字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Submerged Lost City Really Bacterially Built / 消失的海底城堡

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://x8.tingvoa.com/…/Submerged-Lost-City-Really-Bacteria…

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：
Tourists snorkeling off the Greek island of Zakynthos in 2013 thought they had made a fabulous discovery: the remains of a lost city. They saw what appeared to be paving stones and the bases of columns in the blue water. But when the Greek government sent in researchers, they didn't find any other remnants of human activity, such as pottery. So scientists at the University of Athens and the University of East Anglia in Englandteamed up to investigate.
在2013年希臘紮金索斯島潛游的旅客們認為，自己發現了一項了不起的建築：一座消失城市的殘骸。他們在藍色的海水裡看到了鋪石路以及圓柱。但是，當希臘政府派研究人員調查時，他們沒有發現人類活動所留下的任何殘骸，如陶瓷。所以，雅典大學和東安格利亞大學的科學家開始進行調查。

Julian Andrews, professor of environmental sciences at East Anglia, at first questioned his Athens colleague, geologist Michael Stamatakis.
朱利安•安德魯斯，是東安格裡亞大學的環境科學的教授，首先，提問了他的雅典同事，一位地質學家。

“When I first saw the pictures I said to Michael, 'are you sure they're not real?' Because they really do look like columns. And he said, 'No no, definitely there's definitely something going on here more than more than that.'
當我第一次見到時，我跟邁克爾說，“你確定嗎”?因為，看起來只像幾個柱子。邁克爾說,”絕對不止這些。”

After analyzing the mineral content of the formations, Andrews agreed.
在分析其構成的礦物質成分後，安德魯表示同意。

“So what we have here is essentially the byproduct of bacterial reactions. So they happen to look rather like human artifacts: buildings, columns, pavements. But they're actually examples of what we call concretion, this mineral that precipitates in the sediment. ”
所以，這裡基本上都是細菌反應的附屬品。所以，這些東西恰巧看起來像人類的手工建築：建築物、柱子、街道。但是實際上，他們是我們稱之為結石的樣品，是一種沉澱在砂石中的礦物質。

They published their findings in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology.
該研究結果發表在《海洋和石油地質學》雜誌上。

The bacteria responsible for the formations thrive near seeps—usually found in much deeper water than in this case—that vent gases such as methane. The microbes break down the methane as fuel. That act sets off a chain of reactions that leads to the creation of dolomite—basically a natural cement. The bacteria got to work on these formations long before Ancient Greece existed—or modern humans, for that matter.
與建築形成有關的細菌在裂縫處繁衍旺盛，一般而言，這些細菌常存在於深海處，同時產生氣體甲烷。微生物分解甲烷作為燃料。這種過程會發生一系列的反應，致使產生白雲石——一種自然粘合劑。在古希臘甚至現代人類之前，細菌就開始了這樣的化學過程。

“It looks like they could be as old as three or four million years old. So these would have been buried in the sediment millions of years ago and then have been eroded or exhumed by currents in modern coastal waters.”
這些結構看起來大概有300—400萬年之久。所以，它數百萬年前被泥沙所埋，然後，由於現在的沿海流域的水流沖刷，而被腐蝕和發掘。

Underwater archaeology fans shouldn't be put off just because these ruins were built by bacteria.
水下考古學家感興趣者，千萬不要因為這些是由細菌構造而成的，就推遲行程。

“I think they're very beautiful things to see anyway, so it's still a great place to go snorkeling. And also when you build structures like this, where you have sort of columns and cavities and crypts and so forth, these are very good places. They're rather like reefs really…so I think people can enjoy the natural formations. It's just amazing how you have, how similar they do look to human remains and artifacts.”
我認為，它們其實非常的美麗，所以仍然是潛水的不錯之選。同時，當你也想建立這樣的建築,既有地下室也有柱子和房間，這裡是不錯的選擇。它們看起來非常像珊瑚，所以我覺得人們可以享受自然形成之美。只是，讓人感到非常神奇，這些建築和人類殘骸以及人工製品是如何出去的相似。