2016年英语六级阅读：虫子吃光墨西哥湾泄漏甲烷

　　Follow-up cruises in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was plugged found that microorganismsconsumed all of the excess methane, reducing levels to background within about four months of the start of the spill,according to findings published recently。

　　“真是让⼈吃惊，”课题研究的带头⼈，得克萨斯⼤学的约翰·凯瑟勒在《科学》杂志上这样写道，“我们本来是认为仍旧有很多泄漏出来的甲烷在那⾥的，可事实是甲烷都消失了。”

　　“It was remarkable,\" said John Kessler of Texas A&M University in College Station, lead author of the study, in Science.\"We had gone out there assuming that there would be plenty of methane still there and the fact was that it was all gone.\"

　　甲烷吞噬微⽣物在科学已知的微⽣物族群⾥是占⽐的。团队探测到的氧⽓⽔平只能解释为甲烷的完全的被吞噬。这样的证据证实了是微⽣物使得泄漏的甲烷消失的。凯瑟勒说。“对于原油泄漏来说，这消息不错”，特别是甲烷是“深⽔地平线”钻井平台泄漏原油的组成部分。来源：考试⼤的美⼥编辑们

　　Methane-consuming microbes comprised the highest proportion researchers had ever seen in the overall microbialcommunity, and the oxygen levels the team measured could only be explained by complete consumption of the methane.This evidence supported the idea that it was microbes that made the methane disappear, Kessler said.\"For the oil spill, it wasa rather good story,\" he said, especially since methane was the largest component of the Deepwater Horizon spill。

　　海⾯以下有⼤量的甲烷，⼀种就可以含有所有陆地的化⽯燃料两倍的碳。⽐如说煤炭，⽯油和天然⽓，包括永远也不可能开采的那部分。甲烷是⼀种强有⼒的温室⽓体，是⼆氧化碳对温度升⾼效果的25倍。{来源：考{试⼤}

　　There are massive amounts of undersea methane. One type alone may hold double the carbon of all of the terrestrialfossil fuel, such as coal, oil and natural gas, including stores that could never be recovered. Methane is a powerful

greenhouse gas, contributing 25 times more toward warming than carbon dioxide, kilogram for kilogram over a century。

　　凯瑟勒表⽰，在地质学历⽔下的甲烷释放曾发⽣过，有时是喷发，有时是千万年地丝丝泄漏。并且⽓象学家已经表⽰⼀种⼤量的⽔下和甲烷结合的物质——像冰⼀样的被称为“可燃冰”，会随着⼤洋的变暖⽽变得可能融化⽽泄漏。

　　Underwater methane releases have occurred in geologic history, sometimes as big burps of gas and sometimes asseeps lasting hundreds or thousands of years, Kessler said. Also, climate scientists have suggested that releases of vaststores of one type of water-associated methane -- an ice-like form called methane clathrate -- could happen as warmingoceans allow some of these to melt。

　　尽管团队的发现表明甲烷吞噬微⽣物有潜在的吞噬⼤量泄漏的甲烷的可能。“但是我们不可能把这条规律应⽤到整个世界”。

　　While the team's findings suggest that methane-chomping microorganisms have the potential to consume largequantities of released methane, \"We can't generalize these findings to the greater planet,\" he said。