“生態(tài)美人魚”的馬拉松

四川 袁 泉

為了遏制海洋塑料污染，一個(gè)來自愛沙尼亞的女孩綁上特殊的鰭來模仿海洋生物游泳，并在游泳的過程中收集塑料垃圾，以此來呼吁公眾重視海洋塑料污染的問題。

主題語境：環(huán)境保護(hù) 篇幅：317詞 建議用時(shí)：7分鐘

1On May 7, 2022,“Eco-Mermaid”Merle Liivand broke her own world record for swimming with a single fin.She swam the distance of a full marathon in the rough waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida. She even picked trash out of the water as she swam.

2Ms Liivand was born in Estonia. As a child, she had health problems, and began swimming to help her lungs get stronger. She was soon taking part in open water swimming contests,sometimes,even in icy water.In one training session,she nearly wound up swallowing some plastic that was floating in the sea.

3That experience made her think of all the sea animals that faced similar pollution every day. She decided to make people more aware of plastic pollution, which she calls a“plastic pandemic”.Thinking about sea creatures gave her the idea of swimming like one.She began swimming with a special single swimming rubbery“monofin”attached to both of her feet, which allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together.

4Ms Liivand first set the world record for swimming with a monofin in 2019. In 2021,she set a new Guinness World Record by swimming 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) again in Florida.Ms Liivand said she knew she could go farther.On May 7,2022,she swam the distance of a full marathon in the rough waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida, with her new award from Guinness World Records. The water was rough, and she ran into a few problems, but she didn't stop.“I got stung by jellyfish,”she said,“and kept telling myself that it was not the time to cry.”

5To keep her energy up,a friend followed her in a kayak(皮艇)and gave her food and water from time to time.By the end of her marathon,the kayak held three bags full of trash.“At the end of the day,”Ms Liivand said,“this isn't just about a record. It's about helping the community and the world.”

Reading Check

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentences in the text

1. That experience made her think of all the sea animals that faced similar pollution every day. She decided to make people more aware of plastic pollution, which she calls a“plastic pandemic”.那次經(jīng)歷讓她想起了所有每天都面臨著類似污染物的海洋動(dòng)物。她決定讓人們更多地意識(shí)到塑料污染，她稱塑料污染為“塑料大流行”。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句中，the sea animals 充當(dāng)定語從句that faced similar pollution every day 的先行詞，that在從句中作主語。which she calls a“plastic pandemic”為which 引導(dǎo)的非限制性定語從句，which在從句中作賓語。

2.She began swimming with a special single swimming rubbery“monofin”attached to both of her feet,which allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together.她開始在游泳時(shí)在兩只腳上各綁上一只特殊的橡膠“單鰭”，這樣她就可以通過蹬動(dòng)雙腿來游泳。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句中，with a special single swimming rubbery“monofin”attached to both of her feet 構(gòu)成with 的復(fù)合結(jié)構(gòu)，a special single swimming rubbery“monofin”和attached 之間構(gòu)成被動(dòng)關(guān)系；which allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together為which引導(dǎo)的非限制性定語從句。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

pick out 挑出

be aware of 意識(shí)到

attach sth to sth 把某物附在某物上

set the world record 創(chuàng)造世界紀(jì)錄

run into 途中遭遇；遇到

at the end of 在……的結(jié)尾