離開
進入《中英對照讀新聞》’Serengeti Highway’ threatens E.Africa’s great migration 「塞倫蓋提公路」威脅東非動物大遷徙
◎俞智敏
A project to build a road gashing through Tanzania’s Serengeti park could put pay to one of the planet’s greatest natural spectacles： the annual great wildebeest migration.
一項打算貫穿坦尚尼亞塞倫蓋提國家公園的道路工程計畫，很可能讓地球上最偉大的自然奇觀之一，也就是每年牛羚大遷徙就此消失。
Millions of herbivores migrate from the Serengeti to Kenya’s adjacent Maasai Mara each year, but the construction due to begin next year of a tarmacked road could see the migration stopped in its tracks by queues of steaming lorries.
數百萬計的食草動物每年自塞倫蓋提遷徙至位於肯亞境內、鄰近的馬賽馬拉動物保護區，但預定明年開始興建的一條柏油路，卻可能讓這場大遷徙活生生地遭貨運卡車車陣給切斷。
The Serengeti Highway is supposed to link Musoma, on the banks of Lake Victoria, to Arusha, cutting through a swathe of park into which giant herds of wildebeests bottleneck every summer to seek Kenya’s pastures.
塞倫蓋提公路預定要連結維多利亞湖畔的穆索馬與另一座城市阿魯沙，但公路將穿越一大片公園園區，而大群牛羚每年夏天都要經過此處到肯亞啃食青草。
Conservationists warn the road will disfigure the park and kill the migration while the project’s proponents argue it is high time the state started caring for its people as much as it does for wildlife.
保育人士警告說，這條公路將使國家公園面目全非，並危及動物遷徙，但計畫支持者則主張，政府老早就應該開始像保護野生動物那樣照顧人民的福祉了。
President Jakaya Kikwete made the road a campaign pledge in 2005 and has reiterated his support this year.
坦國總統基奎特在2005年競選期間承諾要興建公路，今年他又再度重申支持建這條公路。
The two wildlife reserves, separated by the Mara river, form one ecosystem and are home to a migration which happens nowhere else in the world on the same scale, and was voted in 2008 one of the "new seven wonders of the world".
這兩處野生動物保護區被馬拉河分隔開來，但卻屬於同一個生態系統，當地的動物遷徙規模之龐大更為全球所僅見，2008年時曾被票選為「世界新七大奇觀」之一。
新聞辭典
put paid to sth：片語，主要為英國與澳洲用語，指突然停止、終止某事。如A serious back injury put paid to her tennis career.（她的網球生涯因嚴重背傷而告終。）
stop （someone） in their tracks：片語，指因為驚訝而突然止住腳步或停止做某事，也常寫做stop someone/something （dead） in their/its tracks，如A loud scream stopped me dead in my tracks. （一聲尖叫讓我當場停下腳步。）或The memo was supposed to stop the protest in its tracks.（這份備忘錄理應讓示威活動就此打住。）
it’s high time：片語，非正式用語，也可寫做it’s about time，指早就應該做某事的時候，如It was high time someone invited me to lunch. （老早就該有人邀請我來吃午飯了。）
