The ocean is a beautiful and amazing place that we should strive to protect under any circumstances, but to do so, we must understand one of the biggest causes of ecological harm to the sea, oil spills. Imagine you’re a dolphin, swimming blissfully through the cooling and refreshing water, and you suddenly see a massive splotch of darkness ahead of you. You presume it to be merely some cloud or some other optic obstruction, so you rise up for a breath. In a sudden, all that refreshing water suddenly becomes disgustingly sticky grease, clinging to every bit of your body, and seemingly impossible to get off. Your breath gets slowly more and more constrained, as your vision grows dimmer and dimmer. You try to swim away from whatever painful poison you’ve just come in contact with, but your body won’t let you, almost as if you were immobilized by some ferocious predator that you never even saw. You feel your body shut down, as your breathing no longer works, the once cooling and comforting water now fills your lungs and something that was once your blissful jubilance suddenly spells your demise. That is exactly what happens to hundreds of thousands of animals every year due to the haphazard handling of crude oil done by careless companies to save a couple of dollars.

On December 15th, 2024, a Russian oil tanker was cruising through the seas’ crashing waves during a winter storm, sent into this dire situation in spite of its age and the brutal storm raging around it because of the operating company wanting to please its investors, and oil production and shipping being quite lucrative, the boat barely managed to stay afloat, and it made its way all the way from Russia to the Kerch Strait, which separated the Kerch Peninsula from mainland Crimea, and connects to the Black Sea, until suddenly, the ship snapped in two, and 2,400 tones of oil it was carrying spilled right into the once beautifully blue ocean, and turned the Black Sea quite literally black. This incident killed one crew member, and a countless number of marine life. The sanctity of life tainted in a literal sense by a dark substance that seeps its way into everything beautiful and poisons it with death and demise. None of this would’ve happened if proper precautions were taken; the oil tanker that was used and crashed was made in 1969, with the average lifespan of an oil tanker being 20 years when generous, but alas, it was more profitable for the company to not replace this ship, and rather still use it even in these most wretched situations.

In conclusion, we as people shouldn’t allow companies to put life in harms way to earn a couple more dollars, and should be much more aware of massive ecological disasters like these, and consider the meaningless loss of life, even that of animals to be absolutely horrible, we as a population should take a stance against the abhorrent decision of so many companies to cut corners and put the environment at risk. The world can and should be aware of the environment and what we should do to protect it. In the simplest terms, we should do what we can to preserve the environment and protect the creatures in it.

Vocabulary 

。        strive努力

。        ecological生態的

。        blissfully幸福地

。        splotch污點

。        optic光學的

。        obstruction 障礙物

。        constrained 受限制的

。        immobilized 無法動彈的

。        ferocious 兇猛的

。        jubilance 歡欣

。        demise 死亡

。        haphazard 隨意的

。        crude 原油的

。        dire 可怕的

。        lucrative 有利可圖的

。        sanctity 神聖

。        tainted 污染的

。        seeps 滲透

。        precautions 預防措施

。        wretched 可憐的

。        ecological 生態的

。        stance 立場

。        abhorrent 可惡的

。        preserve 保護

Phrases

。        save a couple of dollars 省錢

。        dire situation危急情況

。        in spite of 儘管

。        sanctity of life 生命的神聖性

。        cut corners 偷工減料

Questions

Question 1: What is the main problem in the story?

A) Bad weather

B) Oil in the ocean

C) Old boats

D) Expensive ships

Correct Answer: B

Question 2: Why did the boat keep working even though it was old?

A) It was still very strong

B) The captain really liked it

C) To save money

D) The government said so

Correct Answer: C

Question 3: How are most of the marine animals in the story affected?

A) They swam away safely

B) They were fine with it

C) Many animals died from the oil

D) They helped clean the ocean

Correct Answer: C

中文翻譯如下：

海洋石油洩漏──被忽視的摧毀者

海洋是美麗且令人驚嘆的地方，我們無論如何都應該盡力保護它。然而，要做到這一點，我們必須了解海洋生態破壞的最大原因之一——石油洩漏。想像你是一隻海豚，快樂地在清涼的海水中游泳，突然前方出現了一大塊黑色污點。你以為那只是雲朵或其他視覺障礙，所以浮出水面換氣。可是，當你下潛時，原本清新的水變成了又黏又油的黑色液體，緊緊黏住你的每一寸皮膚，怎麼也洗不乾淨。你的呼吸越來越困難，視線也漸漸模糊。你試著游開，但身體似乎被某種看不見的力量束縛住，根本無法移動。你的身體慢慢無力，呼吸也停滯，曾經涼爽舒適的水現在灌滿了你的肺，曾經的快樂瞬間變成了死亡的預兆。這就是每年因石油洩漏而喪命的數十萬動物的悲慘遭遇，這一切都源自於一些公司為了省錢，對石油處理的疏忽。

2024年12月15日，一艘俄羅斯油輪在冬季風暴中航行。這艘船因為年久失修，竟在惡劣的天氣中仍堅持航行，完全是為了迎合投資者的需求。這艘船從俄羅斯出發，艱難行駛穿越凱爾特海峽，最終進入黑海。就在此時，油輪突然斷裂，船上2400噸的原油洩漏進海，將本來湛藍的黑海染成一片漆黑。這次事故造成一名船員喪命，也奪走了無數海洋生物的生命。原本潔淨的海洋因為這場災難變得污濁，所有美麗的生命都被毒害。如果當初採取適當的預防措施，這一切本應避免。這艘油輪建於1969年，而一般油輪的使用年限大約是20年，但為了追求更高的利潤，這家公司繼續使用這艘已經過時的油輪，直到發生這場災難。

總而言之，我們不應該允許企業為了獲利而將生命置於危險之中。我們應該更加關注這類巨大的生態災難，並對這些無意義的生命損失感到痛心，特別是動物的死亡。我們每個人都應該站出來，反對這些企業的不負責任行為，保護我們的環境。世界應該對環境問題保持警覺，我們應該做出努力來保護它。簡單來說，我們每個人都應該盡自己的一份力，保護這片海洋，保護其中的生命。