Scientists unveil the mystery of Lop Nor

时间：2007-06-22 06:04:37

（单词翻译:单击）

Chinanews, Beijing, June 22 – Since the mid1 19th century, many scientists have gone on expeditions to Lop Nor Lake, including the Italian, Marco Polo, the Swedish Sven Anders Hedin, and Chinese Peng Jiamu. In order to unveil the mysteries of the Lop Nor Lake, which is dubbed2 the “dead sea”, the People’s Daily reported.

 

In Mid June, a group of Chinese scientists published the result of their studies about the environmental and geological changes of the Lop Nor Lake in Beijing. Their studies have passed experts’ appraisal3.

 

The group headed by Xia Xuncheng, a renowned4 Chinese expert, consists of many academicians such as Sun Honglie, Liu Dongsheng, Sun Shu, and Ye Danian. Their findings will play a significant role in boosting the studies of the Lop Nor Lake.

 

In the last century, the Swedish adventurer Sven Hedin once concluded that Lop Nor was a moving lake. It moved from north to south and from south to north. A complete cycle for such movement lasted for 1,500 years.

 

With the latest expeditions, however, Xia Xuncheng and his team found that the lake was not moving. Although much of the bed in the lake was eroded5 by wind, the location of the water in the lake had not changed much over years. The scientists found that the water in the lake had changed as its water system nearby had.

 

Now the lake has dried up. The bed of the lake is very much like the shape of a human ear when seen from the pictures taken by satellites in space. Due to this reason, Lop Nor Lake has a nickname “big ear”. How did the lake take the shape as it is seen today? The question has also aroused heated discussions among scientists.

 

When Xia and his team placed the shape of the “big ear” onto a hypsographic map, they found that its shape coincided with the 780-meter contour line for the lake. On this contour line, the area of the lake reached 5,350 square kilometers.

 

With this finding, Xia and his team concluded that the shape of Lop Nor Lake was formed when it shrunk substantially during the 1960s. The shrinking process lasted for 4-5 years.

 

In 1901, Sven Hedin discovered the Lou;an Ancient Town with the help of a local guide. This was regarded as a great discovery of the time.

 

To Xia and his team, the fall of the Loulan Ancient Town was attributable to basically two factors: lack of water and the town’s diminishing role in transportation. Way back in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 25), Loulan had been a very important transportation hub, when food and water were delivered via the city. The Han emperors even stationed troops there to guard the fontier and farmers reclaimed6 wasteland for crop cultivation7. All this made Loulan Ancient Town become very prosperous. The ancient town once served as an important gateway8 along the ancient Silk Road. However, in later years, people traveled to the Western Regions (present Xinjiang and parts of Central Asia) via the southern slope of the Tianshan Mountains. Over time, the ancient town had ceased to be no longer an important transportation hub.

 

Another reason that contributed to the fall of the Loulan Ancient Town was that the town was built on the lower reaches of a river called the Peacock River. As the river changed greatly from one year to another, this greatly affected9 the lives of people living nearby. In the end, many people moved out of the region to resettle in other places, so it has since become an off-the-map place

 
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1 mid doTzSB     
adj.中央的，中间的
参考例句：
  • Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
  • He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。
2 dubbed dubbed     
v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制
参考例句：
  • Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
  • Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 appraisal hvFzt     
n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估
参考例句：
  • What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
  • We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。
4 renowned okSzVe     
adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的
参考例句：
  • He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
  • She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。
5 eroded f1d64e7cb6e68a5e1444e173c24e672e     
adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句：
  • The cliff face has been steadily eroded by the sea. 峭壁表面逐渐被海水侵蚀。
  • The stream eroded a channel in the solid rock. 小溪在硬石中侵蚀成一条水道。
6 reclaimed d131e8b354aef51857c9c380c825a4c9     
adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救
参考例句：
  • Many sufferers have been reclaimed from a dependence on alcohol. 许多嗜酒成癖的受害者已经被挽救过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They reclaimed him from his evil ways. 他们把他从邪恶中挽救出来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
7 cultivation cnfzl     
n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成
参考例句：
  • The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
  • The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。
8 gateway GhFxY     
n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法
参考例句：
  • Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
  • A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。
9 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的，假装的
参考例句：
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

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