高考英语 3500 词・语境速记【150】|海洋不是垃圾桶 ——24 个高频词

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The ocean covers seventy percent of our planet, yet we treat it like a dustbin. Every year, millions of tons of garbage, trash, and litter flow into the sea. Some comes from ships. Some comes from industrial waste. Some comes from a simple bottle that someone dropped on a beach. The river carries it to the lake, and the lake carries it to the ocean. Once it enters the water, it does not disappear. It breaks into smaller pieces, and those pieces enter the food chain. We pollute the ocean without even seeing it.

Marine life pays the price. A fish may swallow a piece of plastic, thinking it is food. A turtle may get trapped in a fishing net. A whale may beach itself after swallowing dozens of plastic bags. dolphins, once a common sight near the coast, are becoming harder to find. coralreefs, which support a quarter of all marine species, are turning white and dying. The whole ecosystem is under pressure.

The ocean is more than water. It has currents that move heat around the planet. It has tides that shape the coast. It has waves that carry energy from one side of the world to the other. Below the surface, at a depth of several kilometers, live creatures we have barely studied. We know more about the surface of the moon than about the bottom of the ocean. Yet we are polluting it faster than we can understand it. An oil spill can kill thousands of fish in a single day. Untreated sewage can close a beach for a whole summer.

There is still time to act. We can reduce the use of single-use plastic. We can clean up the litter on our beaches. We can support rules that limit industrial spill and sewage. We can create protected areas where fish can breed and coral can recover. To conserve the ocean is to conserve ourselves. The wave that carries a plastic bottle today may carry the future of our children tomorrow.

海洋覆盖地球的70%，我们却把它当垃圾桶。每年，数百万吨的垃圾、废物和废弃物流入大海。有些来自船只，有些来自工业废料，有些来自一个人掉在沙滩上的普通瓶子。河流把它带到湖泊，湖泊把它带到海洋。一旦进入水中，它不会消失，会碎成更小的碎片，这些碎片进入食物链。我们在看不见的地方污染着海洋。海洋生物付出代价。鱼可能吞下一块塑料，以为是食物。海龟可能被渔网缠住。鲸鱼可能在吞下几十个塑料袋后搁浅。海豚曾经在海岸附近很常见，现在越来越难看到。珊瑚礁支撑着四分之一的海洋物种，正在变白死亡。整个生态系统都在承压。海洋不只是水。它有在全球输送热量的洋流，有塑造海岸的潮汐，有把能量从世界一端带到另一端的波浪。在海面以下几公里的深处，生活着我们几乎没研究过的生物。我们对月球表面的了解都比对海底多。然而我们污染它的速度比了解它的速度还快。一次石油泄漏一天就能杀死数千条鱼。未经处理的污水能让一个海滩关闭整个夏天。还有时间行动。我们可以减少一次性塑料的使用。我们可以清理沙滩上的垃圾。我们可以支持限制工业泄漏和污水的法规。我们可以建立保护区，让鱼繁殖、珊瑚恢复。保护海洋就是保护我们自己。今天载着一个塑料瓶的波浪，明天可能载着我们孩子的未来。