美語情景對話 第259期:The Land of Australia 澳大利亞的土地

Todd: Now, Aaron, Australia's a big place. Can you describe the Australian landscape?

託德：亞倫，澳大利亞非常大。你能描述一下澳大利亞的風景嗎？

Aaron: No worries. In Australia, there are cities and then there is country. Not many people live in the country, and the desert. About 70% of the population live on the East Coast on a very small area, and 80% maybe 70% of Australia is just desert. Nobody lives there, or it's just farms and nobody lives there as well. The cities aren't like Japan. They're very small cities, and there's a one high-rise area and then the rest of it is just flat.

亞倫：沒問題。澳大利亞有城市也有鄉村。住在鄉村和沙漠的人並不是很多。澳大利亞70%的人口都居住在東海岸，那是一片非常小的區域，其實澳大利亞有80%，也許是70%的地方都是沙漠。沒有人住在那裏，當然也沒有人住在農田裏。澳大利亞的城市與日本的不同。澳大利亞都是小城市，其中一個城市位於高海拔地區，其餘的城市都位於平原地區。

Todd: How about the natural landscapes like deserts and rainforests, and things like that?

託德：那像沙漠和雨林這樣的自然景色怎麼樣？

Aaron: No worries. The rainforests are in the south, mainly in Tasmania, and in the tropics to the north, but the desert is the center of Australia and the north of Australia as well and on the west coast. There's not much rainforest. There's a lot of desert. Not many rainforests and the rest is just built-up area. Suburban areas.

亞倫：嗯。雨林位於南部，主要在塔斯馬尼亞島和北部的熱帶地區，而沙漠則位於澳大利亞中部、北部以及西海岸。雨林並不多。但是沙漠面積廣大。雨林地區並不多，其他地方就是建築物密集區。郊區等等。

Todd: Um, Australia is know for it's beaches. What area has the nicest beaches?

託德：嗯，澳大利亞的海灘非常著名。哪個地方的海灘最棒？

Aaron: The nicest beaches are probably in Queensland, or the Gold Coast. The West Coast has some great beaches as well, but there are now cities over there, so it's not so popular, but I think the best beaches are in Queensland, cause the pollution is so low. In the cities, in the south, the beaches are a bit dirty, so you can't always swim there.

亞倫：最好的海灘可能要屬昆士蘭的黃金海岸了。西海岸也有許多很棒的海灘，不過那裏有許多城市，所以海灘沒有那麼受歡迎，不過我認爲最棒的海灘在昆士蘭，因爲那裏污染小。南部城市中的海灘有些髒，你不能經常在那裏游泳。

重點講解：
1. the center of
中心；中央；中部；
eg. A large wooden table dominates the centre of the room.
一張大木桌擺在房間正中央。
eg. Buses go to and from between the center of the city and the city limits.
公共汽車往返行駛於市中心和城市邊緣之間。
2. built-up
建築物密集的；
eg. A speed limit of 30 mph was introduced in built-up areas.
在建築密集區域，車速限制爲每小時30英里。
eg. The little field was surrounded by the university of maryland and a heavily built-up area.
這個小小的機場處在馬里蘭大學和一片稠密建築物的包圍之中。
eg. The land to the west is nearly all built-up.
西面的土地幾乎全都已建築飽和。