剑桥雅思12Test7Passage1阅读原文翻译 Flying tortoises 飞翔的乌龟
剑桥雅思12阅读第7套题目第一篇文章的主题为飞翔的乌龟。文章一共7段，分贝介绍了加拉帕戈斯龟的栖息地和发展起源，人类活动的影响，一开始的龟类保护活动，以及最终的放归方案。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
点击查看这篇雅思阅读中需要大家掌握的重点词汇以及对应的答案解析：
雅思真题阅读词汇 剑桥雅思12 test 7 passage 1 飞翔的乌龟flying tortoises
剑桥雅思12Test7Passage1阅读答案解析 Flying tortoises
剑桥雅思12 Test7 Passage1阅读原文翻译
段落A
Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of lsabela from the Pacific Ocean. With its five distinct volcanoes, the island resembles a lunar landscape. Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below. This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. Some time after the Galapagos’s birth, around five million years ago, the islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands, the different populations adapted to their unique environments, giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies. Island life agreed with them. In the absence of significant predators, they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet, weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1.8 metres in length and living for more than a century.
起伏不平的熔岩平原上布满了多刺的仙人掌。它将Isabela省加拉帕戈斯岛的内陆与太平洋分割开来。拥有五座独立的火山，该岛看起来就像是月球表面一样。只有在内格拉山脉经常云雾缭绕的山顶周围长得郁郁葱葱的植被，能缓解山下土地贫瘠荒凉的景象。这一不适宜人类居住的环境是巨大的加拉帕戈斯龟的家园。加拉帕戈斯岛诞生于大约500万年前。在那之后的某个时间，有一只或者更多来自南美大陆的龟来到这里。随着这些乌龟祖先在各个岛屿上定居，不同的族群逐渐适应他们独特的环境，诞生了至少14个亚种。它们颇为适应岛上的生活。由于没有什么天敌，它们成长为地球上体型最大，寿命最长的乌龟。体重超过400公斤，身长偶尔超过1.8米，能活一百多年。
段落B
Before human arrival, the archipelago’s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands. From the 17th century onwards, pirates took a few on board for food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water, the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high- grade oil. In total, an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when settlers came to the islands. They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture. They also introduced alien species — ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats and dogs to plants and ants — that either prey on the eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.
在人类到来之前，加拉帕戈斯龟的数量有成千上万只。从17世纪开始，海盗会带一些上船作为食物。但18世纪90年代捕鲸船的到来造成这一举措的指数型增长。这种龟不怎么活动，可以在没有食物和水源的情况下生存好几个月，因此它们被带上船，作为漫长越洋航行中的食物补给。有时候，它们的身体文章来自老烤鸭雅思还会被加工成优质油脂。据估计，在20世纪之前，总共有200000只龟被从群岛上带走。这种漫长的侵害行为在人们来到岛屿定居之后变本加厉。他们捕捉象龟，摧毁他们的栖息地以腾出地方来发展农业。他们还引入了外来物种，从牛、猪、山羊、老鼠和狗到植物和蚂蚁。这些动物要么猎食象龟蛋和象龟幼崽，或者破坏它们的栖息地。
段落C
Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered. In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations. The centre’s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful, and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.
今天，最初的亚种中只有11个生存下来。其中还有好几种处于极度濒危的状态。1989年，一座旨在保护岛上龟群的龟类繁殖中心开始在伊莎贝拉岛维利亚米尔港镇外破土动工。事实证明，该中心的人工繁殖项目十分成功，以至于它最终不得不面临象龟数量过多的问题。
段落D
The problem was also a pressing one. Captive-bred tortoises can’t be reintroduced into the wild until they’re at least five years old and weigh at least 4.5 kilograms, at which point their size and weight — and their hardened shells — are sufficient to protect them from predators. But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.
这一问题同样十分紧迫。人工繁殖的象龟至少要长到5岁，体重达到4.5公斤才能被再次放回野外。这时，它们的大小和体重，以及坚硬的外壳，已经足以保护它们免受捕食者的侵害。但如果人们在此之后仍然等待很长的时间，这些象龟就会变得太过巨大而无法运输。
段落E
For years, repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers, with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long, treacherous hikes along narrow trails. But in November 2010, the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small café in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centre’s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.
多年来，放归活动一直以小规模进行。人类背着象龟，沿着狭窄的小路，克服种种困难，一连走上好几周才能完成。但2010年11月，环境学家兼加拉帕戈斯国家公园外联主任Godfrey Merlin，一位来访的私人游艇船长和一位直升机飞行员在圣克鲁斯岛阿约拉岗的一家小咖啡馆里聚在一起，制定出更为宏大的放归计划。他们打算利用直升机将繁殖中心的300只象龟运送到Sierra Negra附近的不同地点。
段落F
This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud, who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot, as well as the logistical support of the yacht, its captain and crew. Originally an air ambulance, the yacht’s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space that’s well suited for cargo, so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms. This weight, together with that of the fuel, pilot and four crew, approached the helicopter’s maximum payload, and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopter’s capabilities. During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, park wardens, dropped off ahead of time in remote locations, cleared landing sites within the thick brush, cacti and lava rocks.
这一史无前例的行动得以开展，多亏了67米长的游艇“白云号”的所有者们。他们为加拉帕戈斯国家公园免费提供直升机与经验丰富的驾驶员，以及游艇，船长及船员们的后勤支持。游艇上的直升机原本是一架空中救援机，有着双扇后开门和巨大的内部空间，非常适合运输。为此人们还特意设计了一种集装箱，能够装下33只乌龟，总重大约150公斤。这一重量，再加上燃油、飞行员和四名机组成员，逼近直升机的最大载重量。有几次载重量明显达到了飞机能力的极限。在三天的时间里，来自繁殖中心的志愿者日夜不停地为运输幼年象龟做着准备。与此同时，公园的管理员提前到达各个偏远的地点，在茂盛的灌木丛、仙人掌和熔岩中清理出直升机降落的地点。
段落G
Upon their release, the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory, investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation. Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.
一经释放，这些幼年象龟很快在它们祖先的土地上四散开来，探索周围的环境，并以植物为食。最终，一只小象龟遇到了一只完全成长的巨大象龟。它已经在岛上度过了100年左右的时间。这两只象龟站在一起，成为古老物种复苏的有力标志。
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