31 British Columbia
British Columbia is the third largest Canadian provinces, both in area and population. It is nearly 1.5 times as large as Texas, and extends 800 miles(1,280km) north from the United States border. It includes Canada’s entire west coast and the islands just off the coast.
Most of British Columbia is mountainous, with long rugged ranges running north and south. Even the coastal islands are the remains of a mountain range that existed thousands of years ago. During the last Ice Age, this range was scoured by glaciers until most of it was beneath the sea. Its peaks now show as islands scattered along the coast.
The southwestern coastal region has a humid mild marine climate. Sea winds that blow inland from the west are warmed by a current of warm water that flows through the Pacific Ocean. As a result, winter temperatures average above freezing and summers are mild. These warm western winds also carry moisture from the ocean.
Inland from the coast, the winds from the Pacific meet the mountain barriers of the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains. As they rise to cross the mountains, the winds are cooled, and their moisture begins to fall as rain. On some of the western slopes almost 200 inches (500cm) of rain fall each year.
More than half of British Columbia is heavily forested. On mountain slopes that receive plentiful rainfall, huge Douglas firs rise in towering columns. These forest giants often grow to be as much as 300 feet(90m) tall, with diameters up to 10 feet(3m). More lumber is produced from these trees than from any other kind of tree in North America. Hemlock, red cedar, and balsam fir are among the other trees found in British Columbia.
英属哥伦比亚
英属哥伦比亚是加拿大的第三大省，无论是面积还是人口都是如此。它几乎是德克萨斯的1.5倍，从美国边境一直向北延伸了800英里(1，280
公里)。它包括了加拿大整个西海岸及附近岛屿。大部分英属哥伦比亚多山峦。绵长而粗犷的山脉贯通南北。甚至那些
沿海的岛屿都是那些存在于千万年前的山脉的遗迹。在上一个冰河时期，这些山脉被冰河冲刷侵蚀，直到大部分山脉被淹没在海中。
它们的峰顶显现为沿着海岸散布的岛屿。西南海岸地区有着潮湿温和的海洋性气候。从太平洋来的温暖的洋流使得从西吹过内陆的海风变得温暖。
因此这儿冬天平均气温在零上而且夏天也不会酷热。这些温暖的西风同样也从海洋带来了湿气。
来自太平洋的、从海岸向内陆的风遇到海岸山脉和落基山脉这些山脉屏障。当气流升高跨越这些山脉时，风的温度就降低了，风中的水分形成降雨。在一些朝西
山坡区域每年大约有200英寸(500厘米)的降水。大部分英属哥伦比亚密布着森林。在有充足降水的斜坡，巨大的道格拉斯枞树高耸入云。
这些森林巨人常常长到高达300英尺(90米)，直径粗达10英尺(3米)。这些树产出了比北美其他任何树都多的木材。铁杉、红香
椿、香脂冷杉枞都是发现于英属哥伦比亚的其它树种。
32 Botany
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but form what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of “ knowledge” at all.
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild- and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.
植物学
植物学，即对植物的研究，在人类知识的历史中占据了特殊的地位。这是人类几千年来超越模糊的认知而真正有所了解的领域之一。
我们今天不可能知道新石器时代的祖先们对植物到底了解多少，但我们在至今仍存在的前工业化社会观察到：人类对植物及其特性的详细了解应该是非常古老的。
这是理所当然的。植物是其他生物甚至其他植物食物金字塔的基础。它们对人们的生活至关重要，不仅在食物上，而且在衣物、武器、工具、染料、
药物、住所和许许多多其他的用途上。至今仍生活在亚马逊河丛林中的部落确实能够辨识几百种植物并知道每一种的许多特性。
对他们来说，植物学没有专门的名称，甚至可能根本未被认为是一种专门知识。不幸的是，工业化的程度越高，我们距直接与植物接触就越
远，我们的植物学知识的增加也就越微不足道。然而每个人在不知不觉中拥有大量的植物学知识，很少有人认不出玫瑰、苹果或兰花。
大约一万年前居住在中东的新时代的祖先们发现某些草能被收获，它们的种子下一季耕种会收获更多时，人类就迈出了人和植物之间的新关系第一大步。
谷子被发现后，农业的奇迹从此诞生：这就是可栽培的谷物。从那时起，人类越来越依赖少数可控制的作物生存，而不再是从众多的野生种类中这里获取一点，那里
获取一点。这样在千万年中对于野生植物的经验和密切联系中积累起来的知识就开始消失了。
33 Plankton浮游生物. / 'plжηktэn; `plжηktэn/
Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants and animals called plankton. Most of these plants and animals are too small for the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the currents, providing a basic food for many larger animals.
Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow on the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one. In potential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.
Despite its enormous food potential, little effect was made until recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine scientists have at last begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea’s resources loom even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.
No one yet has seriously suggested that “ plankton-burgers” may soon become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.
One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny shrimp-like creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches long, krill provides the major food for the great blue whale, the largest animal to ever inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one devours more than one ton of krill daily.
浮游生物数十亿吨的被称为"浮游生物"的小动物、植物散布在世界的海洋中。这些小的动、植物大多太小而难以被人眼看到。
它们随波逐流，为许多较大的动物提供了基本的食物。浮游生物曾被描述为生长在大陆陆地上的各种草类的海洋对应物。这种比喻是恰当
的。然而就潜在的食物价值而言，浮游生物远胜于草类。一位科学家曾经估计，世界上的草类每年生产大约490
亿吨有用的碳水化合物，而海洋里的浮游生物每年生产的碳水化合物多于此数的两倍。尽管浮游生物具备巨大的食物潜能，但直到最近人们还很少象种植草类
那样付出努力养殖浮游生物。现在，海洋科学家们至少已开始研究这种可能性。全球人口不断扩张，海洋资源作为食品的重要性日益突出。
现在还没有人认真说过"浮游生物汉堡"会很快在世界上流行起来。然而，作为一种可能养殖的补充性食物资源，浮游生物正引起了海洋科学家们相当大的兴趣。
一种似乎具有很大收获可能性的微小的虾状浮游生物被称为鳞虾。鳞虾长至2～3英寸长时即成为地球上曾居住过的最大动物--蓝鲸的主要食物。成
熟的蓝鲸可以达到100英尺长，150吨重，所以每头鲸每天吞食1吨多的鳞虾一点也不让人吃惊。
34 Raising Oysters
In the oysters were raised in much the same way as dirt farmers raised tomatoes- by transplanting them. First, farmers selected the oyster bed, cleared the bottom of old shells and other debris, then scattered clean shells about. Next, they ”planted” fertilized oyster eggs, which within two or three weeks hatched into larvae. The larvae drifted until they attached themselves to the clean shells on the bottom. There they remained and in time grew into baby oysters called seed or spat. The spat grew larger by drawing in seawater from which they derived microscopic particles of food. Before long, farmers gathered the baby oysters, transplanted them once more into another body of water to fatten them up.
Until recently the supply of wild oysters and those crudely farmed were more than enough to satisfy people’s needs. But today the delectable seafood is no longer available in abundance. The problem has become so serious that some oyster beds have vanished entirely.
Fortunately, as far back as the early 1900’s marine biologists realized that if new measures were not taken, oysters would become extinct or at best a luxury food. So they set up well-equipped hatcheries and went to work. But they did not have the proper equipment or the skill to handle the eggs. They did not know when, what, and how to feed the larvae. And they knew little about the predators that attack and eat baby oysters by the millions. They failed, but they doggedly kept at it. Finally, in the 1940’s a significant breakthrough was made.
The marine biologists discovered that by raising the temperature of the water, they could induce oysters to spawn not only in the summer but also in the fall, winter, and spring. Later they developed a technique for feeding the larvae and rearing them to spat. Going still further, they succeeded in breeding new strains that were resistant to diseases, grew faster and larger, and flourished in water of different salinities and temperatures. In addition, the cultivated oysters tasted better!
