你见过鲸鱼吗？

你认识刚开始学英语的人吗？我们专为他们推出了一个简单的新视频系列——《伦敦字母挑战赛》。三支队伍在伦敦四处奔走，寻找八个字母，这些字母将引领他们赢得冠军王冠。现在就在我们的网站上观看这个系列吧。

Do you know someone who is starting to learn English? We have a new easy video series just for them. The London letter challenge. Three teams race around London to find eight letters which will take them to the winning crowns. Watch the series on our websites now.

Bbclearningenglish.com。

Bbclearningenglish.com.

六分钟英语

Six Minute English

来自bbclearningenglish.com。

from bbclearningenglish.com.

大家好，这里是BBC英语学习的《六分钟英语》。我是菲尔。

Hello. This is six Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.

我是乔治。

And I'm Georgie.

在自然栖息地偶遇野生动物是一种神奇的体验。乔治，你曾在野外见过动物吗？

Encountering an animal in its natural habitat is a magical experience. Have you ever seen an animal in the wild, Georgie?

是的，我确实见过。我在散步时看到一只小獾，它独自待着，非常可爱。你呢，菲尔？

Yes. I have actually. I was on a walk, and we saw a baby badger. It was on its own and it was really cute. What about you, Phil?

我见过最令人印象深刻的其实是鲸鱼。当时我正驾车经过巴塔哥尼亚海岸，你能看到它们在海洋中游弋。

The most impressive one I've ever seen is actually a whale. I was driving by the coast in Patagonia and you could see them in the sea.

听起来太棒了。说来有趣，观鲸如今已成为全球许多沿海地区的热门活动。但现代观鲸与人类过去为获取鲸油和鲸肉而捕杀鲸鱼的行为——即所谓的捕鲸业——截然不同。

Well, that sounds amazing. And funny you say that because whale watching has become popular in many coastal parts of the world. But watching whales is very different from what humans used to do hunt and kill them for their oil and meat, an activity known as whaling.

去年是国际捕鲸委员会全球禁捕令四十周年。这项禁令暂时禁止商业捕鲸。尽管日本、冰岛和挪威仍在继续捕鲸，但毫无疑问该禁令拯救了许多鲸鱼物种免于灭绝。本期节目我们将探讨人类与这些海洋巨兽的古今关系，照例也会学习一些实用的新词汇。

Last year marked the fortieth anniversary of the International Whaling Commission's global moratorium. That's a temporary ban on the commercial killing of whales. Although Japan, Iceland, and Norway continue to hunt whales, there's no doubt the ban has saved many whale species from extinction. In this program, we'll discuss our past and present relationship with these giants of the ocean, And as usual, we'll learn some useful new words and phrases too.

此外，您可以在我们的官网bbc learning english dot com找到本期所有词汇表，还有配套测试题和工作表。

Plus, you'll find all the vocabulary for this episode along with a quiz and worksheet on our website, b b c learning english dot com.

但首先我要问你一个问题，乔治。你或许知道世界上最大的鲸是蓝鲸，体长可达30米。但最小的鲸类是什么呢？是a白鲸，b小头鼠海豚，还是c侏儒右鲸？

But first, I have a question for you, Georgie. You probably know that the world's largest whale is the blue whale growing up to 30 meters long. But which whale species is the smallest? Is it a, the beluga whale, b, the vaquita whale, or c, the pygmy right whale?

嗯，侏儒（pygmy）这个词让我联想到小型生物，所以我选c，侏儒右鲸。

Well, pygmy makes me think small, so I'm gonna go with c, the pygmy right whale.

好的，我们稍后将在节目中揭晓。人类捕鲸的历史至少有一千年，最初是小型猎人团体乘着缓慢的木船进行。这样的捕鲸方式常常失败，尤其是对于蓝鲸和座头鲸这样能游速高达每小时30公里的大型鲸类。但这一切在19世纪末发生了改变，正如南乔治亚遗产信托基金的简·皮尔斯在BBC广播四台《稀有地球》节目中所解释的那样。

Okay. We'll find out later in the program. Humans have hunted whales for at least a thousand years, starting with small groups of hunters in slow moving wooden boats. Catching whales like this was often unsuccessful, especially big whales like blue and humpback whales, which can swim up to 30 kilometers per hour. But all that changed in the late eighteen hundreds as Jane Pearce of the South Georgia Heritage Trust explained to BBC Radio four programme Rare Earth.

19世纪末的挪威发生了一件大事。一位名叫斯文·沃因的捕鲸人发明了我们如今熟知的爆炸鱼叉，这对鲸鱼来说是个转折点。鲸鱼根本无力抵抗。

Something happened in Norway in the late eighteen hundreds. A chap called Sven Voin, who was a whaler, he invented what we now know as the exploding harpoon, and that was a turning point for the for the whale. The whale couldn't stand a chance.

