一項在每天凌晨1點30分進行的、持續瞭10晚的實驗揭示瞭污染夜空的人造光的主要來源。
As well as obscuring our view of a naturally dark night sky with that all-too-familiar glow, artificial light can disrupt our sleep and affect our health. It also affects wildlife, disrupting the natural light-dark cycle that insects, birds and other animals are tuned into.
人造光源發出的熟悉的光亮不僅會模糊我們看夜晚漆黑天空的視線，它還會擾亂我們的睡眠，影響我們的健康。這種光亮還會影響野生動植物，擾亂昆蟲、鳥類和其它動物所遵循的黑白晝夜交替的周期。
To get to the root of the problem, the city of Tucson, Arizona, dimmed its 14,000 streetlights while researchers used a satellite to measure the effect. Capturing an image of the city at 01:30 every morning revealed that 80% of the urban light that was wasted by being beamed upward into space was from non-streetlight sources, including billboards, signs, floodlights, and facades.
為瞭找到問題的根源，美國亞利桑那州圖森市調暗瞭1.4萬盞路燈，與此同時研究人員使用人造衛星來測量其影響。人造衛星在每天凌晨1點30分拍攝一張該城市的圖像，結果發現，80%的城市光因被射向天空而被浪費掉，這些光亮來自非路燈光源，包括大型廣告牌、招牌、泛光燈和建築物立面。
The International Dark Sky Association estimates that unnecessary or inefficient artificial light wastes about three billion US Dollars every year. Turning it off could reduce our energy consumption while most of us are fast asleep.
國際暗天協會（The International Dark Sky Association）估計，不必要或低效的人造光源每年浪費約30億美元。在我們大多數人熟睡時，關掉這類照明設備可以減少能源消耗。
詞匯表
obscuring 遮擋，遮蔽
glow 光亮
artificial light 人造光源
dimmed 調暗瞭
streetlights 街燈，路燈
satellite 人造衛星
beamed 發光，射出
billboards 大型廣告牌
floodlights 泛光燈
facades 建築物的立面
turning off 關掉，關閉
energy consumption 能源消耗
閱讀理解：請在讀完上文後，回答下列問題。
1. True or false? Artificial light can affect both humans and wild animals.
2. Which city did researchers look at?
3. What were the main sources of urban light at night, according to the study?
4. What could turning off unnecessary and inefficient artificial light do?
答案
1. True or false? Artificial light can affect both humans and wild animals.
True. Artificial light can disrupt our sleep and affect our health. It can also disrupt the light-dark cycle that some wild animals are tuned into.
2. Which city did researchers look at?
They looked at the city of Tucson in Arizona.
3. What were the main sources of urban light at night, according to the study?
They were non-streetlight sources, including billboards, signs, floodlights, and facades.
4. What could turning off unnecessary and inefficient artificial light do?
It could reduce energy consumption while most of us are fast asleep.
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