Scuba Adventure

Scuba Adventure

潜水探险

Is your air on?” asks Josh. “ Is your air on?” asks Anne. “ Okay, let’s go! ” Today Josh and Anne are taking us on a scuba-diving adventure near the Similan Islands in Thailand. The water here is so clear that we can see things thirty meters away, and that’s pretty far for being underwater! Whenever people go scuba diving, they swim in a group for safety, so we had better stay together! There are hundreds of great places to scuba dive in the world, and each of them is different.

“你的空气开着吗？”乔希问道。 “你的空气开着吗？”安妮问。“好了，我们走吧！” 今天，乔希和安妮带我们在泰国西米兰群岛附近进行潜水探险。 这里的水很清，我们可以看到30米外的东西，这对于在水下来说是相当远的了! 每当人们去潜水时，为了安全，他们都会结伴游泳，所以我们最好待在一起！ 世界上有数百个潜水的好地方，每个地方都不一样。

Some places are very cold, or are filled with seaweed, or have only very small animals. The Similan Islands, however, are great because the water is 28 degrees Celsius and crystal clear, and there are lots of big fish. In fact, look over there! Josh has found a moray eel hiding in the rocks. Don’t worry; it is more frightened of us than we are of it. Look at its sharp teeth! It has two sets of jaws to pull its prey in, so keep your hands far away!

有些地方非常寒冷，或者充满了海藻，或者只有非常小的动物。 然而，西米兰群岛之所以很好，是因为这里的水温为28摄氏度，清澈见底，还有很多大鱼。 事实上，看那边！乔希在岩石中发现了一条海鳗。 别担心;比起我们害怕它，它更害怕我们。 看它锋利的牙齿!它有两副下颚来抓猎物，所以你的手离远点!

Eels aren’t very friendly creatures, as you can tell, and they mostly live alone. So we probably won’t see another eel for quite a while. Did you know that there are hundreds of plants that live underwater? Thailand has many kinds. One plantlike creature is called coral, and there are two kinds: hard coral and soft coral. A coral is built from live cells that stack on top of each other in layers. When the outer layer gets old, a new layer of cells forms around it so the plant grows taller or wider. Like their names suggest, hard coral is stiff, while soft coral is able to sway with the ocean current. Both soft and hard coral grow very slowly. Look, this fan coral grows about one centimeter each year, so Anne is careful not to touch it as she swims by. Touching a coral can kill it, and sometimes it can hurt us too so we stay far away.

正如你所知，鳗鱼不是很友好的生物，它们大多独居。 所以我们很可能很长一段时间都看不到另一条鳗鱼了。 你知道水下有数百种植物吗？ 泰国有很多种。 一种植物状生物叫做珊瑚，有两种：硬珊瑚和软珊瑚。 珊瑚是由活细胞层叠而成的。 当外层变老时，它周围会形成一层新的细胞，这样植物就会变高或变宽。 正如它们的名字所让人想到的那样，硬珊瑚是坚硬的，而软珊瑚能够随着洋流摇摆。 软珊瑚和硬珊瑚生长都很慢。 瞧，这扇珊瑚每年约长一厘米，所以安妮在游泳时小心地不要碰到它。 触摸珊瑚会杀死它，有时它也会伤害我们，所以我们远离它。

Look, down at the bottom-there’s a whale shark, the biggest fish in the world! Anne is trying to get her picture taken with it, but don’t worry, this shark won’t bite. Whale sharks only eat small animals and tiny plants that float in the water called plankton. Still, we’re careful not to disturb the shark since this is its home. Josh is checking his pressure gauges, and signals to Anne that he is almost out of air. Men use up air faster than women because their lungs are bigger and because they have more muscle, but I think we have enough time to look at just a couple more creatures.

看，在海底有一条鲸鲨，世界上最大的鱼！ 安妮正试图和它合影，但别担心，这条鲨鱼不会咬人。 鲸鲨只吃漂浮在水中的小动物和小植物，称为浮游生物。 尽管如此，我们还是小心不要打扰鲨鱼，因为这里是它的家。 乔希正在检查他的压力表，并向安妮发出他快没气体的信号。 男的比女的更快地消耗气体，因为他们的肺更大，因为他们有更多的肌肉，但我认为我们有足够的时间来观察更多的生物。

Oh no, Anne is giving the danger signal! She found a sea snake. This underwater creature may be tiny, but its venom is twenty times more poisonous than any snake on land! It eats mostly small fish by paralyzing them first with one quick bite. It takes less than a second for its venom to work. The sea snake seems to be a little hungry, so we’ll move on.

哦，不，安妮在发出危险信号！她发现了一条海蛇。 这种水下生物多半很小，但它的毒液比陆地上的任何蛇都要毒20倍！ 它主要吃小鱼，先快速咬一口使它们麻痹。 它的毒液不到一秒钟就会起作用。 海蛇似乎有点饿，所以我们继续前进。