shrimps, anemones and clams, sea cucumbers and worms—the list goes on and on. The nooks and crevices on a reef provide homes for many species, which in turn provide resources for many others.
Once a reef can no longer grow fast enough to keep up with erosion, this community will crumble. Coral reefs will lose their ecological functionality. They won't be able to maintain their framework. If you don't have a building, where are the tenants going to live? That moment could come by 2050. Under the business-as-usual emissions scenario, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will be roughly double what they were in pre-industrial times. Many experiments suggest that coral reefs will then start to disintegrate. 4. Calcifier
Calcifiers are the species to form shells and stony skeletons of calcium carbonate. Corals, of course, are just one kind of calcifier. There are thousands of others. Crustaceans like barnacles are calcifiers, and so are echinoderms like sea stars and sea urchins and mollusks like clams and oysters. Coralline algae—minute organisms that produce what looks like a coating of pink or lilac paint—are also calcifiers. Their calcium carbonate secretions help cement coral reefs together, but they're also found elsewhere—on sea grass at Castello Aragonese, for instance. It was their absence from the grass near the volcanic vents that made it look so green.
Detailed Study of the Text
1. Owing to a quirk of geology, the sea around Castello Aragonese provides a window onto the oceans of 2050 and beyond. (Para. 2)
Meaning: There are volcanic vents on the seafloor of Castello Aragonese. Bubbles of CO2 released from the vents dissolve to form carbonic acid and makes seawater corrosive. Such an unusual
geological feature enables us to foresee the future state of the ocean in 2050 and beyond，since the acidification that has taken place off its shore is occurring more gradually across the world's oceans. quirk n.
1) something unusual or interesting that happens by chance.
By a tantalizing quirk of fate, the pair have been drawn to meet in the first round of the championship. 由于命运的捉弄，这对选手被抽中在锦标赛的第一轮相遇。
2) a habit or aspect of a person's character which is odd or unusual. 怪癖; 古怪的性格 Brown was always fascinated by the quirks and foibles of people in everyday situations. 布朗总是着迷于日常环境中人们的古怪性格和怪癖。
2. Castello Aragonese offers a natural analogue for an unnatural process… (Para. 2)
Meaning: The over-release of CO2 from volcanic vents on the seabed of Castello Aragonese is an unnatural process, but coincidently it provides a similar natural situation which may occur to the ocean in the future, i.e. what will happen to marine life in the worsening acid sea. analogue: n. something having the property of being analogous to something else A vegetarian gets protein not from meat but from its analogues.
素食者所摄取的蛋白质不是来自肉类而是来自近似肉类的食物。
Munich was the nearest analogue to what was happening then. 当时事态用慕尼黑事件来做比拟最为恰当。
3. We swam on. Beds of sea grass waved beneath us. The grass was a vivid green; the tiny organisms that usually coat the blades, dulling their color, were all missing. (Para. 3)
Meaning: We went on swimming. Sea grass in large quantities moved from side to side under us. The fresh green of the grass was caused by disappearance of the tiny organisms which covered the surface of the grass and darken their color.
5
bed: n.a bed of shellfish or plants is an area in the sea or in a lake where a particular type of shellfish or plant is found in large quantities.
The whole lake was rimmed with thick beds of reeds.整个湖边长满了厚厚的芦苇丛。 4. For life on land this process is a boon; every ton of CO2 the oceans remove from the atmosphere is a ton that's not contributing to global warming. But for life in the sea the picture looks different. (Para. 7)
Meaning: The process of ocean absorbing CO2 from atmosphere makes life on land better and easier, since it helps to cool the earth and mitigate the effect of global warming. However, the process is not a blessing for marine life at all. boon: n.a desirable state
It is for this reason that television proves such a boon to so many people. 正是这个原因电视机成为这么多人的一大福音。
Paper money is a boon, but when unsupported by bullion is all too easily devalued. 纸币提供了便利，但当得不到黄金的支持时，它太容易贬值。
5.…has called ocean acidification global warming's \ (Para. 7)
Meaning: The devastating effect of ocean acidification is no less than that of global warming. 6. By favoring some marine microbes over others, it is likely to alter the availability of key nutrients like iron and nitrogen. (Para. 10)
Meaning: Ocean acidification is more likely to affect some microbes than others, thus the availability of key nutrients like iron and nitrogen may have been changed.
7. By changing the basic chemistry of seawater, acidification is also expected to reduce the water's ability to absorb and muffle low-frequency sound by up to 40 percent, making some parts of the ocean noisier. (Para. 10) muffle : vt
1) deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
Blake held his handkerchief over the mouthpiece to muffle his voice. 布莱克用手帕遮住话筒来压低声音。
You would hear love's faint murmur, but when love shouts you would muffle your ears. 你可以听见爱情的低吟，但当它咆哮时，你的耳中便一片模糊。 2) conceal or hide
He did his utmost to muffle his feelings.他竭力抑制自己的感情。 8. “…And so they get pushed beyond their limits.\ (Para. 13) Meaning: ―…And so they can no longer survive.‖
9. It undermines their basic, ancient structure—the stony skeleton that's secreted by millions upon millions of coral polyps over thousands of years. (Para. 15) secrete: vt.
1）generate and separate from cells or bodily fluids
Glands in the stomach secrete juices that help in digesting food.胃腺分泌胃液帮助消化食物。 2）place out of sight; keep secret
She secreted the gun in the kitchen cabinet. 她把枪藏在了厨房的橱柜里。
Part II Key to Exercises Text A
6
Pre-reading Questions
Reference:
1. The oceans are the very foundation of human life.
Life itself arose from the oceans. The ocean is vast, covering 140 million square miles, some 72 per cent of the earth's surface. Climate and weather, even the quality of the air people breathe, depend in great measure on an interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere in ways still not fully understood. Not only has the oceans always been a prime source of nourishment for the life it helped generate, but from earliest recorded history it has served for trade and commerce, adventure and discovery. It has kept people apart and brought them together. Even now, when the continents have been mapped and their interiors made accessible by road, river and air, most of the world's people live no more than 200 miles from the sea and relate closely to it.
