(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in this country, firefighters in Northern California made more progress today against the massive Caldor Fire raging near the Lake Tahoe resort area. The flames are now 20 percent contained, after burning more than 204,000 acres since mid-August. Stephanie Sy has the latest.
STEPHANIE SY: Plumes of black smoke rose above the historic Echo Summit mountain pass early this morning, signs that the Caldor Fire is creeping closer to South Lake Tahoe, the most populous city on the lake. Nearly 4,000 firefighters battling the raging inferno made some progress today. The fire has already destroyed hundreds of structures.
KEITH WADE, Caldor Fire Incident Command: We have been resource-starved here at times. We're continuing to get more people sent to us, but it's still not enough, as this fire is shown to be a huge challenge for everyone involved. Fuel load is extreme out in these areas. Everything is easily ignitable. And the vegetation is very thick and dense and the areas are sometimes inaccessible.
STEPHANIE SY: Thousands of members of California's National Guard have also been deployed to assist with the fire response and evacuations. For days, erratic winds and low humidity have spread spot fires, with embers flying and spreading the flames.
STEVE VOLLMER, Fire Behavior Analyst: Those ember casts that it throws out are going over a mile in distance. So that's what's propagating the spread of the fire right now, is that long-range downwind spotting of that ember cast.
STEPHANIE SY: And the thick smoke has made it difficult for crews to navigate the rough terrain. On Monday, some 50,000 people in the popular resort region were placed under evacuation orders, snarling traffic for hours. A tourist area that's usually filled with thousands of holiday visitors is now almost empty. Military vehicles, fire crew personnel, and an odd bear were seen in the city's smoke-filled streets. Only a few residents remain.
DAVID DUET, South Lake Tahoe Resident: No one's stupid enough to stay when the flames are right mounting around the outside of the meadow. So, as long as the smoke isn't so bad and the flames aren't real close, we're going to stick it out, you know? But, if not, we will hightail it out.
STEPHANIE SY: Evacuation orders have also expanded to communities in neighboring Nevada, along the California state line. Meanwhile, the massive Dixie Fire is also still burning through the Sierra Nevada. It's the second largest wildfire in the state's history, and has burned over 844,000 acres since it began in early July. Scientists say climate change has made worse the hot and dry weather conditions fueling the West's extreme wildfires. And it's also contributed to the warming of water, making hurricanes such as Ida in the Gulf Coast more dangerous. Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and the chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy.
KATHARINE HAYHOE, Climate Scientist, Texas Tech University: Climate change didn't cause Hurricane Ida, but it definitely made it worse, and that's what climate change is, a threat multiplier. It's taking events that occur naturally and it's making them bigger, stronger, more dangerous and more damaging.
STEPHANIE SY: That includes wildfires.
KATHARINE HAYHOE: Imagine you had a green, wet wood, and you accidentally dropped a match into it. What would happen? Not much. Then imagine you had a pile of bone-dry kindling, and you accidentally dropped a match into it. What would happen? A huge conflagration. That's the difference between with or without climate change.
STEPHANIE SY: This year is on track to be California's worst fire season on record, and it's far from over. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.
重点解析
1.make progress 取得进展
Modesty helps one to make progress; conceit makes one lag behind.
虚心使人进步，骄傲使人落后。
2.resource-starved 资源匮乏的
Japan said Tuesday it had successfully extracted methane hydrate, known as "fire ice", from its seabed, possibly unlocking many years' worth of gas for the resource-starved country.
日本称，周二他们已经成功将甲烷水合物从海底提取出来，俗称“可燃冰”，很可能为这个资源短缺的国家提供数年的燃气。
3.assist with 帮助
The British team will assist with the forensic investigation.
英国的小组将协助进行法医调查。
4.stick it out 坚持到底
Luckily we managed to stick it out through the hard times.
幸运的是我们设法坚持挺过了最艰难的时刻。
5.hightail 迅速逃走
John, hightail down to the station and see if your daddy's on the train.
约翰，快跑去火车站看看你爹是不是在火车上。
参考译文
朱迪·伍德乐夫：国内方面，北加州的消防员今天在塔霍湖度假区附近的卡尔多大火中取得了进展。自8月中旬以来，大火烧毁了超过20.4万英亩的土地，现在火势已经控制住了20%。下面由斯蒂芬妮·赛为我们报道。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：今日凌晨，历史上著名的埃科峰山口上空升起了缕缕黑烟，这表明卡尔多大火正在向湖上人口最多的城市——南太浩湖蔓延。今天，近4000名消防员与大火搏斗，取得了一些进展。大火已经摧毁了数百座建筑。
基斯·韦德，考尔多火灾事故指挥部：我们这里有时资源匮乏。我们正在继续派更多的人到我们这里来，但还是不够，因为这场火灾对参与其中的每个人来说都是一个巨大的挑战。这些地区的燃料负荷非常严重，一切都很容易被点燃。而且这里植被非常茂密，有时很难进入。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：数千名加州国民警卫队成员也被派往协助消防和疏散工作。几天来，怪风和干燥导致了零星火灾的蔓延，余烬四处飞扬，致使火焰蔓延。
史蒂夫·沃尔默，火灾行为分析师：大火喷出的余烬在一英里外蔓延，这就是现在火势蔓延的原因，余烬都在远距离外的下风处。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：浓烟使得工作人员很难在崎岖的地形中前行。周一，在这个热门的度假胜地，大约5万人接到了疏散命令，导致交通拥堵了数小时之久。通常挤满成千上万游客的旅游区现在几乎空无一人。军用车辆、消防人员和一只奇怪的熊出现在城市烟雾弥漫的街道上。只有少数居民还在。
大卫·迪埃，南太浩湖居民：没人会傻到当火焰在草地外面蔓延时留下来。所以，只要烟没有那么严重，大火没有烧过来，我们就会坚持下去，但如果烟太重，火太烧过来了，我们就溜之大吉。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：疏散令也已扩展到邻近的内华达州的社区，沿着加州的州界线。同时，大规模的南部大火仍在内华达山脉燃烧着。这是该州历史上的第二大野火，自7月初开始以来，大火已经烧毁了84.4万英亩。科学家表示，气候变化使炎热干燥的天气状况更加恶化，加剧了西部地区的极端野火。这也导致了海水变暖，使得像“艾达”这样的飓风在墨西哥湾沿岸更加危险。凯瑟琳·海霍是一名气候科学家，也是自然保护协会的首席科学家。
凯瑟琳·海霍，德克萨斯理工大学气候科学家：气候变化并不是引发飓风艾达的原因，但它绝对让情况变得更糟了。这就是气候变化，一个威胁放大器。它让自然界发生的灾难变得更大、更强、更危险、更具破坏性。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：包括森林大火。
凯瑟琳·海霍：想象一下，你有一根绿色潮湿的木头，你不小心掉了一根火柴进去，会发生什么？不会发生什么严重的事情。然后想象你有一堆极干的引火物，你不小心掉了一根火柴进去，会发生什么？那就是一场巨大的灾难。这就是有或没有气候变化的区别。
斯蒂芬妮·赛：今年将是加州有记录以来最严重的火灾季节，而这还远远没有结束。这里是PBS新闻一小时，我是斯蒂芬妮·塞。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
