美国有线新闻 CNN 博茨瓦纳取消大象狩猎禁令

 

We start today in Southern Africa. A change has been made in the nation of Botswana, and it concerns elephants.

Since 2014, it's been illegal to hunt them there. Botswana has an estimated 130,000 African elephants, more than any other African country.

It put the hunting ban in 2014 to help the animals recover from habitat loss and poaching when people kill them illegally. Now, though, Botswana's government has eliminated the ban, which means elephant hunting is once again allowed there, as it already is in neighboring nations.

The idea is that legal hunting will take place in the wilderness¹, far away from where people live. The government says elephant populations are now stable, so they can be hunted. And it says that problems between residents and elephants had been increasing. Scores of people are killed or injured by elephants each year.

And a villager who spoke² to CNN says the animals destroy crops and don't benefit the community. Conservationists, of course, have a different view. One told CNN that hunting is a, quote, "outdated³ practice which has no place in the modern world." And another said that allowing elephant hunting is like allowing people to shoot cats, dogs or great apes. But he also says that if elephant hunting is managed correctly, it won't affect overall numbers of elephants in Botswana. Poaching, however, can.

There are signs that poaching's been on the rise in Botswana. It's carried out by people who hope to illegally sell the ivory from elephant tusks⁴ on the black market.

It's not known exactly what kind of impact legal hunting will have on poaching or elephant populations as a whole, but it's something that Botswana's people, its government and conservationists will be watching.

1 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

4 tusks   

n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头

参考例句：

• The elephants are poached for their tusks. 为获取象牙而偷猎大象。
• Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. 非洲的一些地区则使用象牙、猴尾和盐。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）