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Hi! Neil from BBC Learning English here.
嗨!我是 BBC 學英文的尼爾。
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Did you know that we are now offering a new weekly extra episode of 6 Minute English exclusively on our website?
你知道嗎?現在每週在官網有獨家提供一集額外的 6 分鐘英語喔。
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So go to bbclearninenglish.com to find your favorite presenters on your favorite program.
請上 bbclearninenglish.com 找尋你最喜歡的節目及主持人。
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The extra episodes are only available on our website:
額外的集數只有在官網:
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bbclearningenglish.com. See you there!
bbclearningenglish.com 上才能觀看。在那裡見!
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Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.
嗨。這是 BBC 學英語的 6 分鐘英語。
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I'm Neil.
我是尼爾。
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And I'm Sam.
而我是山姆。
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"No one is too small to make a difference."
「無論你多渺小,都能做出改變。」
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Do you know who said that, Sam?
你知道是誰說的嗎,山姆?
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Wasn't it climate change activist, Greta Thunberg?
難道不是氣候變遷倡議者,格蕾塔·童貝里?
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That's right. She went on to say this in her message to world leaders: "I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to act as if your house is on fire. Because it is."
沒錯。她在致辭時對世界領導人們說「我不希望你們懷抱希望,我要你們表現得像你的房子著火了一樣,因為那就是現在的情況。」
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Her speech reflected the feelings of many young people around the world who think that not enough action is being taken on climate change.
她的發言反映了世界各地許多年輕人的感受,認為我們對氣候變遷並沒有採取足夠的措施。
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And they may be right, judging by the record-breaking temperatures that hit Canada and the north-west of the United States in July this year.
而以今年 7 月加拿大及美國西北部破紀錄的高溫來看,他們可能是對的。
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Greta Thunberg's plea "to act like your house is on fire" became a reality for residents of the small town of Lytton, Canada which burned to the ground in a shocking wildfire - a fire that is burning strongly and out of control.
格蕾塔·童貝里「像你自己的房子著火了一樣採取行動」的訴求,對加拿大利頓小鎮的居民來說,已成為事實。 利頓小鎮在一場失控的野火中被燒為平地。
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So, was the Lytton wildfire yet another climate change wake-up call?
那麼,利頓的野火是否是另一個氣候變化的警醒?
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A wake-up call is the expression used to describe a shocking event that should make people realize that action is needed to change something.
警醒指的是令人震驚、能讓人們意識到自己需要採取行動,做出改變的事件。
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Maybe not, according to some climatologists who, worryingly, say that what happened in Lytton should not even have been possible.
也許不是,根據氣候學家所言,令人擔憂的是,利頓的野火照理來說不該發生。
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So in this program, we'll be asking if scientists have dangerously misunderstood the realities of climate change.
在這個節目中,我們將訪問科學家們,了解他們是否對氣候變遷現況有所誤解。
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But first it's time for my quiz question and it's about that extreme weather in Canada.
但首先,提問時間!這次的問題有關加拿大的極端氣候。
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It broke records when the temperature in Lytton hit an all-time high on 1st July - but just how hot did it get?
利頓 7 月 1 日的氣溫創歷史新高,但溫度到底有多高?
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Was it:
選項有:
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a) 39 point 6 degrees?
a) 39.6 度?
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b) 49 point 6 degrees?
b) 49.6 度?
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or c) 59 point 6 degrees Celsius?
還是 c) 59.6 度?
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All those temperature look really high, especially for snowy Canada.
所有選項看起來溫度都很高,特別對時常下雪的加拿大而言。
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I'll say a) 39 point 6 degree C.
我選 a) 39.6 度。
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OK, Sam, we'll find out the answer later on.
好的,山姆,我們等下會揭曉答案。
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Seeing your hometown burn to the ground is bad enough, but perhaps even worst was the fact that the wildfires were so unexpected.
眼看家鄉被燒成一片廢墟已經糟透了,遑論是無預警的野火。
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According to weather pattern modeling done by a team of Oxford University researchers, such extreme heat was impossible - in theory, at least.
根據牛津大學研究人員所做的氣後模擬,這樣的極端高溫是不可能的 -- 至少理論上而言。
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The research team was led by climatologist, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh.
該研究小組由氣候學家 Geert Jan van Oldenborgh 領導。
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Here he is in conversation with BBC World Service program, Science in Action:
這是他在 BBC 國際頻道 -- 科學在行動中的談話。
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This is a wake-up call beyond the wake-up calls that we've had before.
這是個超越過往所有警訊的警醒。
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Yes, and it's a very big shock in the sense that we thought we knew how heatwaves react to global warming and within which boundaries they're increasing (of course they're increasing in temperature)
是的,這是一個非常大的衝擊,我們以為我們知全球暖化對道熱浪的影響,以及升溫的範圍(當然溫度一定是會上升的),
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but it's a gradual process we thought, and then you get this thing, and it's not gradual at all - it's a huge jump!
