Why is this diver burrowing into the bottom of this mini lake.She is literally disappearing into the sand and gravel of the water’s floor.Only debris and the occasional bubbles from her breathing tank are visible. She is part of a project, largely funded by National Geographic, to dive into the sacred pools of the ancient Maya.

“Our exploration team discovered this upwelling, it’s an underwater spring upwelling, and it provides this magical experience because it’s located at the bottom of a very large crater, and you can come down, down, down, down into this large crater, and in the bottom is this boiling mass of sediment that’s actually being rolled and boiled, it’s almost like a natural lava lamp, went in over the lip of the crater, descended down into the bottom, and I didn’t want to have any interference with the water that was already in the pool, and so it required a little bit of digging,and frankly it was extremely low visibility down there but below the actual base of sediment, there’s about one and a half meters more space. The water coming out of the bottom of this spring,coming into the pool,is chemically quite distinct from the water in the pool.”

But this is just the beginning. The dives also revealed clues to past life here, and the first for the country of Belize. Scientists discovered several fossil beds around 60-90 feet below the surface, including femur bones the size of a bowling ball. They also found tusks and \ bones. These are the first recorded fossils ever found in Belize.

“And we left those in place. We have only removed a few small fossils so we can actually determine, are they fossilized, or bone, and they are definitely fossilized, so we know they have to be of a certain age. but were they here , were these megafuta present during occupation by humans about 20,000 years ago , 15,000 years ago, or are they much older?”

The dives were made in several pools in central Belize earlier this year in an area known as Cara Blanca, The researchers found evidence that the eight pools of the 25 they studied are likely connected through underground passages.Principal Investigator Lisa Lucero says the major goal is to look for archaeological remains underwater.

“Because the Maya considered openings in the earth caves, water bodies , as porters to the underworld of \. And because the thousands of caves that have been found have offerings, ancient Maya offerings , we just knew there be offerings at the bottom of the pool, so we came with the goal of trying to dive to look for these offerings.”

Though they didn’t find offerings on the first dives, they did find surrounding sherds in a pool near remains of Maya buildings, constructed around 1,100 to 1,300 years ago.Lucero says there is no indication this area had many residences, but rather was likely a pilgrimage site, with Maya traveling here from hundreds of miles away,because at least one of the pools was found to be around 200 feet deep, and littered with trees and silt, more sophisticated diving equipment is needed for future dives. And Lucero believes there are more significant Maya offerings at these depths.

The research is being conducted under the auspices of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, and the scientists plan to return for more exploration.

New Words and Phrases

diver 跳水者,潜水员
burrow 挖掘(洞穴), 钻进
literally 逐字地,按照字面上地,不夸张地
gravel 碎石
debris 碎片,残骸

Ever since man first began setting out for new lands by small boats heading over unknown horizons, he’s been searching for among other things, paradise. And paradise in the Tuamotus, a small archipelago in the Pacific about 200 miles northeast of Tahiti, means coconuts, digging clams, spear fishing and camping on the beach with the surf lulling to sleep.

But paradise today is not without its concerns. The biggest worry here is global warming. The 78 atolls that make up the two Tuamotus are just thin coral reefs, at their highest they are 10 feet above sea level.

As the average temperature of the oceans climb, estimates are that many of these living, breathing, still growing reefs and the lagoons they protect will very likely disappear in the next 50 to 100 years as the seas rise.

Frank Murphy is a University of California of Berkeley-trained marine biologist.

“It struck me the other day when my children arrived at Tahiti and saw that for the first time, that actually in their life time, this could disappear, and it’s pretty amazing.”

Fishing is a primary source of both food and cash. Doriat will take a dozen big My-Mys from his plywood boat which will sail on the island of Fakarava. Gathering and drying the white meat of coconut known as copra is the chain’s biggest business. A 100-pound sack sells for 38 dollars. A hard working family will produce 100 sacks a month.

In the past 20 years, a new economy has boomed in Tuamotus – black pearls. Pamala and Valda are 22 and have their own pearl growing business on a tiny spit of sand in the middle of a lagoon at Tuwao. They have thousands of oysters drowned just below the surface. Valda takes daily care of the boxes of the oysters, making sure they are close tightly to protect them from their natural predators. Pamala works 8 hours a day, seeding as many as 400 oysters a day. Once planted below the surface, each oyster will nurture a pearl for a year and a half.

Outsiders come looking for paradise and leave with many questions.

Is it ideal here?

Certainly.

Is it paradise?

As close as you can come, a tropical dream comes true.

Yet it is clear these tiny spits of land at the midst of a giant sea of blue paradise are at some risk. These westerners are happy to have seen a glimpse of paradise since it may soon change forever.

