英语听力：自然百科 神奇水世界 Water-8

 …society, that first brought civilization to the desert. Far from just scraping by in this harsh landscape, the Garamantes were flourishing. They grew crops, such as cereals and grapes. They kept horses and pigs. Clearly, they needed large amounts of water.

 

So where did they find it, here in the middle of the desert? Now, this is the key to the Garamantians' incredible success. It's vertical¹ holes that are sunk deep into the ground. 40 to 50 meter. That's 150 feet. And the purpose of them was pretty simple - it was to bring water up from below ground. In this environment, it must have seemed that it was almost magic. In fact, the Garamantians had discovered ground water.

 

Beneath the surface of the Sahara, is a surprising part of the great water cycle, a massive store of ground water.

 

This is water that has seeped² into the ground and has collected in the poorest layers of rock. The water came from the period thousands of years before when the Sahara was lush and wet. Some of that water percolated³ into the rocks below and remained there, despite the dramatic drying above until the Garamantes found it.

 

You can dig them down until hit the water table and then you just keep doing the same thing. And there's one after another after another, all in a whole line. But these holes aren't wells that maintain and shaft⁴. They reach down to tunnels which carry the water. The point is right up there at the end. It’s where the water source is. So the water flows naturally from the escarpment up there, underground, down to the kind of oasis⁵ over there and that's where the Garamantians’ city was. What they could have done is they could have dug wells down, they lifted the water up but that's a, that's a lot of work for very little return. Much better to use gravity to channel the water in an underground tunnel straight to where they needed. That was the Garamantians’ real ingenuity⁶.

 

The Garamantes had managed to tap the same water that the early Saharans had enjoyed thousands of years earlier. By mining ground water, the Garamantians managed to turn the clock back on the Sahara. They made the desert bloom again.

1 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

2 seeped   

v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• The rain seeped through the roof. 雨水透过房顶渗透。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Icy air seeped in through the paper and the room became cold. 寒气透过了糊窗纸。屋里骤然冷起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

3 percolated   

v.滤( percolate的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；（思想等）渗透；渗入

参考例句：

• Water had percolated down through the rocks. 水从岩缝间渗漏下去。
• The rumour percolated through the firm. 那谣言在公司里慢慢流传开来。 来自辞典例句

4 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

5 oasis   

n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方

参考例句：

• They stopped for the night at an oasis.他们在沙漠中的绿洲停下来过夜。
• The town was an oasis of prosperity in a desert of poverty.该镇是贫穷荒漠中的一块繁荣的“绿洲”。

6 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。