但我們以為這是個循序漸進的過程,然而事情就突然發生了,完全沒有依循規律 - 這是個巨大的變動!
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Professor Van Oldenborgh had been studying the impact of global warming on heatwaves - short periods of time when the weather is much hotter than usual.
Van Oldenborgh 教授一直在研究全球暖化對熱浪,也就是短期內溫度急遽升高的影響。
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Along with other climatologists, he thought that climate change was gradual - changing or happening slowly, over a long period of time.
他和其他氣候學家以為,氣候變遷是長時間逐漸轉變,或緩慢發生的。
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But the Canadian heatwaves caused him to think again.
但加拿大的熱浪使他重新思考這個理論。
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Instead of being gradual the temperatures saw a jump, or a sudden increase, of five degrees.
不是漸進式升溫,加拿大的溫度突然躍升,急遽增長了五度。
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And it's this sudden jump that‘s got Professor Van Oldenborgh and his team worried.
這種突然的躍升,讓 Van Oldenborgh 教授和他的團隊十分憂心。
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By collecting data from all over the world climatologists try to predict changes in the pattern of global warming.
通過收集所有的數據,世界各地的氣候學家們試圖預測在全球變暖的模式。
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But, as Geert Jan van Oldenborgh told BBC World Service's, Science in Action, the heatwave in Lytton didn't fit these predictions at all:
但正如 Geert Jan van Oldenborgh 於 BBC 世界頻道的 - 科學在行動所言,利頓的熱浪並不符合預測。
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Everything looked like a nice regular gradual trend like we were used to up to last year and then you suddenly break all your records by four or five degrees.
一切看起來都像以往規律漸進的趨勢,直到突然 4 或 5 度的升溫打破了記錄。
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I mean, this is something that's no supposed to happen and it has really shaken our confidence in how well we understand the effect of climate change on heatwaves.
我的意思是,這不該發生的情況,真的動搖了我們對氣候變遷如何影響熱浪的暸解。
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Despite all his research, Professor Van Oldenborgh is still unable to explain such extreme and sudden changes in the climate - and this, he says, has shaken his confidence - made him doubt something that he was certain was true.
儘管做了很多研究,Van Oldenborgh 教授仍無法解釋這種極端氣候變化。就像他說的,這已動搖了他的信心,使他懷疑過往堅信的想法。
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And it's this lack of understanding worrying researchers because, as the story of the town of Lytton shows, the effects of climate change may be even worse than expected.
而正是這種缺乏瞭解,令人研究人員擔憂。就像利頓小鎮事件所顯示的,氣候變遷可能比預期的更嚴重。
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Maybe it's time we all took notice of Greta Thunberg's wake-up call to take action on climate change.
也許現在是時候聽取格蕾塔·童貝里的警醒,開始對氣候變遷採取行動。
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Especially if even cold, northern countries like Canada, or Britain for that matter, can experience such extreme changes.
特別是連寒冷的加拿大或英國,等北方國家,都經歷了這種極端氣候。
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Speaking of which, Neil, what was the answer to your quiz question?
說到極端氣候,尼爾,你提問的答案是什麼?
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Ah yes, in my quiz question I asked you exactly how high the temperature reached in the Canadian town of Lytton.
啊,是的,我問你加拿大利頓小鎮的高溫到底達到多高。
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What did you say, Sam?
你的答案是什麼,山姆?
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I thought it was a) 39 point 6 degrees Celsius.
我選 a) 39.6 度。
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Was I right?
我答對了嗎?
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Well, you were close but, in fact, it got even hotter, actually reaching 49 point 6 degrees Celsius - the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada by at least 5 degrees!
很接近,但其實溫度更高,實際上高溫達到了 49.6 度,有史以來的最高溫,比過往溫度至少高 5 度!
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Phew! That's hot.
呼!的確很熱。
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Well, we'd better recap the vocabulary from this program because we might be hearing these words a lot more in the future!
我們來溫習一下今天節目中提到的詞彙,因為將來可能會常常聽到它們。
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Let's start with a wildfire which is an out-of-control fire that is burning the countryside.
從「野火」開始,野火是一種好發於鄉村,失控的火災。
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A wake-up call is an event which should make people realize that action needs to be taken to change a situation.
「警醒」是使人們意識到需要為改變現狀而採取行動的事件。
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A heatwave is a period of days or weeks when the weather is much hotter than usual.
「熱浪」是指短時間內溫度急遽升高。
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A jump is a sudden increase.
「躍升」是指突然增漲。
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Whereas gradual means happening slowly, over a long time.
而「漸進」指的是慢慢地,在很長一段時間內逐漸發生。
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And finally, if something shakes your confidence, it makes you doubt something that you thought was true.
最後,如果有什麼「動搖」你的信心,就是它使你懷疑已認知的事實。
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That's it for our look at one of the hottest years on record.
這就是本集帶您看到的史上最熱的一年。
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Bye for now!
再會!
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Bye!
掰掰!