饲养牡蛎
过去人们饲养牡蛎的方式很大程度上类似于田地里的农夫种植蕃茄--通过移植来饲养它们。
首先，农夫选好牡蛎苗床，清除底部的旧壳和其它杂物，然后四处撒播干净的壳。接着，他们"栽种"已受精的牡蛎卵。这些卵在2～3周内会孵化成幼贝。
幼贝一直漂流直到粘在苗床底部干净的壳上为止。它们会呆在那儿并逐渐长成小牡蛎。我们称之为种子或贝
苗。贝苗吸进海水中的微小生物作为食物从而越长越大。不久之后，农夫将这些小牡蛎收
集起来，把它们移种进其他的水域加快其生长，然后再次将它们移种进另外的水域以使其肥壮起来。直到最近，野生的以及人工饲养的牡蛎完全能够满足人们的需要。
但是今天这种可口的海味已不再大量存在。这个问题已经变得如此严重以至于一些牡蛎苗床已完全消失。幸运的是，早在20
世纪初期海洋生物学家们就意识到如果不采取新的措施，牡蛎将会灭绝或至少会变为一种奢侈的食品。因此他们建造了装备良好的孵卵场所并开始工作。但是他
们尚没有适当的装置或技术来处理牡蛎卵。他们不知道何时、用什么以及如何喂养幼贝。他们对捕食数百万幼小牡蛎的动物天敌也所知无几。
他们失败了，但他们顽强地坚持了下来。终于，在20世纪40年代，一个重要的突破性的进展产生了。海洋生物学家发现，升高水
温能够诱导牡蛎不仅在夏季也在秋季、冬季和春季里产卵。后来他们发展了一项技术来喂养幼贝至其长成贝苗。
他们进一步成功地培养出了新的品种，可以抵抗疾病、长得更快、更大并且在不同的盐度和温度的水中都能茁壮生长。此外，这些培殖出的牡蛎口感更佳!
35.Oil Refining
An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil war. Crude oil, or petroleum – a dark, thick ooze from the earth – had been known for hundreds of years, but little use had ever been made of it. In the 1850’s Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw material.
Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.
The first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a retired railroad conductor. In 1859 he began drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture seemed so impractical and foolish that onlookers called it “ Drake’s Folly”. But when he had drilled down about 70 feet(21 meters), Drake struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.
News of Drake’s success brought oil prospectors to the scene. By the early 1860’s these wildcatters were drilling for “ black gold” all over western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled the California gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere. And it brought far more wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.
Crude oil could be refined into many products. For some years kerosene continued to be the principal one. It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-door. In the 1880’s refiners learned how to make other petroleum products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was not then used to make gasoline or heating oil.
炼油
一种重要的新兴工业--炼油业在国内战争后成长起来。未加工的石油，或原油--一种深色的地下的稠浆--数百年来一直为大众所知，但是人们却很少使用过它。
在十九世纪五十年代，萨缪尔?M?科尔，宾西法尼亚西部的一位制造商，开始从当地的溢出物中收集石油
并将它炼成煤油。与冶炼矿石一样，石油提炼是一个从未加工的原料中除去杂质的过程。煤油被用来点灯。
它是鲸油的一种便宜的替代品，而鲸油正变得越来越难以获得。不久就产生了对煤油的大量需求。人们开始寻找新的石油供应。第一口油井为
E?L?瑞克，一个退休的火车检票员所钻得。1859年他开始在宾西法尼亚的泰特斯维尔钻井。整个的这项
冒险事业看起来是如此不现实和愚蠢以致旁观者称之为"鸭子的蠢行"。(译者注：Drake'sFolly,drake
在这里意含双关，即指瑞克的名字，又指该词的本义即鸭子。)但当瑞克往下钻至70英尺(21米)的时候，他发现了石油。他的油井从此每天生产
20桶原油。瑞克成功的消息将石油勘探者们吸引到现场。截止到19世纪60年代早期，这些冒险者为寻找"黑色的
金子"钻探遍了整个宾西法尼亚西部。这项繁荣的事业在刺激性和粗犷的西部气氛上可与
1848年的加州淘金热相媲美，而且它为勘探者带来了远超过淘金潮的财富。原油能被提炼成许多产品。多年以来煤油一直是主要的一种产品。
它在杂货店中出售由人挨户推销。19世纪八十九十年代炼油者们懂得了生产其它石油产品，如蜡和润滑油。那时石油还没有被
用来制造汽油或采暖装置用油。
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