国家地理 一次翻越世界屋脊的历史性旅行(4)

Ali's friendly wife, Kushnamamash, baked us hot, gritty naan -- flatbread. We pitched our tents on the couple's narrow grass terrace. Ranks of poplars rustled¹ in a silver breeze. The austere² Wakhan was experiencing a green revolution. Tree plantations³ were shading the once naked canyon⁴ bottoms, and some Wakhi were tasting their first homegrown tomatoes and squash. It was the changing climate. Apricots were blossoming two months early, and a sudden tide of glacier⁵ melt was making irrigation easier.

阿里热情的妻子库什娜玛玛什给我们烤了滚热的馕（一种烤饼）。我们把帐蓬扎在夫妻俩窄窄的草坪上，成排的白杨在微风中沙沙作响。古朴的瓦罕正在经历一场绿色革命，越来越多的林地遮蔽了曾经裸露的峡谷底部，一些瓦罕人吃上了自家种的第一个西红柿和南瓜。这要归功于气候变化，冰川融化越来越快的趋势使得灌溉更加容易，杏花开放已经提前了两个月。

It won't last, of course. Someday the glaciers⁶ of the Hindu Kush and Pamirs will drain away, and the old hungers will return. But for those shining days on foot, the roadless valleys of the Wakhan felt like a place I'd been walking toward my entire life without knowing it. Slate⁷ river shingle⁸ rang underfoot like coins. Crows pinwheeled in seamless blue skies. In September the high pastures of the Kyrgyz nomads⁹ in the eastern Wakhan held the sun's fire like old amber¹⁰. Boulders¹¹ the size of houses shone like colossal¹² mirrors on the barren mountain slopes: Their surfaces had been buffed smooth as glass by long-vanished walls of ice.

当然，这不可能持续下去，总有一天兴都库什山和帕米尔的冰川会渐渐消失，过去的饥饿将重新出现。但在目前这些阳光明媚的日子里，瓦罕众多不通公路的山谷就好像我此生一直在朝它走的地方，尽管我不知道那里。石板河里的石板在脚下像硬币一样排列，乌鸦在湛蓝的天空中盘旋。九月里，瓦罕东部吉尔吉斯族游牧民的高原牧场在火红的阳光照耀下像古老的琥珀。房子大小的岩石在贫瘠的山坡上像巨大的镜子一样闪闪发光，因为巨石的表面被早已消失的冰墙所磨光。

Ice ages come in cycles. The next one will shove the rubble¹³ of our cities down to lower latitudes¹⁴. The ice ages will wipe out all evidence of Ali's frail¹⁵ woodlot and easily smear¹⁶ away the deep tank tracks the Soviets¹⁷ left in the Wakhan pastures almost 40 years ago. The ruts look brand-new. And eventually another Wakhi will appear to thresh, to prod¹⁸ his oxen over cut wheat—3,600 rotations¹⁹, by my calculation, for each disk of bread. It's all a circle.

冰河时代循环往复，下一次冰期将把我们城市的废墟推到低纬度地区。冰河时期将抹掉牧羊人阿里那脆弱林地的所有痕迹，并将很容易地抹去近40年前苏联留在瓦罕牧场的深深的坦克印迹，尽管这些车辙看起来仍然崭新。最后，另一个瓦罕民族会为面包而来打谷，来赶着牛碾小麦，我估计这得要3600年，那是一个完整的循环。

1 rustled   

v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He rustled his papers. 他把试卷弄得沙沙地响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Leaves rustled gently in the breeze. 树叶迎着微风沙沙作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 austere   

adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的

参考例句：

• His way of life is rather austere.他的生活方式相当简朴。
• The room was furnished in austere style.这间屋子的陈设都很简单朴素。

3 plantations   

n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园，使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后，那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句

4 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

5 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

6 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

7 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

8 shingle   

n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短

参考例句：

• He scraped away the dirt,and exposed a pine shingle.他刨去泥土，下面露出一块松木瓦块。
• He hung out his grandfather's shingle.他挂出了祖父的行医招牌。

9 nomads   

n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

11 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

13 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

14 latitudes   

纬度

参考例句：

• Latitudes are the lines that go from east to west. 纬线是从东到西的线。
• It was the brief Indian Summer of the high latitudes. 这是高纬度地方的那种短暂的晚秋。

15 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

16 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

17 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

18 prod   

vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励

参考例句：

• The crisis will prod them to act.那个危机将刺激他们行动。
• I shall have to prod him to pay me what he owes.我将不得不催促他把欠我的钱还给我。

19 rotations   

旋转( rotation的名词复数 )； 转动； 轮流； 轮换

参考例句：

• Farmers traditionally used long-term rotations of hay, pasture, and corn. 农民以往长期实行干草、牧草和玉米轮作。
• The crankshaft makes three rotations for each rotation of the rotor. 转子每转一周，曲轴转3周。