#大學英語聽力#

The days of Antarctica's Pine Island glacier are numbered, but no one really knows what that number is.

南極洲鬆島冰川的日子屈指可數，但沒有人真正知道這個數字是多少。

New models could help to shed some much-needed light on the matter.

新的模型可能有助於揭示一些亟需的問題。

In the past four decades, this slow-moving monstrosity of ice has contributed more to sea level rise than any other glacier on Earth, and recently, scientists have noticed signs it might be accelerating and thinning unusually fast.

在過去的40年裡，這種移動緩慢的巨大冰川對海平面上升的貢獻超過了地球上的任何其他冰川。最近，科學家們注意到了一些跡象，表明它可能正在加速變薄，而且變薄的速度異常快。

Predicting where and how a glacier on this scale will recede is notoriously difficult.

預測如此規模的冰川將在何處以及如何消退是出了名的困難。

While they might look like simple, solid slabs of ice from above, these structures actually hide extremely complicated and dynamic flow systems that we still don't know enough about.

雖然從上面看它們可能看起來像簡單的固體冰塊，但這些結構實際上隱藏著我們仍然不夠了解的極其複雜和動態的流動系統。

With the dawn of the climate crisis, some models predict melting of the Pine Island glacier will cause it to entire lose its grounding line - where the glacier first meets the ocean - and float within a century.

隨著氣候危機的黎明，一些模型預測，鬆島冰川的融化將導致它整個失去其基準線-冰川最初與海洋相遇的地方-並在一個世紀內漂浮。

Other scenarios indicate a sixfold increase in mass ice loss and a 40 kilometre (25 mile) migration of the grounding line in less than two decades.

其他情況表明，在不到20年的時間裡，大量冰的流失增加了6倍，接地線遷移了40公里(25英里)。