2. The fish that once seemed an inexhaustible source of food are now almost everywhere in decline.The habitats of many of marine creatures have also been affected by man’s activities. Cod live in the bottom layer of the ocean. Trawlermen in pursuit of these and other groundfish like pollock and haddock drag steel weights and rollers as well as nets behind their boats, devastating huge areas of the sea floor as they go. In the Gulf of Mexico, trawlers ply back and forth year in year out, hauling vast nets that scarify the seabed and allow no time for plant and animal life to recover.
Coral reefs, whose profusion of life and diversity of ecosystems make them the rainforests of the sea, have suffered most of all. Once home to prolific concentrations of big fish, they have attracted human hunters prepared to use any means, even dynamite, to kill their prey. Perhaps only 5% of coral reefs can now be considered pristine, a quarter have been lost and all are vulnerable to global warming.
A hotter atmosphere has several effects on the sea. First, it means higher average temperatures for surface waters. One consequence for coral reefs is that the symbiosis between the corals and algae that constitute a living reef is breaking down. As temperatures rise, the algae leave or are expelled, the corals take on a bleached, white appearance and may then die.
Warming also has consequences for ice: it melts. Melting sea ice affects ecosystems and currents. It does not affect sea levels, because floating ice is already displacing water of a weight equal to its own. But melting glaciers and ice sheets on land are bringing quantities of fresh water into the sea, whose level has been rising at an average of nearly 2 millimetres a year for over 40 years, and the pace is getting faster. Recent studies suggest that the sea level may well rise by a total of 80 centimetres this century, though the figure could plausibly be as much as 2 metres.
The burning over the past 100 years or so of fossil fuels that took half a billion years to form has suddenly, in geological terms, put an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. About a third of this CO2 is taken up by the sea, where it forms carbonic acid. The plants and animals that have evolved over time to thrive in slightly alkaline surface waters—their pH is around 8.3—are now having to adapt to a 30% increase in the acidity of their surroundings. Some will no doubt flourish, but if the trend continues, as it will for at least some decades, clams, mussels, conches and all creatures that grow shells made of calcium carbonate will struggle. So will corals, especially those whose skeletons are composed of aragonite, a particularly unstable form of calcium carbonate.
Man’s interference does not stop with CO2. Knowingly and deliberately, he throws plenty of rubbish into the sea, everything from sewage to rubber tyres and from plastic packaging to toxic waste. Inadvertently, he also lets flame retardants, bunker oil and heavy metals seep into the mighty
7
ocean, and often invasive species too. Much of the harm done by such pollutants is invisible to the eye: it shows up only in the analysis of dead polar bears or in tuna served in New York sushi bars.
Increasingly, though, swimmers, sailors and even those who monitor the sea with the help of satellites are encountering highly visible algal blooms known as red tides. These have always occurred naturally, but they have increased in frequency, number and size in recent years, notably since man-made nitrogen fertilizers came into widespread use in the 1950s. When rainwater contaminated with these fertilizers and other nutrients reaches the sea, as it does where the Mississippi runs into the Gulf of Mexico, an explosion of toxic algae and bacteria takes place, killing fish, absorbing almost all the oxygen and leaving a microbially dominated ecosystem, often based on a carpet of slime.
I. Reading Comprehension
1. The troubles of ocean mentioned in this passage are as follows: acid sea, endangered coral reefs, extreme weathers caused by warmed-up oceans, rising sea levels, overfishing, the red tides of algal blooms, the plagues of jellyfish and the dead zones, as well as poor ocean management.
2. We need to manage the sea efficiently just as what we do to the land. Economics also provides some answers, like abolishing fishing subsidies. The governments should take proper measures so that the people who exploit the resources of the sea could be given an interest in conservation, such as the system of individual transferable fishing quotas.
3. First, the man-made carbon dioxide interacts with the briny at the surface of ocean; the sea has thus become more acidic, making life difficult for marine organisms with calcium-carbonate shells or skeletons. By disturbing marine food chain, man may destabilize an entire ecosystem. Carbon dioxide also affects the sea through global warming and the rising sea levels may lead to the disappearance of some countries like Bangladesh. Red tides of algal blooms, the plagues of jellyfish and the dead zones where only simple organisms thrive are possible results caused by the release of carbon dioxide.
4. One is the dearth of fish in the sea and the other is the appearance of a mass of discarded plastic that swirls round in two clots in the Pacific, each as large as the United States.
5. Because trawlers had been kept in port and it let fisheries recover. By mentioning this, the author believes creating marine reserves is a more feasible solution to letting fisheries recover today. 6. Because fishing doesn’t play an important role in their economy.
II. Structure Analysis
Part 1: Point of view: There is a close relationship between humans and the sea (Paras. 1-2) Supporting facts:
1.The sea is humans’ physical and spiritual homeland. 2.People falsely believe that the ocean is eternal and unchanging. In fact, the impact of human activities has been changing the sea, especially in the surface and coastal waters. Part 2: The troubles of the sea (Paras. 3-7) Trouble 1 ( Paras. 3-4)
Problem: Ocean acidification Consequences: 1.Make marine life difficult and even destabilize an entire ecosystem 2. Damage coral reefs Trouble 2 ( Para. 5)
Problem: Warmed-up Ocean
8