1870年，一位名叫斯文·沃因的男子（'chap'是对男性的非正式称呼）发明了用于捕杀鲸鱼的爆炸鱼叉。这是一个转折点。'转折点'一词指的是局势开始变化的时刻，通常是向好的方向发展，尽管在此案例中令人遗憾。

In 1870 a chap, that's an informal word for a man called Sven Voin invented the exploding harpoon, a weapon for killing whales. This was a turning point. The phrase turning point means a time when a situation starts to change, especially in a positive way, although sadly not in this case.

此后，鲸鱼'stand a chance'（意为毫无成功逃脱的机会）。沃因的爆炸鱼叉加上更快的蒸汽动力船只的发明，使得20世纪捕鲸量激增，导致超过300万头鲸鱼被捕杀，许多物种面临灭绝。

After this, the whales didn't stand a chance, meaning they had no chance of successfully avoiding the hunters. Foin's exploding harpoon added to the invention of faster steam powered boats increased whaling massively throughout the twentieth century to the point where over 3,000,000 whales had been killed and many species faced extinction.

到了20世纪70年代，大型鲸类所剩无几，绿色和平等环保组织发起了'拯救鲸鱼'运动，旨在让人们意识到鲸鱼种群遭受的毁灭性打击及捕鲸的残酷性。聆听鲸歌——记录鲸鱼在海洋中交流的声音（听起来大致如此）——开始流行起来。

By the nineteen seventies, there were only a few great whales left, and environmental groups like Greenpeace started the Save the Whales campaign to make people aware of devastation in whale populations and the cruelty of whaling. It became popular to listen to the song of the whale recordings of whales communicating at sea which sounds something like this.

以下是海洋生物学家乔·罗曼在BBC广播四台《稀有地球》节目中关于'拯救鲸鱼'运动的讨论。

Here's marine biologist Joe Roman discussing the save the whales campaign with BBC Radio four's Rare Earth.

人们开始以不同方式思考鲸鱼。我们必须向绿色和平等行动组织致敬，他们驾驶橡皮艇挡在苏联捕鲸船与抹香鲸之间，并且非常擅长利用媒体发声。

People started thinking about whales in different ways. And then we have to give a shout out to to activist groups like Greenpeace who put their rib boats, they put their zodiacs in between Soviet hunting vessels and sperm whales, and they were very good at media.

乔公开赞扬绿色和平组织活动家保护鲸鱼的行为。'give a shout out to someone'意思是在公开场合表扬某人。

Joe gives a shout out to Greenpeace activists for protecting whales. To give a shout out to someone means to praise them in public.

绿色和平组织拍摄的视频和照片改变了公众对捕鲸的看法。乔说绿色和平组织擅长媒体运作，意思是他们巧妙地利用电视、报纸等媒体渠道向公众传达信息。

Videos and photos taken by Greenpeace changed public opinion about whaling. Joe says Greenpeace were good at media, meaning they skillfully used media outlets like TV and newspapers to convey their message to the public.

许多鲸鱼物种仍处于濒危状态，所有鲸鱼仍面临海洋酸化和塑料污染的威胁。但暂停捕鲸令（moratorium即暂时禁止捕猎）已持续四十年，有望在未来几十年继续保护鲸鱼。好了，菲尔。现在是不是该揭晓你问题的答案了？

Many whale species are still endangered, and all whales still face danger from ocean acidification and plastic pollution. But the moratorium, that means the temporary suspension on hunting them, has lasted forty years and hopefully will help protect whales for decades more. Okay, Phil. Isn't it time you revealed the answer to your question?

好的。我问过你哪种鲸鱼体型最小。

Okay. I asked you which was the smallest species of whale.

我回答说是侏儒右鲸，对吧？

And I said the pygmy right whale, didn't I?

你是这么说的。但正确答案其实是小头鼠海豚，体长约1.5米。

You did. Unfortunately, the answer is actually the Vaquita whale, which is about 1.5 metres long.

哦，真可爱。好了，我们来回顾下今天学的其他词汇。'chap'是对男性的非正式称呼。

Oh, so cute. Okay. Let's recap the rest of the vocabulary we've learnt. A chap is an informal word for a man.

转折点是指局势开始发生变化，尤其是向好的方向发展。

A turning point is when a situation starts to change, especially for the better.

如果某人毫无胜算，意味着他们根本没有成功的机会。

If someone doesn't stand a chance, they have no chance of success.

向某人公开致意，就是公开赞扬他们。

To give a shout out to someone means to publicly praise them.

最后，如果你擅长媒体运作，就意味着你善于利用媒体渠道向公众传递信息。我们的六分钟时间又到了。但请记住，您可以在我们的网站bbclearningenglish.com上找到练习题、小测验和大量其他资源来提升英语水平。期待在那里与您相见。现在，就先说再见了。

And finally, if you're good at media, you are skillful at using media outlets to convey a message to the public. Once again, our six minutes are up. But remember, you can find worksheets, quizzes and loads more resources to improve your English on our website bbclearningenglish.com. See you there soon. But for now, it's goodbye.

再见。

Bye.

六分钟英语。

Six Minute English.

来自bbc learning english点com。

From b b c learning english dot com.