastic gets bulldozed into a large mound.
The stuff is then scooped onto the first of a series of rising conveyor belts, from which the trash is sorted through means both mechanical and manual.
All that effort produces a variety of salable products, from metals to paper fibers.
But is it worth it?
In the case of an aluminum can the answer is an unqualified yes.
Such a can can be recycled endlessly with no loss of quality.
And recycling a can uses less than five percent of the energy that it takes to refine bauxite ore into fresh aluminum.
Recycling is worth it when it comes to all metals, though we're better at recycling aluminum than say neodymium.
In principle it could work for plastic, too.
But because plastic is made from petrochemicals, low oil prices can make it cheaper to just dump old plastic and manufacture new.
And plastics degrade as they're recycled, as does paper.
That said, a simple cost-benefit analysis does not correctly measure the environmental costs of dumping plastics or cutting down more trees for paper products.
The EPA suggests that recycling in the U.S.reduces the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution as taking more than 38 million cars off the road.
The sound of recycling may prove music to the ears of future generations.

中文翻译

在布鲁克林的回收站，废弃的金属和塑料如土堆般堆放y;Ud+jo(n|8+fXJIv。
稍后这些垃圾会被送往一系列传送带的第一条，按照机械和手工进行分类后再经由一系列传送带回收利用A#(mn+GW0YvYy%W9;P。
人们付出如此多努力生产出从金属到纸纤维各种各样的畅销产品mEQiMJyp9|V]x。
但这样做真的值得吗?
如果说是铝罐制造答案绝对是肯定的~U@TgE@=[HtVjBT。
因为这样的罐子可以无限循环使用且质量上不会造成损失%=uAe|1Ml0J;1;C~Rkz。

并且回收一个罐子比提炼铝土矿获得铝所消耗能源的5%还要少Zi#PZcr.O1)y|j)bf)X。
所有的金属回收都是值得的，尽管相比钕在回收铝方面我们更为拿手.ny1k[~_agZ)yJF。
原则上塑料也适用于回收V*dp*3Y%mN=。
但由于塑料是石油化工所制造的产品，低廉的油价使得直接丢掉旧塑料，再造新的更为便宜DT+C;sChjj0tA)j。
而塑料回收后就会贬值，纸张也是如此yZ4aMgAAjelF!g;k)[X。
即是说，简单的成本效益分析并不能正确地衡量倾倒塑料或砍伐更多树木制造纸制产品所造成的环境成本jf5Cze&)56YD^!Oy,5)。
而美国环保署指出美国回收资源减少的温室气体排放等同于抑制3800多万辆汽车上路iaX1rVlhM,5^。
资源回收这个话题在未来几代人眼中可能就像音乐一样9nNn0Dsfh&2。

译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！

词语解释

1.cut down 砍倒；削减

We are constantly being reminded to cut down our fat intake.
不断有人提醒我们要减少脂肪的摄入量Az;FpgXz+X~P.;h;33ca。

Cut down and compost spent cucumbers, tomatoes and other crops.
将已收获过的黄瓜、西红柿和其他作物的秧蔓割下，制成堆肥Zyzj!PAOQz57x。

2.work for 为…而工作；效劳；致力

The company I work for went through a rough patch.
我所在的公司经历了一段困难时期vOn^H2Md1Ku;MwaX。

Even unpaid work for charity is better than nothing.
即便是给慈善机构做义工也比什么都不做要好[cc0+!JIx.MDxc)2A。