New Words and Phrases

horizon
the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.

Tuamotus

archipelago
a large group or chain of islands,a large group or chain of islands

Tahiti
the principal island of the Society Islands, in the S Pacific

spear-fishing
to fish underwater using a spearlike implement used manually or propelled mechanically

lull
to put to sleep or rest by soothing means,to give or lead to feel a false sense of safety; cause to be less alert, aware, or watchful.

The United States has started the largest infrastructure project in human history, a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of our entire electrical supply grid, which is getting new intelligent devices at every step from the power company’s generators to the devices in our homes and making sure every component is secure from attack, while also elegant control of water, gas and sewage systems. And this total make-over must happen while the whole system is operating online at peak capacity, while it’s growing in fact. In short, we’ve begun building a smarter power grid, one that works pretty much like the internet. You could call it, the InterGrid.

Our aging power grid system is starting to fail. We’ve seen more blackouts and brownouts, and it runs inefficiently, wasting carbon into the air. New clean sources like wind and solar which make power only part of the time need intelligent pathways to get the consumers, and the Americans prefer the power they use to have been produced by Americans. Right now, our fragile, less-than-smart power grid, interconnect nearly 10,000 utility plants, that’s well over a million mega watts of generating capacity. About half it comes from burning coal. At least one third of the United States carbon output, maybe more, comes from power generation. Almost one fifth of our power steams onto the grid from the boiling water, heated by the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors. Nearly six percent of the electricity used in the US comes from flowing or falling water, hydroelectric power generated at river dams.

But the same six percent of all the electric power that’s produced gets lost before it gets where it’s supposed to go. It either melts away as heat as it travels long more than a quarter million miles of metallic wire, or it simply shorts to grid, undetected somewhere within the constant maintenance headache of the decaying patchwork of cable towers and poles.

Reclaiming just that six percent would be the equivalent of taking 55 million cars off the world in terms of the petroleum saved and green house gases prevented. For the past quarter century, the peak demand for power has been outpacing investment in new transmission line and power regulation systems that can only react when something goes wrong. They are not good at spotting problems before they happen. The old grid flies perilously close to the breaking point, every hot day in sunlight cities.

According the Department of Energy, US businesses use over a hundred billion dollars a year to blackouts and brownouts. The power that does arrive has to be used as soon as it gets there. But up till now, there hasn’t been a good way for consumers to tell the power company how much power they might want to purchase. To keep our electric grid from grinding to a halt, the new InterGrid will work on a principle known as prices to devices.

If you knew the electric rates were going to spike very high this afternoon, you might decide to leave your home air conditioner off while you are out of the house. Well, suppose your air conditioner, in fact your entire home, knew it before you. What if those device, your thermostats, washers, driers, refrigerators, Jacuzzis could make decisions about how much energy to purchase according to your preset preference and tell the utility company what you are willing to pay. And that’s truly speaking truth to power.

To see exactly how the InterGrid will listen to your demands and how it will keep us healthy and secure, please play Part Two of the electric InterGrid.

In Part I of the Electric InterGrid , we saw how consumers and utility companies could both save money and liberate much less carbon into the Atmosphere, if our power network became intelligent and self-aware.

But for this idea to work, every team that makes electricity and most things that use it, must interact with one another. Like the Internet, devices on the InterGrid must be plugged in play, so that any device can hear or speak to any other. And like the Internet, the InterGrid will grow a little with each clever new gadget.

Now, the downside of the power grid that works just like a web, is that it takes close to hacker attacks, launched by pranksters, but also from organized and well-funded terrorists. Soon, every smart meter in every home and business will be something akin to computer virus protection.

The InterGrid must also defend against assaults from Planet Earth itself. Let’s say one day, maybe 10 years from now, a monster hurricane comes ashore, knocking off power. The intelligent InterGrid instantly begins matching energy sources to critical needs, places like hospitals and fire stations must be back online first.

But this InterGrid isn’t depending only on utility power from power plants far away. After all, lines may be down over a large area. It’s also intelligently hunting a whole local energy sources. The solar panels are on your neighbor’s roof, lock logging a hybrid car in your drive lane. Refuels in your daughter’s school – every little bit helps.

Smartly switching power to vital local services like a phone system or a police station is called Ilingding. And it can keep whole communities afloat in times of trouble.

To keep powers flowing, operators must know what the grid is doing, at every level from local streets to international transition lines, to keep small failures from cascading out of control. This is a prototype for a systme to do just that. It’s called VERDY – Visual Energy resources Dynamically on Earth. It overlays different kinds of realtime information on googleearth, bringing weather data, showing which specific power lines are out, and who owns what wires, and how much of the population is affected. It can even pull up web cans of trafic, and evacuation routes.

