迪拜旋转摩天大楼造价（迪拜的摩天大楼消失在漫天黄沙里）
迪拜旋转摩天大楼造价（迪拜的摩天大楼消失在漫天黄沙里）[Paragraph 2]The sky turned orange and the hospitals turned frenetic. Thousands of Iraqis descended on emergency rooms complaining that they could not breathe. Some had to be put on respirators. Businesses told workers to stay at home schools closed and airports cancelled flights. Life came to a halt amid a swirl of dust.Sand by meAs a dry region gets drier sandstorms grow more frequent[Paragrap
《经济学人》：迪拜的摩天大楼消失在漫天黄沙里？原文标题：
Sandstorms
A harrowing haze
Dust from the desert is a growing threat to lives and livelihoods
Sand by me
As a dry region gets drier sandstorms grow more frequent
[Paragraph 1]
The sky turned orange and the hospitals turned frenetic. Thousands of Iraqis descended on emergency rooms complaining that they could not breathe. Some had to be put on respirators. Businesses told workers to stay at home schools closed and airports cancelled flights. Life came to a halt amid a swirl of dust.
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Such scenes have occurred almost weekly in Iraq since April. In decades past two or three big sandstorms were expected every year. This spring Iraq has already logged at least eight including the one on May 16th that put some 4 000 people in hospital. Two people died across the border in Syria. The more frequent storms are causing misery for millions and doing billions of dollars in damage.
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Sandstorms have always been a fact of life in the region. The Sahara the world’s largest hot desert and the Arabian one which ranks third are not short of sand. Every year the wind whisks some 60m tonnes of Saharan dust as far away as the Caribbean. In some countries dry dusty winds are common enough to merit a name. Gulf Arabs have the shamal which sweeps in from the north-west. Towering skyscrapers in cities like Dubai and Manama Bahrain’s capital vanish behind a curtain of grit. Egyptians call theirs khamsin Arabic for 50 since it tends to blow for about that many days in spring. It can bring enough of the Sahara to blot out the sun.
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Scientists say dust storms are complex and poorly understood but their main causes are natural. In 2015 many people blamed a fierce summer storm in the Levant on Syria’s civil war thinking that armoured cars bouncing through fields kicked up enough dust to blanket the region. Researchers at Princeton University later cited a more prosaic mix of unusual heat and wind—gusts not gunners.
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Still people plainly contribute to the problem. Demand for water is making an arid region even drier. A World Bank study in 2019 found that human actions such as over-exploiting rivers and lakes produce a quarter of the Middle East’s dust. Iran has drained wetlands for farming. Saddam Hussein dried out the marshes of southern Iraq to punish their inhabitants. Turkish dams on the Tigris and Euphrates mean drier riverbeds downstream.
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All of this means more dust to be swept up by the wind. The shrinking of the region’s meagre forests because of fires and logging means there is less vegetation to hold it back. Syria for example has lost an estimated 25% of its woodland since 2001 most of it to summer blazes. Climate change will exacerbate the problem.
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For those lucky enough to be healthy and indoors sandstorms are a nuisance. Newcomers to Cairo who leave a window open to catch the spring breeze soon learn a gritty lesson. For those who work outside they make life intolerable. Delivery drivers venture forth like extras from a Mad Max film kitted out in scarves and ski goggles.
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Some studies have found that more than 10% of Saudis have asthma a high prevalence caused at least partly by dust. Sandstorms bring tiny particles that travel deep into the lungs. The World Health Organisation says any more than five micrograms per cubic metre is unhealthy. Qataris breathe in eight times that. The World Bank estimates that air pollution causes 30 000 premature deaths a year in the Middle East—and rising.
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Economic costs will mount too. Workers stay at home. Crops are buried under dust. Airports often cancel flights. The un puts the direct economic cost in the Middle East at $13bn a year with indirect costs many times bigger. Occasional dust storms are an inconvenience; more frequent ones will be a pestilence.
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量654左右）
原文出自：2022年5月21日《经济学人》Middle East & Africa版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理：Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
沙尘暴（sand-dust storm）是沙暴（sand storm）和尘暴（dust storm）的总称，是荒漠化的标志。是指强风从地面卷起大量沙尘，使水平能见度小于1千米，具有突发性和持续时间较短特点的概率小危害大的灾害性天气现象。其中沙暴是指大风把大量沙粒吹入近地层所形成的挟沙风暴；尘暴则是大风把大量尘埃及其他细颗粒物卷入高空所形成的风暴。沙尘暴是风蚀荒漠化中的一种天气现象，它的形成受自然因素和人类活动因素的共同影响。自然因素包括大风、降水减少及其沙源。人类活动因素是指人类在发展经济过程中对植被的破坏以后，导致沙尘暴爆发频数增加。沙尘暴天气主要发生在冬春季节这是由于冬春季半干旱和干旱区降水甚少，地表极其干燥松散，抗风蚀能力很弱，当有大风刮过时，就会有大量沙尘被卷入空中，形成沙尘暴天气。
夏马风 （shamal ， 阿拉伯语：شمال，'north'）是吹向伊拉克和波斯湾国家的一股西北风。当北极的极地急流向南移动时，遇到南方的亚热带的喷流两股气流流的接近形成了干燥冷缝，从而形成夏马风，被土耳其和伊拉克的山脉输送到，波斯湾、沙特阿拉伯的西南高原，逐渐形成一股又冷又强劲的风暴，这股风往往会给伊拉克附近地区带来大型的沙尘暴，沙尘暴有几千英尺深，风速可达70公里/小时。大部分的夏马风会在夏季，偶尔会发生在冬季。一般情况下，白天通常很强，但晚上减弱，这种天气在一年里会出现一次或多次，每年伊拉克地区至少有20至50天，是过着沙尘暴趋势下粉尘满布的日子。
《疯狂的麦克斯：狂暴之路》是华纳兄弟电影公司于2015年出品的一部动作电影，该片由乔治·米勒执导，汤姆·哈迪、查理兹·塞隆和尼古拉斯·霍尔特等联袂主演。影片讲述前公路巡警麦克斯（汤姆·哈迪饰）成为了费罗莎指挥官（查理兹·塞隆饰）战车的司机，并且带着五个女人横穿沙漠逃难的故事。
【重点句子】（3个）
Life came to a halt amid a swirl of dust.
The more frequent storms are causing misery for millions and doing billions of dollars in damage.
Still people plainly contribute to the problem. Demand for water is making an arid region even drier.
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