海底古森林重見天日

Ancient Underwater Forest Discovered Off Norfolk Coast

Rob Spray knows the 1）North Norfolk coastline incredibly well. He and his partner， Dawn Watson， have spent years studying the coast under the water. They brought the existence of the world’s largest 2）chalk reef off the coast here to the attention of the world. Now they’ve made a new discovery.

Rob and Dawn dive off the North Norfolk coast to study reefs and marine life， and what they discovered recently 3）sent shivers down their spines.

David Whiteley （Reporter）： So you found something that said to you， this is， this is incredible.

Dawn： Yeah.

David： A bit like 4）finding a needle in a haystack.

Dawn： Well， yeah！ I was really lucky. I just clipped the very end of what we know is there now. If I’d been three or four metres to the right， we’d never have seen it at all. I’d have just come back to…it’s just sand. To start with， I actually thought it was a piece of wreck， because it was， it just looked like a piece of 5）hull. It wasn’t until I had a really close look that I realized it was actually solid wood.

David： So what did you find？

Dawn： It’s the remains of a forest， uh， probably oak trees that have been knocked flat， 6）presumably by a 7）outwash from a glacier or something， but this first part we came to was just all compressed together into a， a big solid lump of wood.

David： What has happened to， to this exposed timber since？

Rob： Well， as soon as anything so hard is exposed， animal life just rushes to it， so we have lots of little animals moving in and we’ve had…then had big animals come in and feed on them. They’d loved the， the， sort of， the material the trees were made of， and that’s the kind of thing that only happens when you get a new opportunity available for animals. They come in， they colonize， and they flourish.

This discovery actually forms part of a much bigger picture. A prehistoric land once existed right here in the North Sea. It was so vast the hunter-gatherers who lived here would have been able to walk all the way to Germany. So with every discovery， like these trees， it gives scientists more of an idea of what life would have been like on this mysterious lost land.

羅布·斯普雷對北諾福克的海岸線了如指掌。多年來，他和搭檔道恩·沃森一直對海岸情況進行水下研究。就是他倆在這片海岸成功發(fā)現(xiàn)世界上最長的白堊礁帶，引起了全世界的關(guān)注。如今，他們又帶來了一個新發(fā)現(xiàn)。

羅布和道恩在北諾福克海岸潛水，研究礁石和海洋生物。他們被最近的發(fā)現(xiàn)驚得倒抽了一口涼氣。

戴維·懷特利（記者）：所以你看到的東西讓你意識到……這是個了不起的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

道恩：是的。

戴維：有點像大海撈針的感覺。

道恩：嗯，是的！我真的非常走運。我當(dāng)時剛好碰到了我們這個發(fā)現(xiàn)物的最邊上。如果我向右邊偏離了三四米的話，我們就完全不會注意到它。我就會回到這里……覺得那不過是沙地罷了。剛開始時，我其實以為它是一塊殘骸，因為它……看上去就像是船體的一部分。直到我在近距離觀察了一番，才意識到它其實是塊實木。

戴維：所以你找到的是什么呢？

道恩：那是一片森林的遺跡，呃，可能是一片被放倒的橡樹林，大概是被冰川之類帶來的沉積物推倒的；而我們發(fā)現(xiàn)的只是前端部分，這些樹木全都被壓在一起，成了一大塊堅實的木頭。

戴維：在那之后，這塊暴露出來的木頭會發(fā)生什么變化呢？

羅布：噢，這么堅硬的東西一旦暴露出來，動物就會蜂擁而至。很多小動物會搬進去住，我們就……接著體型較大的動物就會過來捕食小動物。它們喜歡這種……樹木的成分。只有在動物找到新的棲息地時才會發(fā)生這種情形。它們來到這里，它們在此定居，它們繁衍生息。