Believing where everything is completely normal, utility managers still want to know as much as they possibly can, because, frankly, they prefer to produce only as much power as customers are willing to pay for.

Electricity moves essentially at the speed of light. If it is not used, as soon as it’s generated, it goes to waste. But the alternative of black-out is obviously quite inevitable. So, the current grid, depends on what the utility companies call “Peaker Plants.” Nobody likes them. Peakers cost money to build and maintain. They run on fuel that isn’t bought at the best market prices. So “Peak Power” becomes expensive power. Yet “Peaker Plants” sit idle most of the time.

This new intelligent InterGrid could eliminate most “Peakers” by anticipating consumers’ demands through interactive price signals. As engineers say, “If you can measure it, you can manage it.” But ultimately the InterGrid will be judged on how well it does 4 things:

Keeping money in consumer’s pockets;
Making communities safer, more secure and icreasingly self-reliant;
Supporting stable power utilities running on sustainable domestic resources;
Protecting and improving earth environment.

So, what will it cost to do all this? Estimate for the total investment needed here in the United States at about 1.5 trillion dollars over 20 years beginning 2010. What amazingly, that’s just about the amount of money needed anyway, just to keep the lights on, whether we make the grid smarter, cleaner and safer, or just simply keep it working alone.

Nature’s latest report from the world of paleontology challenges the assumptions made by everyone until now about when animals first walked the earth.

This is footprint of early tetrapods. We have here, for example, digits, impressions, and something like their pads. This is important.

I’ve been working personally in this field since the mid 1990s. I’ve had over 20 publications in ‘Nature’, and this is the most important paper that I have ever worked on.

Footprints in a Polish quarry tell the tetrapods which walked the earth 20 million years before we thought any animal had left the sea.

This is your little friend, isn’t it? Oh my word. Oh, wonderful. Look at that!

Until only a few months ago, this was an accurate model of a kind of animal paleontologists believed existed in the Middle Devonian Period, with fins but no proper feet. The new model is quite different.

Legs stick out and thighs can flex forwards. Then, it had to be an animal like this, a primitive land vertebrate, not a fish.

And if you are not sure you believe it, the Nature paper and the full film offer the proof.

New Words and Phrases

paleontology n. 古生物学
footprint n. 脚印，足迹
tetrapods 四足动物
Polish adj. 波兰的，波兰人的，波兰语的 n. 波兰语
quarry n. 采石场，猎获物，出处，被追逐的目标 v. 挖出，苦心找出
Middle Devonian Period 中泥盆纪

The geisha house is the temple of this ancient art. For centuries, the geisha have witnessed the love affairs, betrayals and deceptions of Japan’s most powerful men.

A geisha is a woman who’s available for hire to keep a man company during the evening, usually in fact it’s a group of men company during the evening. And to the surprise of most westerners that rarely involves sex. It simply doesn’t exist in other cultures because we socialize together, the Japanese don’t. This is where geisha come in.

They guarantee their clients’ total privacy under a code of silence.

A man who goes to a geisha house, during the evening goes there, on the assumption that nothing that’s said or done would be taken outside those walls. This is a particular compartment. It’s watertight and this is what allows the geisha to choose to exist really, and this is why there’s a kind of code of silence. A geisha mustn’t talk about what has happened.

The geisha business is the only business in Japan run exclusively by women for a man. At the top is the geisha mother. She provides all her girls with board and lodging and a precious kimonos, a considerable outlay of cash. In return, apart from a modest wage, the geisha give her all the money they earned from their clients. At one time, a geisha mother virtually owned her girls that lived constantly in her debt. The geisha mother would begin recouping her investment by selling a girl’s virginity to the highest bidder. This discreet auction relied on her best knowledge of the private lives and desires of her local clients.

It’s true that this stereotypical image of the women who run these houses, these geisha houses, is of a sort of cruel event like character who cares only about one thing and that’s money. But I think the stereotype proved vive because there’s a considerable amount of truth in it. These are, these districts, the striking thing about them is that they are the one area in Japan where women absolutely rule.

Today it is in the best interest of a Geisha Mother to treat her girls well. It costs her no less than 500,000 dollars to train a Geisha. And if a Geisha subset quits, the Geisha Mother loses a fortune. Apprentice Geisha go through 5 years of training. By the end even their gestures are distinctive. Every aspect of their appearance has acquired a symbolic meaning and an erotic power.

Yuriko is an apprentice Geisha, halfway through her 5-year training. The most valuable person in her life is her older Geisha sister, Mamika. All trainee Geisha have an elder sister to teach them the centuries-old skills they need to succeed.

