Dialogue 1
Jingjing: Mark, have you been reading anything about the forest fires in the Amazon?
京晶：马克，最近你关注关于亚马逊森林大火的报道了吗？
Mark: You mean the river?
马克：你是说亚马逊河？
Jingjing: No, I mean the area around the Amazon river—Amazonia. There are 80% more fires this year.
京晶：不，我是说亚马逊河周边地区——整个亚马逊河流域。今年的火灾增加了80%。
Mark: Wow, that's a big increase. How are these fires starting?
马克：哎呀，增加了这么多。这些火都是怎么烧起来的？
Jingjing: People are arguing about that right now. It's the dry season now. Also, Brazil has a big beef industry. So, when land gets cleared, it typically gets used for grazing.
京晶：人们为此正争论不休呢。现在是雨林旱季。此外，巴西拥有庞大的牛肉产业。所以，开辟出来的土地通常被用来放牧。
Mark: What a pity. That means, once an area of land burns, it doesn't regrow as forest.
马克：真遗憾。这意味着，一块土地一旦被烧毁，它就不会再生为森林。
Jingjing: That's right. So the land will be drier and won't do as much for the global oxygen supply.
京晶：对啊。因此，土地会变得更加干旱，对全球氧气供氧量也就不那么大了。
Mark: I read somewhere that rainforests produce 20% of the world's oxygen.
马克：我读到过，亚马逊雨林为地球提供20%的氧气。
Jingjing: Yes. Even if it's just a small part of the rainforests that are destroyed, it's a great loss to the entire world.
京晶：是的。即使只是热带雨林的一小部分被损毁，对全世界来说都是一个巨大的损失。
Mark: I know. We're pretty close to a point of no return.
马克：可不是，我们几乎走到无路可退之境。
Jingjing: What do you mean?
京晶：这话什么意思？
Mark: Well, if the earth's temperature rises too much, trees will shut down—that means no photosynthesis, and no oxygen being put into the atmosphere for longer periods each year. That would make global climate change happen faster and faster, possibly too fast for humans to stop.
马克：嗯，如果地球温度上升过多，树木会功能关闭——也就是说没有了光合作用，那每年将有很长一段时间没有氧气进入大气层。这将使全球气候变化的速度越来越快，很可能快得连人类都已经无法阻止了。
Jingjing: That's a scary idea. I believe the Earth has lots of ways of balancing itself.
京晶：这么一想好可怕。我相信地球还有很多方法来自我平衡。
Mark: Yeah, the Earth will probably be fine.
马克：是的，地球可能会没事的。
Jingjing: Hopefully humans can survive also.
京晶：也希望人类能继续生存下来。
Mark: Exactly.
马克：太对了。

New words : 习语短语
beef industry 牛肉产业
companies raising cows and selling meat
rainforest （热带）雨林
land covered with tall trees and many other kinds of plants (These areas produce their own rain.)
photosynthesis 光合作用
the process by which plants use sunlight and CO2 to produce oxygen
atmosphere （围绕地球的）大气，大气层
the air all around the Earth
global climate change 全球气候变化
rising temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans, melting polar ice caps, droughts and floods

Dialogue 2
Jingjing: Mark, have you ever been to a rainforest?
京晶：马克，你去过热带雨林吗?
Mark: I've not been to Brazil, or anywhere with a tropical rainforest. Have you?
马克：我没去过巴西，也没去过有热带雨林的地方。你去过吗?
Jingjing: No, but I'd love to go—not when there's a forest fire, obviously. South America is on my list of places to visit.
京晶：没去过，但我非常想去——但很显然不是森林起火的时候。南美洲在我想去的名单上。
Mark: Same here. Actually, where I lived in the US was a temperate rainforest. Lots of it was cleared for houses. But there were a few parks that had the original old growth forests.
马克：我也一样。实际上，我在美国生活的地方就是一片温带雨林。很多土地被开垦出来以后盖了房子。但还有一些公园是有原始森林的。
Jingjing: Wow. There must be lots of huge trees there.
京晶：哇哦。那里一定有很多参天大树。
Mark: There are. They make a canopy. So, even on a hot summer day, you could go into the forest and be totally cool.
马克：有的有的。 这些树木形成了浓密的树冠层。所以，即使在炎热的夏天，你可以走进森林，会感觉到非常凉爽。
Jingjing: It'd be great to have that. No wonder you like hiking so much. You grew up surrounded by forests.
京晶：这样真好。难怪你这么喜欢徒步。你就在森林里长大的啊。
Mark: I was lucky that way. I also got up into Washington state, where there are huge rainforests north-west of Seattle.
马克：这方面我很幸运。我还去了华盛顿州，西雅图西北方向有大片雨林。
Jingjing: Isn't that also where there are lots of forest fires every year?
京晶：那里不也是每年有很多森林火灾的地方吗?
Mark: There are a few forest fires east of the mountain range there. But most of the fires are in California, further south.
马克：在山脉以东那里有几处森林火灾。但是大部分火灾发生在加州，更靠南部一些。
Jingjing: Yeah, every summer, I hear about them in the news. People have to evacuate their homes. Days later, they come back and find their town is only a field of charcoal.
京晶：是的，每年夏天，我都能在新闻上听到这些火灾。人们不得不撤离家园。过些日子他们回家后看到他们的小城只剩下一片焦灼之地。
Mark: I know. Living in a forest is a great idea, but maybe not where it gets really dry and is prone to fires.
马克：我知道的。住在森林里是个不错的主意，但也许不是那些非常干旱而且容易着火的地方。
Jingjing: Right. It's quite a job to fight those fires once they get started.
京晶：对。一旦森林起火，灭火是一项非常艰巨的工作。
Mark: It sure is. I heard an interview on the radio of a firefighter who lost his home to a forest fire while he was off fighting a fire in another area.
马克：的确是。我在广播上听到过一个消防员的采访，他的房子被森林大火烧毁的时候他不在家，奋战在另一个地区灭火。
Jingjing: Geez. That'd be a hard choice to make. Was his family ok?
京晶：天啊。那真是一个艰难的选择。他的家人还好吗?
Mark: Yeah. They'd been evacuated days before the blaze reached where they lived.
马克：是的。在大火蔓延到他们的房子之前，他们已经撤离了。


New words : 习语短语
old growth forest 原始森林
woodland that has never been cleared by humans, usually with big trees, many of which have lived for hundreds of years
canopy （树林中的）天篷状的树荫，树冠
a covering above an outdoor area (for a forest, this means that the topmost branches of trees are all at the same height, forming a roof for the forest)
mountain range 山脉
a large number of mountains forming a chain (usually, the climate is different on each side of the mountain range, as with the Pacific Crest, where the coastal side is lush and the inland side is a high desert)
charcoal 木炭
black, burned wood
blaze 火灾，烈火，大火〔尤用于新闻报道〕
fire that is burning fiercely at very a high temperature