美国有线新闻 CNN 非洲东部遭遇25年来最严重的沙漠蝗虫入侵（在线收听）

What animal would you find in the family acrididae? Aphid, marmot, sea horse or locust. In the family acrididae you'll find grasshoppers and locusts.

下列哪个动物属于蝗科？蚜虫、旱獭、海马还是蝗虫？蚱蜢和蝗虫属于蝗科。

Imagine seeing an approaching cloud that's massive, 37 miles long and 25 miles wide and instead of water or dust it's a cloud of locusts. That's the size of just one of the swarms that's descended this year on eastern Africa. Specifically these are desert locusts. The most destructive type of locusts that eats food and that's terrible news in a region that's food insecure, meaning there are already problems with people getting enough to eat. The United Nations says this is the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years. What might have made it so bad was a cyclone, a major storm that hit parts of Somalia and Ethiopia last December. That brought a lot of rain to the region and that creates the best conditions for these pests to breed. The United Nations wants the world to contribute more than $75 million so pesticides can be sprayed to kill the insects.

想象一下一大片云不断靠近的场景，那片云有37英里长、25英里宽，但它不是水也不是灰尘，而是蝗虫云。这一规模只是今年侵袭非洲东部的其中一个蜂群。尤其是沙漠蝗虫。这是最具破坏性的蝗虫，它们会吃食物，这对缺乏粮食保障的地区来说是个可怕的消息，因为那里的人们本就面临着食物不足的问题。联合国表示，这是25年来最严重的沙漠蝗虫入侵。而气旋可能令情况更加糟糕，这是去年12月袭击索马里和埃塞俄比亚部分地区的一场大风暴。其为该地区带来了大量降水，并为这些害虫的繁殖创造了最佳条件。联合国呼吁全世界捐款7500余万美元，以便喷洒杀虫剂消灭这些昆虫。