Mamika, Yuriko’s older Geisha sister, lives the life of a super model. She can afford the very best including a million-dollar membership to a country club and private coaching lessons.

Thanks to this job, I get to meet many people, eat good food, wear nice kimono, and travel to places where ordinary people can’t go. You know what? I get through many enjoyable things in life.

Mamika sets a high standard. To follow her example, Yuriko has to dedicate her life to the art. The word Geisha means artist. As well as being professional companions, a Geisha must excel in dance, music and literature. Every graceful movement is carefully choreographed. The dances often tell stories about Geisha who must sacrifice love for their art. A Geisha requires the same dedication that a prima ballerina needs in the West.

The training is never ending. My instructor is still training after thirty to forty years. Compared with her, I’m just nobody. There is no such word as perfection.

Geisha do not marry. Cut off from family bond, they live together as if in a sisterhood. They form close friendships which bind them for lifetime.

New Words and Phrases

betrayals n. 背叛，暴露
deception n. 骗局，诡计，欺诈
socialize vt. 使 … 社会化，使 … 社会主义化，使适应社会需要 vi. 交际
code n. 码，密码，法规，准则 vt. 把 … 编码，制成法典
assumption n. 假定，设想，担任(职责等), 假装
compartment n. 间隔，个别室，卧车包房 vt. 把 … 分隔成几个包间
watertight adj. 不漏水的，无懈可击的
board and lodging 出租供膳,膳宿
lodging n. 寄宿处
kimono n. 和服
outlay n. 费用，经费，支出 v. 花费
recoup v. 重获，补偿 vt. 重获(尤指钱), 失而复得，赔偿，扣除
discreet adj. 谨慎的
stereotypical n. 铅版，陈腔滥调，老一套 vt. 使用铅版，套用老套
vive int. 万岁 adj. 鲜丽，活泼

黄石国家公园，（Yellowstone National Park）简称黄石公园，是世界第一座国家公园，成立于1872年。黄石公园位于美国中西部怀俄明州的西北角，并向西北方向延伸到爱达荷州和蒙大拿州，面积达7988平方公里。这片地区原本是印地安人的圣地，但因美国探险家路易斯与克拉克的发掘，而成为世界上最早的国家公园。园内设有历史古迹博物馆，它在1978年被列为世界自然遗产。黄石河、黄石湖纵贯其中，有峡谷、瀑布、温泉以及间歇喷泉等，景色秀丽，引人入胜。其中尤以每小时喷水一次的“老实泉”最著名。园内森林茂密，还牧养了一些残存的野生动物如美洲野牛等，供人观赏。（百度百科对黄石公园的详细介绍）

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As continents shift and clash,volcanos erupt,and glaciers grow and recede,the earth’s crust is carved in countless fasinating ways,leaving a trail of geological mysteries behind.

One of the greatest is right here, in yellow stone national park in Wyoming. This is one of the world’s most geologically active places, shaken by up to 5000 earthquakes every year, and more geysers and hot springs than the rest of the world combine. Why is yellow stone so active? How did it form? And why here,in the heart of Rockies. Scientists studying in yellowstone are uncovering a violent past. Carved by water,crushed by ancient glaciers,and blasted by the biggest volcano eruption ever known on the planet. And even today,yellow stone is one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Yellowstone national park is one of the most amazing places on earth, and it’s unique. It contains some of the America’s most stunning scenery and wildlife that attracts 3 million tourists a year. To understand where yellowstone came from, and why it is so active today, we need to take a journey back into the distant past of the north American continent and deep into the earth’s interior. Yellowstone sits 8000 feet up, on a romote mountain plateau, primirally within Wyoming, but streching into parts of Idaho and Montana. The park covers 3468 sqaure miles,63 miles north to south and 54 miles east to west. And its on top of one of the world’s most unuasual and deadliest geological structures.

[flash url=”http://down02.putclub.com/newupdate/vaonline/Discovery/eMule/earthmade/putclub.com_Yellowstone2.flv”]

-What’s unusual about the park? Are the wildlife unusual? No. Is the wide open space unusual? No, you’ve got it all over the western U.S. What’s unusual? It’s the very unusual geology that created the park. Yellowstone was founded as the world’s first national park because of the geology.

It’s the strange geology that attracts teams of scientists to the park. Their task, to piece together the story of the incredible processes that built this unique, extraordinary landscape, by digging deep into Yellowstone’s past.

-The geological history of Yellowstone goes back to the formation of the North American Continent. Some of the rocks in Yellowstone are 2.8 to 3.2 billion-year-old rocks, some are the oldest in North America.

