剑桥MSE同步阅读丨A flying disaster

改版后的MSE考试进行了重大改革，新版的MSE考试将更科学、更贴近生活、更与时俱进。特别是在阅读上，新版MSE的宗旨是“提升阅读和写作能力”，从某种意义上讲，增加了阅读相关题型的难度。

《剑桥MSE同步阅读》栏目旨在帮助考生吃透英文原版文章，在增加知识积累的同时，培养英语语感。

栏目内容节选自MSE考试指定教材——English in Mind中的精华文章。

A flying disaster

飞行的灾祸

Earthquakes. Floods. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. It seems that every day we read about at least one of these somewhere in the world. But every year, somewhere, another kind of disaster causes great damage to plants and people. It's something much smaller and not so well-known as an earthquake or a tsunaml--it's an insect called the locust.

地震。洪水。飓风。海啸。似乎每天我们都会在世界上的某个地方了解到其中的一个。但是每年，在某个地方，另一种灾难会对植物和人类造成巨大的破坏，这种灾难要小得多，并且不像地震或海啸那样广为人知——它是一种叫做蝗虫的昆虫。

The locust usually does things alone-it lives on its own and eats on its own. But, sometimes, something changes the way nature works. When the numbeI of locusts increases somewhere and there are lots of plants to eat, the locusts get together in 'swarms'.

蝗虫通常单独行动——它自己生活，自己进食。但有时候，有些东西改变了自然的运作方式。当某个地方蝗虫数量增加，有很多植物可以食用时，蝗虫就会“成群结队”聚集在一起。

Perhaps the most dangerous locust is the desert locust. It is found in Africa. the Middle East, and Asia in about 60 countries altogether. When desert locusts swarm, they bring problems to one-tenth of all the humans in the world.

也许最危险的蝗虫是沙漠蝗。它在非洲、中东和亚洲总共约60个国家被发现。当沙漠蝗虫成群结队的时候，它们给世界上十分之一的人口带来了麻烦。

The numbers are huge and frightening. A swarm of desert locusts can be 1,200 km² in size - imagine an area that is over 20 kilometres wide and 50 kilometres long, full of locusts! And there can be 50 million locusts in each square kilometre. Each locust eats its own weight in plants every day - so a swarm of desert locusts can eat more than 150 million kilos of food in one day. They can also fly very long distances-in 1954 a swarm of locusts from northwest Africa flew thousands of miles to finally land in Great Britain!

这些数字巨大而可怕。一群沙漠蝗虫的规模可达1200平方公里——想象一下，一个20公里宽、50公里长的区域里到处都是蝗虫!每平方公里可能有五千万只蝗虫。每只蝗虫每天要吃掉与自己体重相当的植物——因此，一大群沙漠蝗虫一天可以吃掉1.5亿公斤以上的食物。它们还能飞很长的距离。1954年，一群蝗虫从非洲西北部飞了几千英里，最终降落在英国。

It's no wonder that farmers in many countries of the world fear the desert locust more than snakes and spiders. It's the desert locust that destroys the harvest and brings hunger to people all over the world.

难怪世界上许多国家的农民比起蛇和蜘蛛更害怕沙漠蝗虫。正是沙漠蝗虫破坏了庄稼，给全世界人民带来了饥饿。

来源：MSE指定教材 English In Mind (student's book 2)