Day 12

英文重现

Five hundred feet below the bright-green rain forest,my fellow cave diver slips into the dark-green waters of a flooded cave passage called Tunkul Sump.Loaded with lights and two scuba tanks,he unreels a thin white nylon cord,his lifeline back from the unexplored passage.I sit near the sump and wait.It's April 30,1999,my sixth expedition to the Chiquibul cave system in Belize and Guatemala.On each trip I feel I'm opening books in an underground library that has preserved records of dramatic climate change over time,of the lives of the ancient Maya who once used these caves,and of numerous animal species,living and extinct.

——SAT 2009年1月题，Section 7

解析

1.“slip into”是“溜进，滑入”的意思；“waters”在这里是复数形式，表示一片水域；“back from”是指“从……回来”。

2.过去分词短语可用作状语，表示一个已完成的被动动作，如第二个句子中的“Loaded with lights and two scuba tanks”就是作时间状语，相当于“After he was loaded with lights and two scuba tanks”。

3.本段最后一个句子涉及一个平行结构：三个“of”短语并列作“records”的定语，即“of dramatic climate change over time”、“of the lives of the ancient Maya who once used these caves”和“of numerous animal species,living and extinct”都是“records”的内容。

词意辨析

参考翻译

在离翠绿的雨林500英尺远的下方，我的洞穴探索者同伴钻入了被淹没的洞穴通道中的一片青绿色水域，这个通道被称为“Tunkul Sump”。带好两个氧气桶后，他解开了一条细小的白色尼龙绳，一条他从这个未知的通道回到地面的生命线。我坐在通道口的水坑旁边等他。那是1999年4月30日，我的第六次伯利兹和危地马拉Chiquibul洞穴系统探险。每次探险于我来说都像是在地下图书馆翻开一卷卷的书，一卷卷对时代变迁以来气候剧烈变化的记录，对曾使用过这些洞穴的古玛雅人的生活的记录，以及对无论尚存于世还是已经灭绝的无数动物物种的记录。

实战演练

Five hundred feet below the bright-green rain forest,my fellow cave diver slips into the dark-green waters of a flooded cave passage called Tunkul Sump.Loaded with lights and two scuba tanks,he unreels a thin white nylon cord,his lifeline back from the unexplored passage.I sit near the sump and wait.It's April 30,1999,my sixth expedition to the Chiquibul cave system in Belize and Guatemala.On each trip I feel I'm opening books in an underground library that has preserved records of dramatic climate change over time,of the lives of the ancient Maya who once used these caves,and of numerous animal species,living and extinct.

The last sentence of this passage serves primarily to____.

(A)show the extent to which the climate of the area has changed

(B)point out that the cave was once home to species that are now extinct

(C)indicate the danger associated with an expedition of this kind

(D)convey the idea that the cave serve as a historical chronicle

(E)suggest that underwater cave exploration is more productive than scholarly research

答案：D

答案解析

最后一句话说“每次探险于我来说都像是在地下图书馆翻开一卷卷的书……”，这里很明显是用到了比喻的修辞手法，将“岩洞”比喻成“地下图书馆”，将“考察岩洞”比喻成“阅读图书馆里的书”，在“书里”会读到原文“records of”后面的所有内容。因此可知，作者最后一句话主要是想说“岩洞就像一本历史书，记录了很多信息”，因此选项D“传达出一个信息：岩洞发挥了记录历史的作用”是正确的。其他几个选项的意思为：选项A“展示这个地区气候变化的程度”；选项B“指出岩洞曾经是很多现在已灭绝的物种的家园”；选项C“指出这种探险具有的危险”；选项E“暗示水下岩洞探险比学术研究收获更多”。