Only by travelling back into the past can we figure out why in this particular location, there are 2,400 miles of rivers, more than 300 waterfalls, and the world’s greatest concentration of 10,000 hot water springs, bubbling mud holes, gas vents（排气孔） and gysers(间歇喷泉). What do these features reveal about this landscape and how it was formed?

The investigation begins at Yellowstone’s star attraction—Old Faithful. It’s a key clue to what’s going on underneath the surface. Located in the southwest of Yellowstone Park, the gyser puts on an explosive display every 90 munites or so, lasting out thousands of gallons of scorching hot water.

-Yellowstone is like no other place on earth. There is so much heat coming out here. It’s really a singular phenomenon.

-Well, after about 90-munite nap, Old faithful has woke back to life. And it wasn’s actual napping, it was recharging, the temperature of the water was increasing, the system was pressurizing. Beneath Old faithful, there is a rather complex pumping system filled with carburet and conduit and constrictions.

Rain waters saturating the ground around the gysers, slowly fill its underground reservoir.

New Words and Phrases

continent n. 大陆，洲
clash n. 冲突，撞击声，抵触 vt. 冲突，抵触，使 … 发出撞击声 vi. 引起冲突
volcano n.火山
erupt v. 爆发
glacier n. 冰河，冰川
recede vi. 后退，减弱 vt. 撤回
carve v. 雕刻，切割
geological adj. 地质学的
Wyoming n. 怀俄明(州)[美国]
geyser n. 天然热喷泉，间歇泉 n. <英>热水器
Rockies n. 落基山脉(北美) = Rocky Mountains
blast n. 一阵(强风)，爆炸声，爆破 v. 爆破，摧毁
plateau n. 高原;平稳;稳定状态 vi. 到达平稳阶段
Idaho n. 爱达荷(美国州名）
Montana n. 蒙大拿(美国州名)

Djerba Island “花园岛”-杰尔巴岛

It’s Friday afternoon at a village bakery in Hara Kebira,this tiny Jewish community is preparing for the sabbat meal bringing pots of soup to be heated in the wood oven.Today’s customers are Jewish,but the baker here is Muslim.In much of the world,that’s a novelty.Here it’s daily life.

“We work together.We do business together.We help each other.One time it’s a Jew.One time it’s a Muslim.It’s easy here in Djerba and it’s been going on for a long time.And this didn’t start yesterday,for us that’s everyday.”

Tunisia is 98% Muslim and Jews here are small minority out of about 3000 in the entire country roughly have lived on Djerba Island and nearly all in the village of Hara Kebira.It might be a recipe for discrimination but instead it’s a model for coexistence.Djerban say they get along because they always have.Living together is a part of their heritage.

“We see each other all the time because we live together.This isn’t 10 years or even 20.We’ve been living together for hundreds of years.We’re used to it.”

Djerba’s Jewish community maybe the oldest Jewish settlement in the world.Tradition holds at the first Jews came here more than 2,500 years ago and founded the grip of synagogue.In more recent times,immigrants came to Djerba from Spain and Italy pleaing prosecution.It hasn’t always for Jews here either.And Djerba’s Jewish population has dimished in the last 50 years.But a small community has endured.In the village Muslim and Jewish shots sit side by side.

Hara Kebira has several synagogues,a mosque and a Jewish cemetery.A broad neighbourhood life brings them together.Religious life still keeps them separate.Those communities are very traditional.An integration can only go so far.

“You never find a Jew here marries to a Muslim,not hatred,it’s just our tradition.Jews with Jews.For our religion that will always stay the same.”

Living together can be a tough balance to strike.And with turmoil in the Middle-East,some worry that things may be changing.Still there is hope.This Djerba classroom has a sign on the door that reads “Love thy neighbour”.Inside the students are learning about religion.In their community,they’re learning about getting along.In Djerba,despite the tensions in the outside world,”Love Thy Neighbour” is still a goal,shared by Jews and Muslims alike.

New Words and Phrases

bakery n. 面包店
sabbat (中世纪时每年一次的)信魔者(如巫婆、术士等)的夜半集会
Muslim n. 穆斯林，穆罕默德信徒
novelty n. 新奇，新奇的事物，小装饰
roughly adv. 概略地，粗糙地，粗鲁地
recipe n. 食谱，秘诀，药方
discrimination n. 歧视，辨别力，识别
coexistence n. 共存，和平共处
heritage n. 遗产，继承物，传统

杰尔巴岛(Jarbah),法语作Djerba或Jerba。地中海加贝斯(Gabes)湾中岛屿。与突尼斯本土有海堤连接。约长27公里(17哩)，宽26公里(16哩)，面积510平方公里(197平方哩)。

