2015考研英语阅读欢迎来到人类纪_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读欢迎来到人类纪

　　阿萨巴斯卡油砂的辛克鲁德矿是一个单一工程项目。该项目涉及移动300亿吨泥土这一数字是地球上所有河流一年中流动的泥沙总量的两倍。与此同时，泥沙流本身也在逐渐消减。在过去半个世纪中，近50000个大型大坝截断近1/5的泥沙流。这也是为什么数以百万计人类的家园三角洲地区泥沙补给速度不及侵蚀速度而呈现蚀退之势。

　　Geologists care about sediments, hammering away atthem to uncover what they have to say about thepastespecially the huge spans of time as the Earthpasses from one geological period to another. In thesame spirit they look at the distribution of fossils,at the traces of glaciers and sea-level rises, and atother tokens of the forces that have shaped theplanet. Now a number of these scientists arearguing that future geologists observing thismoment in the Earths progress will conclude thatsomething very odd was going on.

　　地质学家关心泥沙，潜心研究以揭示过去尤其是当地球从一个地质时期到另外一个地质时期这种巨大跨度时，地球究竟发生了什么。基于相似的理念，他们把目光投向化石的分布、冰川的痕迹、海平面的上升以及其他一些使地球成型的外力标志。现在，相当数量的地质学家推测，未来地质学家在观察今天的地质演化时，也会发现一些奇怪的变化。

　　The carbon cycle is part of this change. So too is thenitrogen cycle, which converts pure nitrogen from the air into useful chemicals, and whichmankind has helped speed up by over 150%. They and a host of other previously naturalprocesses have been interrupted, refashioned and, most of all, accelerated .Scientists are increasingly using a new name for this new period. Rather than placing us still inthe Holocene, a peculiarly stable era that began only around 10,000 years ago, the geologistssay we are already living in the Anthropocene: the age of man.