字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Extreme Life-Forms Could Complicate Carbon Sequestration
生命不易

洪欣老師推薦：托福聽力最好的課外教材：60-Second Science
康康精選托福會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!

建議方法：
1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)
2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)
3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。
4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160620sa_earth.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：
The first life on Earth appeared about four billion years ago. One place these pioneering organisms may have emerged is at hydrothermal vents, deep underwater. Where unusual chemistry provided energy for primitive life-forms to survive. Life-forms like the methane-belching microbes found at the vents today.
大約在40億年前，地球上首次出現了生命，其中有一個地方首當其衝，那就是深海的熱液噴口。那裡不平常的化學現象給與原始的生命提供生存能量。如今這個噴口可以發現像是生成甲烷微生物這種生命體。

Now, for the first time, researchers have found evidence of methane-producing life in similarly extreme conditions, but at the surface of the Earth—at a spring in northern California, called The Cedars. The water there is extremely basic—with a pH of 11.6. And it contains no oxygen. Not an easy place to survive.
現在，科研人員們首次發現了類似的極端條件中可以製造甲烷的生命存在的跡象，但是位置是在地球的表面——在加州北部的一個名叫Cedar的溫泉。那裡的水是極鹼的——PH值達到11.6。而且還不含氧。這可不容易生活啊。

Researchers tested water and sediment at the Cedars. Some samples got dosed with mercuric chloride to kill any life present. Those dosed samples produced no methane. But the samples in which microbes were allowed to survive did put out methane. Confirming that at least some of the methane at the springs is indeed biological in origin. The findings appear in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
研究人員們監測了Cedars那裡的水和沉積物。有些樣本裡添加了mercuric chloride，去除可能存在的生物。這種樣本裡沒有任何的甲烷產生。生存的樣本中，確實產生出甲烷了。這就確認了，至少溫泉裡的有些甲烷氣體確實是生 物製造。該研究結果已發表在《地球物理學研究：生物地理科學》雜誌上。

The finding has implications for climate change alleviation. A geologically similar spring in Oman has been proposed as a site for carbon storage—pumping CO2 underground, where it gets incorporated in stone. But the extremophiles at The Cedars can use CO2 to make methane—an even more potent greenhouse gas. "So imagine pumping CO2 into the ground and having it come back up as methane." Penny Morrill, a biogeochemist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. "This will not necessarily happen, but it is something to be tested for before fully implementing a carbon capture and storage technology at one of these types of sites."
該研究提示我們可以緩和氣候變化。在Oman發現的一個與上述地區地理條件極其相似的溫泉也被提出是一個儲存碳元素的位元點——從地下泵出二氧化碳，原來 都是被整合在該地區的礦石中。但是Cedars地區的嗜極菌可以利用二氧化碳製造甲烷——這是一種更潛在的溫室氣體。所以可以設想一下向地泵入二氧化碳， 之後返回大氣的是甲烷。這是Penny Morrill, 紐芬蘭紀念大學的一位生物地球化學專家。這並不一定會發生，但是在這類地區完全應用碳捕獲以及儲藏技術之前，還是先要檢測一下這種現象的。

Morrill says the study's also a reminder that life is tenacious. "We should not let our biases prevent us from looking for evidence of life in what we would otherwise consider an unexpected place." Including other planets and moons.
Penny Morrill表示，這項研究還提醒我們生命是頑強的。我們不應該讓我們的偏見阻擋住我們在特殊的地方考察生命的跡象。這其中包括其他行星和月球。