突尼斯（Tunisia）位于非洲大陆最北端，北部和东部面临地中海，隔突尼斯海峡与意大利的西西里岛相望，扼地中海东西航运的要冲。东南与利比亚为邻，西与阿尔及利亚接壤。突尼斯是世界上少数几个集中了海滩、沙漠、山林和古文明的国家之一。突尼斯地处地中海地区的中央，拥有长达1300公里的海岸线。突尼斯被认为是悠久文明和多元文化的融和之地。突尼斯的气候温和，即使在冬天也是如此。迷人的沙滩、温和的气候、比邻欧洲的地理优势、物美价廉的商品、稳定的政治环境和热情好客的风土人情，使许多国际会议都选择在此召开。

Hi, I’m Paddy Kim. Ireland, it’s an exciting mix of the old and the new. Here you’ll find the quiet of the countryside and the exuberance of the city. But Ireland is still well stocked of this glorious castles and windswept landscapes, it really is the jewel of destination, deserving of its nick name “the Emerald Isle’’.

Historically, Ireland was divided into the four provinces of Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Today most of Ulster is now in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland covers 5 / 6 of the Ireland, its capital is Dublin.

In Dublin, start along the river Liffey for tours of Dublin’s architecture. Visit Trinity College and explore Ireland’s oldest university and its vast libraries. But for a real brush with history, travel to the Boyne Valley in County Meath and see Newgrange. This massive tomb is similar in purpose to the pyramids of Giza though it was built over 5,000 years ago when the pyramids were even a twinkle in the pharaoh’s eye.

Ireland’s Stone Age inhabitants built it to house on their honored dead and perhaps for something more. At sunrise on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year a beam of light enters the central chamber. What significance this had for the builders is still a matter of debate, enter the tomb and decide for yourself. The experience is illuminating.

Ireland has produced a plethora of castles, churches and towers. Its monasteries became important centers of learning during the Dark Ages. And its fortresses were strategic battle grounds against the island’s frequent invaders. The Rock of Cashel near Tipperary serves both the secularly and religious function.

According to legend, this fortress of the Munster kings was visited by Saint Patrick himself and eventually became an important medieval cathedral. If your tastes cater more towards scenery than history you are in luck. Opportunity abound. Near Galway the cliffs of Mohair rise more than 650 feet from the sea providing dramatic views of the coast. Also nearby are the surreal landscapes of the Burren with its cracked limestone in brooding ruins.

When it’s time for a more leisurely pace, you can travel along the river Shannon, ride horses in the Connemara or stroll through quaint towns of lush countryside, colored in Ireland’s 40 shades of green.

New Words and Phrases

exuberance n. 茂盛，充沛，丰富
glorious adj. 光荣的，辉煌的
windswept adj. 被风吹扫的，曝露在风中的
landscapes n. 风景，山水，风景画 v. 美化景观
Leinster 伦斯特省
Munster 明斯特
Connacht 康诺特省
Ulster 乌尔斯特
Dublin 都柏林（爱尔兰首都）
Liffey 利菲河
Trinity College 圣三一学院，现在名为都柏林大学（欧洲最著名的学府之一，创建于1592年，被认为是爱尔兰高等教育的象征，也是爱尔兰人们心目中的精神象征）
Boyne Valley 博伊恩谷
County Meath 米斯郡
Newgrange 新庄园（爱尔兰最着名的史前纪念碑之一，同时亦是西欧最好的走廊式墓穴，它始建于公元前三千二百年左右，在紧邻Drogheda的Boyne Valley中的大走廊式墓穴墓地中，它是一处主要景观。）
pharaoh n. 法老，暴君
Stone Age 石器时代
inhabitant n.居民
winter solstice n.冬至
solstice n. 至，至点，至日
beam n. 光线，(光线的)束，(横)梁，桁条 vt. 用梁支撑，发射，播送
a beam of 一束(一道，一线)
chamber n. 房间，会议厅，室 adj. 室内演奏的
illuminate vt. 照明，阐释，说明

关于爱尔兰的一些资料

中文名称： 爱尔兰共和国
英文名称： the Republic of Ireland
所属洲： 欧洲
首都： 都柏林
主要城市： 科克，多尼戈尔
国庆日： 3月17日
国歌： 《战士之歌》
国家代码： IRL
官方语言： 盖尔语，英语
货币： 欧元
政治体制： 总统制共和制
国家领袖： 玛丽·麦卡利斯，布赖恩·考恩
人口数量： 4203200人(2009年7月)
主要民族： 凯尔特人
主要宗教： 天主教
国土面积： 70282平方公里
国际电话区号： +353
国际域名缩写： .ie

