国家地理:不再冻人的五大湖(4)

In Japan, priests at a Shinto temple have kept an almost 600-year record of when their lake freezes all the way across. Natural climate cycles emerge from that record -- dwarfed¹ in recent decades by the human-caused warming that has gripped the planet. Merchants who used Finland's Tornio River for trade tracked the date the ice broke up each year from 1693 onward².

日本一座神道教寺庙里的僧侣们保存了一份将近600年的湖泊结冰记录资料。自然气候循环就是从这个记录中得出的，但是近几十年来，由于人类活动导致的全球变暖更显著，所以这种自然气候循环就显得微不足道了。从1693年开始，利用芬兰托尔尼奥河进行贸易的商人，每年都会跟踪冰层的破裂日期。

In Lake Superior, shipping³ companies have kept records of ice formation and breakup since 1857. The records show cold years with long stretches of early ice, warm years with less. But overall they are a clear signal of human-caused warming since the industrial revolution.

在苏必利尔湖，船运公司自1857年以来一直保存着冰层形成和破裂的记录资料。记录显示，寒冷的年份会有一个较长时间的早期冰期，而温暖的年份则相对较短。但总的来说，这是工业革命以来人为因素造成的气候变暖的明确信号。

"What's happening in the Great Lakes region is a small part of a bigger story," says Lesley Knoll⁴. A lake expert at the University of Minnesota's Itasca Biological Station, she studies people's cultural relationships with frozen lakes.

莱斯利·诺尔表示：“五大湖地区正在发生的，只是一个大事件中的一小部分。”作为明尼苏达大学伊塔斯卡生物站的湖泊专家，她主要负责研究人类文化与冰冻湖泊的之间关系。

1 dwarfed   

vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The old houses were dwarfed by the huge new tower blocks. 这些旧房子在新建的高楼大厦的映衬下显得十分矮小。
• The elephant dwarfed the tortoise. 那只乌龟跟那头象相比就显得很小。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 onward   

adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先

参考例句：

• The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
• He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。

3 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

4 knoll   

n.小山，小丘

参考例句：

• Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll.对于希尔弗来说，爬上那小山丘真不是件容易事。
• He crawled up a small knoll and surveyed the prospect.他慢腾腾地登上一个小丘，看了看周围的地形。