消失18年的塑料鸭在警示我们什么？

较难

初中二年级

记叙文

世界与环境

13岁的菲利普无意中发现了一只看似普通的塑料鸭子，这只鸭子躺在沙滩上，显得格外引人注目，它的背部印着“2006年爱尔兰鸭子比赛”。他深入调查这只鸭子的历史，渐渐地，一个不为人知的故事浮出水面。

Filip,13, found what he thought was a normal plastic (塑料的) duck on his local beach in the Orkney Islands. But it turns out the little plastic duck has quite a backstory. After considering “throwing it away”, Filip and his mum Marion looked closer and discovered that it’s been missing for nearly two decades (十年) after disappearing from its home. “It said world record duck race, Ireland 2006,” Marion said. “After so many years in the sea, it has even still got its number on the back!”

13岁的菲利普在奥克尼群岛当地的海滩上发现了一只他认为是普通塑料鸭的东西。但事实证明，这只塑料小鸭子有一个很好的背景故事。在考虑“把它扔掉”后，菲利普和他的妈妈玛丽恩走近一看，发现它从家中消失后已经失踪了近20年。马里恩说：“上面写着2006年爱尔兰鸭子比赛”。“在海里呆了这么多年，它甚至背上还有它的号码！”

In 2006, people came together in Ireland’s capital city, Dublin, to try and break the world record for the largest ever plastic duck race. Around 150,000 ducks were released, with the plan being that they would travel one mile down the River Liffey. Well it’s safe to say that one of these rubber ducks went rather “off-quack” by at least 423 miles. That’s a small estimate of how far the duck would have travelled to get to Stronsay, one of Scotland’s remote islands in Orkney, where it washed up on a beach.

2006年，人们聚集在爱尔兰首都都柏林，试图打破有史以来规模最大的塑料鸭比赛的世界纪录。大约有15万只鸭子被放生，计划是它们沿着利菲河顺流而下一英里。可以肯定地说，其中一只橡皮鸭“嘎嘎”地跑了至少423英里。这是对这只鸭子到达苏格兰奥克尼偏远岛屿之一的斯特朗塞岛所需路程的一个小估计，在那里它被冲上了海滩。

While duck races can be fun, there is a more serious side to them when plastic is released into the water and not collected. Because plastic doesn’t easily biodegrade (生物降解), it can hang around for ages polluting seas and oceans where it can harm the animals and plants living there.

虽然鸭子比赛可能很有趣，但当塑料被释放到水中而没有被收集时，比赛还有更严重的一面。因为塑料不容易生物降解，它可以长期存在，污染海洋，伤害生活在那里的动物和植物。

Generally speaking, a plastic bag takes around 20 years to biodegrade, and for a plastic bottle this can take up to 250 years. This is why many rubber duck races now make sure to collect their ducks before they compete for freedom. Maybe it’s time to leave the swimming to the real-life ducks.

一般来说，一个塑料袋大约需要20年的时间才能生物降解，而一个塑料瓶可能需要250年的时间。这就是为什么现在许多橡皮鸭比赛在争夺自由之前一定要收集它们的鸭子。也许是时候把游泳留给现实生活中的鸭子了？