VOA慢速英语2015 新纪录片展示一个未知的水下世界

New Movie Shows an Unseen Underwater World 新纪录片展示一个未知的水下世界

Jean-Michel Cousteau has spent a lifetime exploring the seas, like his famous father, the ocean explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. Now, Jean-Michel Cousteau has produced a 40 minute long documentary¹ from 100 hours of underwater videos. He and his crew used special equipment, including an IMAX camera, to take pictures of the smallest life in the sea. The camera produces high-resolution images that are sharp and like those seen in movies.

The technology enabled the crew to record microscopic² underwater animals in slow motion in a 3D, or three-dimensional film. Mr. Cousteau documented 30 new species³ in the movie, called “Secret Ocean 3D.” Many of these creatures are much too small to be seen with human eyes.

“When you’re filming it, you bring it back to the boat where we are, and we have a 3D screen and we can see, with glasses on, something we have never seen before. And sometimes we say, ‘we need to go back!’"

The results are extraordinary. The new film presents us with a beautiful but often deadly world. It shows how even tiny creatures are part of a complex food chain that sustains⁵ human life. 

Here, natural resources are never wasted. But as Mr. Cousteau warns, pollutants⁶ from human activity such as chemicals, heavy metals and plastic, threaten to destroy this life.

“All the way up to the fish we catch and put in our plates. We’re bringing back on land a lot of that pollution.”

Jean-Michel Cousteau is a supporter of de-salting ocean water to create clean water for humans to drink and to water crops. But he says that a major desalination⁷ effort can only happen if we stop the pollution from entering the oceans.

"Today between four and five thousand children under the age of five are dying every day, every day, every day, because they have no access to clean water or enough water. That can change. We can decide to make this happen."

Mr. Cousteau says a great part of the ocean remains⁸ unexplored. He says there are thousands, maybe millions of species we have not yet identified. So, he says, we also have no way of knowing how pollution is affecting them.

“My dad used to say, people protect what they love, and I would say ‘if you don’t understand, how can you protect it?”

Jean-Michel Cousteau launched the Ocean Futures⁹ Society in 1999. The nonprofit organization aims to educate people about the importance of ocean life and the dangers it faces. Mr. Cousteau says films like Secret Ocean 3D also help do that.

He says he wants his films to be fun and beautiful to see. And he wants them to teach people that there is only one water system on the planet. He says every plant and animal, including humans, depend on the quality of that water for life.

Words in This Story

documentary – n. a movie or television program that tells the facts about actual people and events

microscopic – adj. able to be seen only through a microscope : extremely small

3D – adj. made in a way that causes an image to appear to be three-dimensional (with length, width and depth)

tiny – adj. very small

sustain⁴ – v. to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc.

desalination – n. to remove salt from (something, such as water)

1 documentary   

adj.文献的；n.纪录片

参考例句：

• This case lacked documentary proof.本案缺少书面证据。
• I watched a documentary on the Civil War.我看了一部关于内战的纪录片。

2 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

3 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。

4 sustain   

vt.保持，供养，维持，支持，经受

参考例句：

• During the war we had just enough food to sustain us.战争期间，我们的食物仅够维持生活。
• These four posts sustain the entire building.这四根柱子支撑着整座建筑物。

5 sustains   

v.维持( sustain的第三人称单数 )；支撑；忍受；长期保持

参考例句：

• The sea wall sustains the shock of the waves. 海堤能抵挡海浪的冲击。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The breakwater sustains the shock of the great waves. 防波堤承受巨浪的冲击。 来自辞典例句

6 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 desalination   

n.脱盐(作用)

参考例句：

• Crops can be grown on this land after desalination. 这片土地经过脱盐就可以种植庄稼了。
• One source is by desalination-taking the salt out of salt water to make it drinkable. 淡水的来源之一是使水淡化--把含盐的水中的盐份去掉，使之能够饮用。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。