墨尔本PTE素材库——Turtle Issues

墨尔本PTE素材库——Turtle Issues

中文批注

这篇文章主要说了气温的升高对于海龟性别的影响。当气温升高到某一点时，海龟单中的熊海龟会转化成雌海龟。科学家们正试图通过检测，发现这一温度点。但随着全球气温的升高，越来越多的雌性海龟预计hi被孵化出来。同时，更令人担心的是，沙子温度的升高，会导致小海龟的死亡。

澳大利亚语言学院定期会整理高质量的墨尔本PTE素材，定期更新墨尔本PTE素材库，这篇文章非常适合做听力re-tell the lecture的练习。其中，也有一些关于海龟孵化的专业词汇。同学们可以适时地进行查缺补漏。下次如果考场见面，就不会慌啦~

【Key vocabulary】

Havoc n. 大破坏，浩劫

Epic  adj. 史诗的

Trivial adj. 琐碎的

Incubate v. 孵化

Reptile n. 两栖类

Hatch v. 孵化

Replenish v. 补充

Demographic collapse n. 人口（海龟数量）大减 （这个概念不仅仅是指总体数量的减少，更可以指男女数量不平均，老龄化等人口问题）

Extinct v. 灭绝

Setback n. 挫折

Full Transcript

Can you imagine if the temperature decided whether you were born a girl or a boy? Well that’s exactly what happens with turtles. But experts are now worried that rising temperatures could cause havoc for turtle populations by creating too many girls.

It’s an epic journey across deserts, seas, and beaches all to dig for buried treasure. Well, less treasure, and more turtle eggs. And these guys are less pirates and more scientists. They’ve come to the Lacapede Islands in Western Australia to find out more about turtles and how climate change will affect their future.

BLAIR BENTLEY, ANIMAL BIOLOGIST: We go out into the Kimberley and collect eggs from nesting females, we then bring those eggs back which is not quite as trivial as it sounds. We bring them back to UWA to incubate them at constant temperatures to find out the switch point, where they switch from male to females.

Yep, you heard that right. At certain temperatures these eggs switch from having males in them to females! See, for humans and other mammals, whether you’re born a boy or girl is decided by what genes you have. But for some reptiles like turtles, it’s actually caused by how hot or cold your egg gets!

For many turtles, if the sand’s warmer than 29 degrees, it’ll be mostly girls. If it’s any cooler, it’ll mostly be boys. The problem is temperatures around the world are going up, and that means too many girl turtles will be hatching!

BLAIR BENTLEY, ANIMAL BIOLOGIST: If it keeps getting warmer there are going to be more females being produced, and over time the males will keep dying at a greater rate than they are being replenished, so it’s what’s we call demographic collapse.

And while scientists say it’s not going to happen overnight, we might have to be prepared for it to happen eventually.

NICKI MITCHELL, UWA: I don’t think turtle populations are at risk of becoming extinct any time soon, because they live for a very long time, potentially 120 years. So the change is going to be slow. But the point is climate change is going to be rapid compared to what turtles have experienced in the past.

Having a whole heap of girl turtles isn’t the only problem that could come out of warmer weather. If beaches gets too hot, baby turtles might not be able to survive in the hot sand at all! So what’s the answer?

MATT HOLBROOK, REPORTER: Well, one solution isn’t so different to what we do to keep cool at the beach: adding a bit of shade! Shade cloths are already being used overseas to help keep the sand cool for baby turtles. Now if only we could make millions of tiny turtle hats.

But while there are no easy answers, hopefully more of these little hatchlings can still look forward to a happy future even if they have a few setbacks along the way.

(source: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4420081.htm)