Google地图中的爱尔兰

爱尔兰国旗呈横长方形，长与宽之比为2:1。从左至右由绿、白、橙三个平行相等的竖长方形组成。绿色代表信仰天主教的爱尔兰人，也象征爱尔兰的绿色宝岛；橙色代表新教及其信徒，这一颜色还取意于奥伦治·拿骚宫的色彩，也表示尊贵和财富；白色象征天主教徒和新教派教徒之间永久休战、团结友爱，还象征对光明、自由、民主与和平的追求。

爱尔兰国徽为盾徽，天蓝色的盾面上绘有金黄色的竖琴(Cláirseach)。蓝色象征大海和天空，竖琴为爱尔兰人民喜爱的“天使之琴”。

爱尔兰是一个西欧国家，西临大西洋东靠爱尔兰海(Muir éireann)，与英国隔海相望，爱尔兰为北美通向欧洲的通道。爱尔兰人属于凯尔特人，是欧洲大陆第一代居民的子嗣。它有5000多年历史，是一个有着悠久历史的国家。这里非常美丽迷人。尽管爱尔兰也有自己的语言——盖尔语(Gaeilge)，但它却是欧洲除英国之外唯一一个英语国家。爱尔兰共和国于1922年从英国殖民统治下独立出来，是个和平宁静的国家。爱尔兰北部被称为北爱尔兰，至今仍属于英国。因此，爱尔兰共和国与电视新闻中经常出现的暴力冲突频频的北爱尔兰是有所不同的。

百度百科关于爱尔兰的详细资料
爱尔兰旅游景点大全

马蹄蟹它有着马蹄状硬壳的身躯，还有一条细长的针状尾巴，别看它叫马蹄蟹，它可不是蟹类，它的学名是鲎（hòu），与蝎、蜘蛛以及已绝灭的三叶虫有亲缘关系。它的祖先出现在地质历史时期古生代的泥盆纪，当时恐龙尚未崛起，原始鱼类刚刚问世，随着时间的推移，与它同时代的动物或者进化、或者灭绝，而惟独只有鲎从4 亿多年前问世至今仍保留其原始而古老的相貌，所以鲎有“活化石”之称。

马蹄蟹为暖水性的底栖节肢动物，栖息于20－60米水深的砂质底浅海区，喜潜砂穴居，只露出剑尾。食性广，以动物为主，经常以底栖和埋木本的小型甲壳动物、小型软体动物、环节动物、星虫、海豆芽等为食，有时也吃一些有机碎屑。每年的五六月间，成千上万的马蹄蟹总会从大西洋深处爬上美国东南部的特拉华湾，在海岸交配、产卵。中国鲎在中国福建沿海从4月下旬至8月底均可繁殖。自立夏至处暑进入产卵盛期。大潮时多数雄鲎抱住雌鲎成对爬到砂滩上挖穴产卵。福州平潭每到农历六月，就有大量的鲎爬上岸，当地有民谚称：六月鲎，爬上灶。（参看百度百科关于马蹄蟹的更多资料）

As the water is warm and tides grow high, horseshoe crabs leave the ocean floor and make their way to the shores and estuaries of the Atlantic Coast. Here in the sheltered waters of South Carolina, they suddenly emerge by the thousands in the spawning ritual they’ve performed for hundreds of millions of years. On the highest tides, they drag themselves to shore to lay their eggs. Crabs don’t mature till they are nine or ten. By then, they’ve molted for the last time and their permanent shells can host an ecosystem of hitchhikers. Horseshoe crabs are safest on the ocean floor, but the only way to carry on the species is to take a risk.

We see the ones that see us come and turn and take off to the water. We caught him before he knows us. You know.

Jerry Golt and his father Bob have worked these waters for decades.

We work the moons. The horseshoe crabs come up and spawn on the moons in the springtime.

If you actually get into the water, you can feel them swimming and sometimes you can’t even catch them because they’ll get to swimming so fast. A lot of people seem to be scared when they first see them on the beaches. They do look a little scary but what I do is put them right up against my face and as you can see they do not hurt. Their pinchers are all very light. These are harmless. I just like them.

Mine is bigger. Mine is younger. Huh…

For 15 years, South Carolina has been collecting horseshoe crabs for fishing bait. Now, only fishermen with special licenses are allowed to gather crabs for biomedical use and only if they return the crabs alive. Few of us realized just how valuable the horseshoe crab is.

When I first started 37 years ago, we were allowed to harvest them. There was no recording; there was nothing. And they became fair game and I was involved with selling them for bait. And then a doctor came down and he said that if I didn’t sell bait crabs anymore, he would be interested in the laboratory.

