Geologic Time Periods托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

Geologic Time Periods托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、Geologic Time Periods托福聽力原文：

Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a geology class.MALE PROFESSOR:As geologists,we examine layers of sediment on the Earth's surface to approximate the dates of past geologic time periods.Uh,sediment,as you know,is material like sand,gravel?fossil fragments?that is transported by natural processes,like wind,water flow,or the movement of glaciers.So,uh,sediment is transported,and then deposited,and it forms layers on the Earth's surface over time.We examine these layers to learn about different geologic time periods,including when they began and ended.Uh,for example,from about 1.8 million years ago to around 11,000 years ago was the Pleistocene epoch.The Pleistocene epoch was an ice age.Uh,during this epoch,sediment was made by the kind of erosion and weathering that happens when the climate is colder.And part of those sediments are fossils of plants and animals that lived at that time.

The Holocene epoch followed the Pleistocene epoch when the Earth's climate warmed up around 11,000 years ago.The Holocene epoch is characterized by different sediments?ones that form when the climate is warmer.Because the climate changed,the types of plants and animals changed also.Holocene sediments contain remnants of more recent plants and animals.So it’s pretty easy to differentiate,geologically,between these two epochs.Now there’s growing evidence that the presence of humans has altered the Earth so much that a new epoch of geologic history has begun?the Anthropocene epoch,a new,human-influenced epoch.This idea,that we've entered a new,Anthropocene epoch,was first proposed in 2002.The idea is that around the year eighteen hundred C.E.,the human population became large enough,around a billion people,that its activities started altering the environment.

This was also the time of the Industrial Revolution,which brought a tremendous increase in the use of fossil fuels,such as coal.The exploitation of fossil fuels has brought planetwide developments—industrialization,construction,uh,mass transport.And these developments have caused major changes,like additional erosion of the Earth's surface and deforestation.

Also,things like the damming of rivers has caused increased sediment production.Not to mention uh,the addition of more carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.Naturally,all these changes show up in recent sediments.And these sediments are quite different from pre-year eighteen hundred sediment layers.

Interestingly,there's some speculation that humans started having a major impact on Earth much earlier,about 8,000 years ago.That's when agriculture was becoming widespread.Early farmers started clearing forests,and livestock produced a lot of extra methane.But I want to stress that this is just a hypothesis.The idea that early humans could’ve had such a major effect,well?I'm just not sure we can compare it with the Industrial Age.Geologists in the far future will be able to examine the sediment being laid down today.Whereas right now we can say that yes,human impact on the Earth is clear,it'll be future researchers who'll have a better perspective and will be able to really draw a line between the Holocene and the Anthropocene epochs.

二、Geologic Time Periods托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：聽地質(zhì)學(xué)課上的一節(jié)課。男教授：作為地質(zhì)學(xué)家，我們研究地球表面的沉積物層，以接近過去地質(zhì)時(shí)期的日期。呃，沉淀物，如你們所知，是像沙子、礫石這樣的物質(zhì)?化石碎片?這是通過自然過程運(yùn)輸?shù)?，如風(fēng)、水流或冰川運(yùn)動(dòng)。所以，呃，沉積物被運(yùn)輸，然后沉積，隨著時(shí)間的推移，它在地球表面形成了一層。我們檢查這些地層以了解不同的地質(zhì)時(shí)期，包括它們的開始和結(jié)束時(shí)間。例如，從大約180萬年前到大約11000年前是更新世。更新世是冰河期。呃，在這個(gè)時(shí)期，沉積物是由氣候較冷時(shí)發(fā)生的侵蝕和風(fēng)化作用形成的。這些沉積物中的一部分是當(dāng)時(shí)的動(dòng)植物化石。

