沙尘暴又来了

春天正是沙尘暴肆虐之时。可怕的沙尘暴几乎成了大自然给我们的 Irresistible Gift 。面对沙尘暴的危害，北京将如何去做？

A massive sandstorm has enveloped most of northern China, covering the capital Beijing in a shroud of dense dust and reducing visibility to less than 50 meters in some areas. The storm is the strongest and most intense this spring, and hit China's north on March with fierce winds.

一场巨大的沙尘暴席卷了华北大部分地区，将首都北京埋在厚厚的沙尘中，某些地区的能见度甚至低于 50 米 。 envelope ：包住，裹住； shroud ：遮蔽物，罩。

Sandstorms are frequent in spring, triggered by sudden seasonal temperature changes. It covers the entire city with layers of sand, and air transportation has been affected in the storm-hit regions, which spread from the west to east of northern China including Gansu and Ningxia provinces as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Therefore, many people wonder how much worse the weather will become when the spring sandstorms sweep into the mainland one after another.

trigger ：引发， 触发。
很多人担心当春季一场接一场的沙尘暴蔓延至内地后，天气将会糟糕成什么样子。 sweep into ：迅速蔓延到……。

In fact sandstorm has posed a serious threat to the air quality and environment. Sandstorms like these, which occurred in ancient times, are widely known among the herdsmen in Inner Mongolia as "Huang-mao-feng," meaning, "wind that carries yellow sand." In recent years, these sandstorms have occurred more frequently, at shorter intervals, and with greater intensity. A sandstorm on December 31st, 2000 was the first one to hit China in decades. Since then, there has been one every month. We cannot help but ask: is this a phenomenon purely powered by Mother Nature, an occurrence over which we have no control?

周期更短，强度更大。

我们不禁要问：沙尘暴是一种纯粹的大自然现象，是人类无法控制的事件吗？ Mother Nature ：指广义上的大自然； occurrence ：发生的事情，事件。

The fact is that sandstorms are caused largely by human actions-- mainly excessive herding and exploitation of the grasslands .  Under normal conditions, Inner Mongolia provides grazing for up to some forty million sheep; yet, as many as seventy million sheep have been feeding on that area recently. Because of the increasing price of goats' wool, herdsmen in Inner Mongolia have been hustling to raise goats-- a ruminant with a twenty-times greater potential than sheep to destroy the grasslands .

主要是过度放牧和对草原的过度开发引起的。 exploitation：（对资源等的）开发，开采。

grazing ：牧草，草场。

hustle ：赶紧，奔忙（做某事）。