Normal fishing is, as you know, you catch it, you ice it, and you deliver it to the table, and you eat it. The horseshoe crabs we actually catch them, take them to the lab, and they bleed them and we bring them back and release them. So we are borrowing the crabs, this is what we are doing.

Crabs that are borrowed end up a couple of hours away at the Endosafe Laboratories in Charleston. Here in this alien world, they are given a rigorous cleaning to prep them for the process ahead. For the past 30 years, the biomedical industry has been mining the medical equivalent of gold. Endosafe is one of the only four labs in the world that produces a derivative of horseshoe crab blood. Their blood has a clotting agent that’s used to detect minute levels of bacteria. But what’s truly surprising is the color. The crab’s blue blood is an evolutionary gift that’s helped them survive the eons.

Male or female? A small male would be good. OK!

Doctor Norman Wainwright has been working with horseshoe crabs for most of his career, studying the remarkable properties of their blood.

The beautiful blue color is a result of its blood containing copper as an oxygen carrying pigment instead of hemoglobin which contains iron. I am adding a suspension of E. coli bacteria.

At the first sign of bacteria, the crab’s blood forms a protective clot.

Look at that, this is perfect. This is the horseshoe crab cells protecting the animal from infection. Any type of leakage of seawater into their blood system will trigger this response, seal the wound and they actually are proteins in the clot itself that kill the bacteria. They are almost the primitive antibiotics.

The phenomenon caught the attention of the biomedical community in the 70s, they’ve been putting it to work for us ever since. Up to a third of the crab’s blood is removed during the process, yet most of them survive. One quart of horseshoe crab blood is worth about 15,000 dollars. It’s a multi-million-dollar industry. The clotting agent called Lysate is used to test intravenous drugs for bacteria. No IV drug reaches the market without being tested on horseshoe crab blood. It’s an FDA regulation.

Years ago, the only way to screen for toxins dangerous to humans was to use live rabbits. Feverish bunnies revealed contamination and the test was slow. Horseshoe crab blood takes an hour tops and most of the crabs survive the process. Scientists are exploring alternatives that would make bleeding crabs unnecessary. But each day we are finding more ways the horseshoe crab can help us with everything from sutures to contact lenses.

New Words and Phrases

horseshoe crabs 鲎，马蹄蟹
ocean floor 海底
estuaries n. 河口，江口，海湾
sheltered waters 隐蔽水域
spawn n. 卵，产物，后代，结果 vt. 产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成 vi. 产卵，大量生产
ritual n. 仪式，典礼，宗教仪式，固定程序 adj. 仪式的，老规矩的，惯常的
lay eggs 下蛋，产卵
molt n. 换毛，脱皮，换毛期 v. 换毛，脱毛
ecosystem n. 生态系统
hitchhiker n. 搭便车的旅行者，短篇广告，顺便插入的广告
carry on the species 繁衍生息
take a risk 冒险
take off v. 起飞，脱掉，取消，匆匆离开，成功，去除，起跳，拿走
waters n. 水域，领海，水体
springtime n. 春季，青春期，初期

For generations, it’s been called “America’s national pastime”. Baseball has come to be seen as a defining part of the American culture, an enduring tie born from a diverse and sprawling young country. But the big business and athletic heroes that characterize the game today are far removed from its roots as “a gentleman’s pastime”.

Over the last few decades, diehard vintage baseball enthusiasts have been resurrecting the grand old game and some of its pearliest forms. And while the trappings may seem familiar, it was a very different ball game.

“We are gonna take you back to a time today when Colorado was still a territory and baseball was a gentleman’s game.”

In the 1800s, gentlemen and women ballists would gather 9 to a team for a bitter friendly afternoon rivalry.

“Let’s play ball.”

“This is baseball, according rules that were played around 1860 to 1862. Balls being new to be cut on one bounce were an out. Because there were no gloves used at that time, not even the first baseman, nor the catcher. ”

The pitching was underhanded. And the striker or batter could even call the pitches from the hurler, high or low.

“I will fine you, sir.”

On a good hit, the striker might wag it on base with an ace. Runners tended to shy away from stealing, and a gentleman will certainly never slide. Nor would he lose his boarding temper.

“Team members will actually find if they use bad language on the field, or they did not play as a gentleman would be expected to play.”

“For me, I enjoy the gentlemanly nature, what they are doing here. It’s good to be with the guys. We all play together. We all help one other. Nobody gets too competitive. And if they do the umpire will fine them.”

Not too long after the period depicted by these vintage ballists, the game of baseball changed dramatically. Gloves were introduced, the rules refined, and although the game remained a leisurely pursuit, the first professional team arrived in 1869 with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, but the innocence and tradition still live on with vintage baseball teams.