更新世之后是全新世，大約11000年前地球氣候變暖。全新世具有不同沉積物的特征?當(dāng)氣候變暖時(shí)形成的。由于氣候變化，動(dòng)植物的種類也發(fā)生了變化。全新世沉積物中含有較新動(dòng)植物的遺跡。所以從地質(zhì)學(xué)上講，很容易區(qū)分這兩個(gè)時(shí)代?，F(xiàn)在有越來越多的證據(jù)表明，人類的存在對(duì)地球的影響如此之大，一個(gè)新的地質(zhì)歷史時(shí)代已經(jīng)開始?人類世，一個(gè)新的、受人類影響的時(shí)代。這個(gè)想法，即我們已經(jīng)進(jìn)入了一個(gè)新的人類世，是在2002年首次提出的。這個(gè)想法是在公元前1800年左右，人類人口變得足夠大，大約有10億人，其活動(dòng)開始改變環(huán)境。

這也是工業(yè)革命的時(shí)期，工業(yè)革命帶來了煤炭等化石燃料的大量使用?；剂系拈_發(fā)帶來了工業(yè)化、建筑業(yè)、呃，大眾運(yùn)輸業(yè)的全面發(fā)展。這些發(fā)展導(dǎo)致了重大變化，如地球表面的進(jìn)一步侵蝕和森林砍伐。

此外，河流筑壩等事件也導(dǎo)致了泥沙產(chǎn)量的增加。更不用說大氣中增加了更多的二氧化碳和甲烷。自然，所有這些變化都出現(xiàn)在最近的沉積物中。這些沉積物與前一年的1800個(gè)沉積層有很大不同。

有趣的是，有人猜測人類在8000年前就開始對(duì)地球產(chǎn)生重大影響。那是農(nóng)業(yè)開始普及的時(shí)候。早期農(nóng)民開始砍伐森林，牲畜產(chǎn)生了大量額外的甲烷。但我想強(qiáng)調(diào)的是，這只是一個(gè)假設(shè)。早期人類可能會(huì)產(chǎn)生如此重大的影響?我只是不確定我們能不能把它與工業(yè)時(shí)代相比。在遙遠(yuǎn)的將來，地質(zhì)學(xué)家將能夠檢查今天沉積的沉積物。然而現(xiàn)在我們可以說，是的，人類對(duì)地球的影響是顯而易見的，未來的研究人員將有更好的視角，能夠真正在全新世和人類世之間劃清界限。

三、Geologic Time Periods托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.Recognizing when one geologic epoch ends and another begins

B.How geologists determine the age of Earth

C.Whether humans have affected Earth's climate

D.Identifying elements that affect the formation of sediment layers

Q2:2.Why does the professor mention the Pleistocene epoch?

A.To explain how sediments change during an ice age

B.To give an example of a well-defined geologic epoch

C.To describe how certain environmental conditions affect erosion rates

D.To describe the factors that influence the naming of geologic epochs

Q3:3.Researchers study sediment in order to learn about the characteristics of past geologic epochs.What does the professor say that sediment reveals about a particular epoch?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.The climate on Earth then the sediment formed

B.The places on Earth with the highest amounts of rainfall

C.The level of the oceans at the time

D.The organisms that lived when the sediment formed

Q4:4.According to the professor,what is the significance of the year 1800 C.E?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.The human population reached 1 billion.

B.The Anthropocene epoch was first described.

C.Industrialization began to influence Earth's environment.

D.There was a significant change in the amount of sediment deposited around the world.

Q5:5.What does the professor imply about the spread of agriculture 8,000 years ago?

A.It was the true beginning of the Holocene epoch.

B.It was when greenhouse gases were at their lowest levels.

C.It was not a major cause of population growth.

D.It did not cause as big an environmental impact as some researchers say.

Q6:6.What does the professor say about future researchers?

A.They may not agree that humans have had an important effect on Earth's surface.

B.They will not have reliable evidence of what is happening today.

C.They will determine when the Anthropocene epoch began.

D.They will make predictions about when the Anthropocene epoch will end.

四、Geologic Time Periods托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：A

A2:正確答案：B

A3:正確答案：AD

A4:正確答案：AC

A5:正確答案：D

A6:正確答案：C

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