英语学习笔记 | 高考阅读 03

此文讲述的是一个曾经被称为快乐岛的岛国因为过度开采矿产资源，最后沦为永远无法修复的蛮荒贫瘠之地。在21世纪的今天，人们都已经意识到环境保护的重要意义，相信这样的悲剧不会再次上演。

The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.

Naura瑙鲁是太平洋中部的一个岛国，1798年被英国人发现；used to do sth表示“过去做...；曾经做...”，隐含现在不再做的意思；be used to doing sth表示“习惯于做...”；learn from sth表示“从某事某物中学习或吸取（教训）”；learn from sb表示“向某人学习”；ecological /'ikə'lɑdʒɪkl/：生态的；生态学的；heartbreaking：令人心碎的；令人悲痛的；consequence /'kɒnsɪkw(ə)ns/：结果。

For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived on the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.

for接时间表示某个动作或状态持续的时间；Polynesian people指波利尼西亚人；remote /rɪ'məʊt/：遥远的；偏僻的；western civilization指西方文明；to arrive是动词不定式作the first European的后置定语；whaling ship指捕鲸船。数千年来，波利尼西亚人居住在瑙鲁这个偏僻的小岛上，远离西方文明。

However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. Then whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.

little修饰不可数名词，表示否定；at first表示“起初；首先”；bring guns and alcohol是现在分词作状语；alcohol /'ælkəhɒl/：酒（含酒精）；element /'elɪm(ə)nt/：成分；要素；一群人（有相同目标或信仰），criminal elements犯罪分子；family group指“家族”；civil war指“内战”，civil在这里表示“公民与公民之间的”。

Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐) on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which is a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.

mining /'maɪnɪŋ/：矿业；phosphate /'fɒsfeɪt/：磷酸盐；which引导非限制性定语从句，修饰逗号前面的名词phosphate。事实上，它发现瑙鲁岛几乎全部是由磷酸盐组成的，而磷酸盐是一种非常重要的农用化肥。

A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip-mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.

strip mine美式英语指“露天矿”，英式英语用opencast mine；strip的基本含义是“条；带”，如strips of wood(木条); strips of fabric(碎布条)等，还有“脱掉衣服”的意思（They stripped completely, and lay in the damp grass.他们脱光衣服，躺在潮湿的草地上）；strip-mine作动词“开采露天矿”；layer of soil指“土层”。

In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.

Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was almost financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.

invest /ɪn'vest/ 投资，invest in shares（投资股票）；in addition表示“另外；此外”；in addition to指“除...之外，（还有）”，There's postage and packing fee in addition to the repair charge. 除修理费之外还有邮寄和包装费；相当于besides，如Besides meat, I bought some vegetables. 除了肉我还买了一些蔬菜。run out指“耗尽；用完”，主语是物sth runs out；如果主语是人，用run out of（sb run out of sth）；financially /fai'nænʃəli/作副词，“财政上；经济上”；ruin /'ruːɪn/指“破坏，毁灭，使破产”；approximately /ə'prɑksɪmətli/ 作副词“大约；大概”。

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