英美报刊，尤其是美国报刊，常用“客观”、“公正”来体现新闻报道的价值。即所谓：unprejudiced, unopinionated, uninvolved和unbiased.（不偏不倚，不予评论 ，不加参与，不带偏见）。因而一般作者对于文章探讨的主题是站在比较中立客观的角度去分析的。本文将精读原版英文报刊，从环境类话题的文章当中学习雅思阅读的考点。

文章标题：

Pop-up Island emerges from the sea after earthquake 震后海上突现小岛

文章考点：

①It could be mistaken for the legendary island of Atlantis, raised once again from the depths. ②Shortly after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook south-west Pakistan on Tuesday, a muddy mound appeared in the Arabian Sea, a kilometer from the coast.

句型解析：“It could be mistaken for......” 意为：它可能被误认为......

例句： “If you took some modern art out of a gallery and hung it in a primary school, it could be mistaken for children’s painting.”

译文：当你把一些现代艺术绘画从画廊中拿下，放在小学时，很有可能被误认为是小孩的涂鸦。

短语解析： “shortly after”意为：不久之后......

例句：Shortly after that race I got it in my head that I could run a marathon.

译文：在这次比赛后不久，我脑海中有了一个念头：我也许可以跑马拉松。

译文：它可能被误认为是传说中的从海洋深处再次升起的亚特兰蒂斯岛，周二巴基斯坦西南部地区发生的里氏7.7级地震发生后不久，一个离岸一公里的充满泥浆的土堆出现在阿拉伯海上。

The new landmass is reported to be about 80 meters long and up to 20 meters above sea level. It was formed by a mud volcano, a jet of mud, sand and water that reached the surface after the movement of tectonic plates. ③The earthquake would have liquefied subsea sediment, producing slurry that eventually ruptured the seabed and spewed out, creating the mound.

长难句解析：“would have liquified”为与过去事实相反的虚拟语气。Producing和creating一起并列作结果状语。That eventually ruptured the seabed and spewed out为定语从句，作后置定语修饰先行词slurry。

据报道，新的陆地大约有80米长，高达海平面以上20米。它是由地球板块移动之后，泥火山，喷射的泥浆，沙子和水到达地表后形成的。地震会液化海底沉积物，产生了泥浆，其最终从破裂的海底喷涌而出，形成了丘。

Beneath its muddy ④exterior, the new island also ⑤conceals gas. Rashid Tabriz, the director-general of Pakistan's National Institute of Oceanography in Karachi, says there are vast deposits of gas beneath the seabed. Heat from shifting tectonic plates caused it to expand, using gaps in the mud as escape routes. People who came to explore the island heard the hiss of escaping gas, which burst into flames when lit.

【exterior精讲】：exterior adj/n，意思为 “外部”，“外在的”。下边请看来自剑桥真题的例句： “This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior.”译文：这使得玻璃的外层在里边之前收缩和凝结。这里“Outer layer”改写为extetrior做为考点。[C5T4P2]

【conceal精讲】：conceal vt, 意思为“隐瞒，隐藏”。

例句： “Don't conceal the poverty of thought by the eccentric diction.”

译文：不要用这些怪僻的词藻来掩饰思想的贫乏。

其浑浊的外观之下也隐藏着气体。位于卡拉奇的巴基斯坦国家海洋研究所总干事Rashid Tabriz说“海床下蕴藏着大量的天然气”。地球板块的不停移动所产生的热量促使海床膨胀，泥浆中的缝隙成为了逃生路线。来探索岛屿的人会听到挥发性气体遇热后所产生火焰时的嘶嘶声响。

The fiery island is not likely to be permanent. It could sink back into the sea as the pressure that created it subsides, or its soft surface could be ⑥eroded away by the waves.

【erode精讲】：”The fertile land of the Nile deltais beingeroded along Egypt's Mediterranean coast at an astounding rate, in some parts estimated at
100 metres per year.”译文：尼罗河三角洲肥沃的土地正在2及境内地中海沿岸以惊人的速度发生水土流失的状况。[C5T3P3]

这个炽烈的岛屿不可能永存于世。随着它平息后产生的压力可能会再次沉入海洋当中，或者不堪一击的表面可能会被海浪侵蚀掉。