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It is called the Roof of Africa. Rising 19,340 feet nearly 4 miles into the sky, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the entire African continent.
乞力马扎罗山被称为非洲屋脊。其高度达19340英尺近4英里直入云端，它是整个非洲大陆的最高点。
Located in northeastern Tanzania in east Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is about equal distant from Cairo to the north and Cape Town to the south, around 220 miles south of the equator. The majestic snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro have long captured the world's imagination. Thousandshavetraveled to Tanzania to climb the mountain, or to view its famous glacier-covered peak. One such visitor, the American author Earnest Hemingway, even wrote a story about it. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway described the mountain's ice fields as widest all overthe world, great, high and unbelievably white in the sun.
位于东非坦桑尼亚东北部的乞力马扎罗山在赤道以南220英里,大约相当于开罗最北到开普敦最南的距离。雄伟的乞力马扎罗山的积雪盖顶早就引起了世界注意。成千上万的人来到坦桑尼亚来攀登这座高峰,或观看其著名的冰川覆盖高峰。大名鼎鼎的美国作家海明威, 作为一名旅行者，甚至写了一篇关于它的小说。在大雪纷飞的乞力马扎罗山，海明威描述山的冰块就如同世界一样宽广,高大及它在太阳底下所呈现出的难以致信的白色。
As spectacular as it is to see, the ice on top of Mount Kilimanjaro serves a much more important purpose. Formed more than 11, 000 years ago, the glaciers are a vital source of drinking and farming water for those who live in the surrounding areas. But for the last century the snows have been disappearing. Kilimanjaro's glaciers have shrunk by more than 80% since 1912. This can be seen in pictures that the NASA satellite Landsat has been taking of the mountain's ice cap for more than a decade. This is how it looked in 1993. And this is how it looked just 7 years later in 2000.
因为它的壮观，乞力马扎罗山顶上的冰现在被赋予了更重要的使命，那就是服务大众。这些形成于超过11,000年前的冰川对于那些住在附近地区的人们来说是很重要的生存饮用水源及农业用水源。但自上个世纪以来，冰雪已经开始逐渐消失。自1912年以来，乞力马扎罗山的冰川已经缩小至原来的80%。这可以从美国NASA卫星Landsat十年前拍摄的照片上看到。这是它在1993年的样子。而这是7年后,即2000年的样貌。
There are several theories as to why Mount Kilimanjaro's snow is disappearing so quickly. For one thing, the mountain is located in a tropical region. For this reason, its glaciers are especially vulnerable to climate changes. One type of climate change is called global warming, which is causing a constant rise in the Earth's temperature. Another possible reason that glaciers are melting is deforestation, which happens when trees are cut down in mass quantities. Trees keep the air cooler and add moisture to the atmosphere which helps create clouds and precipitation.
乞力马扎罗山上的雪为何消失如此之快有几种理论。首先,该山位于热带地区。因为这个原因,冰川尤其容易受气候变化影响。一种类型的气候变化被称为全球变暖,这造成地球温度的不断上升。另一个可能的原因是树木被大规模砍伐。树木使空气冷却和增加湿气,帮助造云和降水。
Regardless of the causes, the snows of Kilimanjaro continue to melt. Experts predict that the mountain's glaciers could disappear completely by the year 2020. The loss of Kilimanjaro's glaciers removes a source of water from the mountain's surrounding area. In addition, it would probably decrease the amount of tourism and the revenue it generates to Tanzania. Finally, the disappearing snow in Africa serves as proof thatthe Earth, with its changing climate and warming trends, cannot always sustain its natural treasures.
不管什么原因, 覆盖着的冰雪仍旧继续融化。专家预计冰川可能在2020年完全消失。乞力马扎罗山冰川的消失使周边地区少了一个水源。此外,旅游和坦桑尼亚的收入也可能会减少。最后,消失在非洲的雪证明了地球处于气候变化和气候变暖趋势,不能总是维持其自然奇珍状态。
词语解释：
- equal a. 同等的
- equator n. 赤道
- majestic a. 雄伟的
