英语听力：自然百科 神奇水世界 Water-11

 It's just magic. When you follow it, you can see that this is the perfect union of the tree and the villages. The locals have kind of trained the roots, kind of guided them through and netted them together. What they've done here is they've grabbed some rootlets like this and taken around. Look, here it is. It’s a set of rootlets here. They’re incredibly strong. It's an anchor for the bridge.

 

Ordinary bridges would rot under the relentless¹ drenching² of the monsoon³. What's clever about these root bridges is they get stronger as they get older.

 

So wide. I mean, a whole village could get through here.

 

Surprisingly, the intensity⁴ of the monsoon rain is all down to a basic property of water. Compared to other substances, water takes a lot of energy to heat up. So the land and the ocean react very differently to the rising temperatures of early summer. During these months, India's land surface heats up much more than the surrounding Indian ocean. The high temperature reduces the density⁵ of the air, creating low pressure. That sucks moist ocean air onto the land, which brings rain. It’s because the whole system is driven by the sun's heat that the rains come in the summer. But it also means that the monsoon only lasts for three months of the year. For the rest of the time, there’s virtually no rain.

 

Adapting to the water cycle has made the difference between success and failure for many civilizations. But there was another strategy that also brought success. And that was to take control of the water cycle. There was one early civilization above all others that took control of the planet's most dramatically changing source of water. They mastered the monsoon. They were the Khmers, and from the nineth century, they dominated the area we now know as Cambodia.

1 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

2 drenching   

n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• A black cloudburst was drenching Siena at midday. 中午，一场天昏地暗的暴风雨在锡耶纳上空倒下来。 来自辞典例句
• A drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground. 一阵倾盆大雨泼下来了，越来越大的狂风把它顺着地面刮成了一片一片的雨幕。 来自辞典例句

3 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。

4 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

5 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。