英语听力教程第三版(张民伦主编)Unit 1 The Earth at Risk听力原文
is that the s ... the soil is so poor that ... um ... that only a couple of harvests are possible before this very thin soil becomes exhausted. And it can't be fed with fertilizers like agricultural land in Europe. Um ... for example, in Brazil in 1982 an area of jungle the size of Britain and France combined was destroyed to make way for an iron ore mine. I mean, huge numbers of trees are being cut down for export as hardwood to Japan, Europe, USA ... I mean ... to make things like luxury furniture. These forests can't ... er ... they can't be replaced — the forest soil is thin and unproductive and in just a few years, a ... a jungle has become a waste land. Tropical forests contain rare plants (which ... er ... we can use for medicines, for example) and animals — one animal or plant species becomes extinct every half hour. These ... er ... forest trees ... I mean ... also have worldwide effects. You know, they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The consequence of destroying forests is not only that the climate of that region changes (because there is less rainfall) but this change affects the whole world. I mean, over half the world's rain forest has been cut down this century (20th
century).