概括：内容选自老托福听力，是练习托福听力的绝佳材料。


好吧，我承认我是标题党。。
依旧是托福，依旧是听力
Today I want to discuss fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The term "fossil fuel" refers to the trapped remains of plants and animals in sedimentary rock. You see, living plants trap energy from the sun by the process of photosynthesis, and they store the energy in their chemical compounds. Most of that energy is released when the plant dies and decays. However, sometimes organic matter is buried before it decays completely. In this way some of the solar energy becomes trapped in rocks - hence the name "fossil fuel". Although the amount of organic matter trapped in any one growing season is small, the accumulated remains from millions of years are considerable. Because the accumulation rate is so slow - millions of times slower than the rate at which we now dig up this organic matter and burn it for energy. We must consider fossil fuels as nonrenewable resources. Tomorrow we'll be discussing alternatives to fossil fuels that can be renewed.
今天我想谈论化石燃料，例如煤，石油和天然气。“化石燃料”这个词指在沉积岩里动物和植物的遗体。你知道，生物通过光合作用存储太阳能。他们存储能量于化合物中。大多数能量在生物死亡和腐烂时流失。然而有时候在有机物完全腐烂之前就被埋于地下。就这样一部分太阳能就存储于岩石中，因此叫“化石燃料”。虽然有机物每一年都只能积累少量，但几百万年之后这个数字就很可观了。因为积累的速率非常慢，所以就算有百万年的时间也比不上我们现在挖出那些有机物然后烧了他们当能量的速率快。我们必须认识到化石燃料是不可再生能源。今后我们可能会探讨恢复化石燃料的可选方案。 ——译文来自: 蜗牛ke