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Natural Resources（自然资源）
中国幅员辽阔，自然资源非常丰富。中国各类型土地资源都有分布，水能资源居世界第四位，是世界上拥有野生动物种类最多的国家之一，几乎具有北半球的全部植被类型，矿产资源丰富，品种齐全。
中国是世界资源大国和资源性产品生产大国之一。长期以来，主要依靠本国的资源开发，成功地实现了发展经济的目标。中国以不到世界10％的耕地养育了世界22％的人口，依靠矿产资源为全社会提供了95％的一次能源、80％的工业原材料、70％以上的农业生产资料，海洋资源的开发利用正在成为国民经济新的增长点。
1 中国自然资源常识介绍
The composition and distribution of China's land resources have three major characteristics: (1) variety in type—cultivated land, forests, grasslands, deserts and tide-land; (2) many more mountains and plateaus than flatlands and basins; (3) unbalanced distribution: farmland mainly concentrate in the east, grasslands largely in the west and north, and forests mostly in the far northeast and southwest.
In China today, 108 million ha of land are cultivated, mainly in the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, the Pearl River Delta Plain and the Sichuan Basin. The fertile black soil of the Northeast Plain is ideal for growing wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans, flax and sugar beets.
The deep, brown topsoil of the North China Plain in planted with wheat, corn, millet, sorghum and cotton. The Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain's many lakes and rivers make it particularly suitable for paddy rice and freshwater fish, hence its designation of "land of fish and rice." This area also produces large quantities of tea and silkworms. The purplish soil of the warm and humid Sichuan Basin is green with crops in all four seasons, including paddy rice, rapeseed and tangerines.
Forests blanket 128,63 million ha of China. The Greater Hinggan（大兴安岭）, the Lesser Hinggan and the Changbai mountain ranges in the northeast are China's largest natural forest areas. Major tree species found here include conifers, such as Korea pine, larch and Olga Bay larch, and the broadleaves such as white birch, oak, willow, elm and Northeast China ash.
Major tree species of the southwest include the dragon spruce, fir and Yunnan pine, as well as precious teak trees, red sandalwood, camphor trees, nanmu and padauk. Often called a "kingdom of plants", Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan Province is a rarity in that it is a tropical broadleaf forest playing host to more than 5,000 plant species.
Grasslands in China cover an area of 400 million ha, stretching more than 3,000 km from the northeast to the southwest. They are the centers of animal husbandry. The Inner Mongolian Prairie is China's largest natural pastureland, and home to Sanhe horses, Sanhe cattle and Mongolian sheep.
The famous natural pasturelands north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang are ideal for stock breeding. The famous Ili horses(伊犁马) and Xinjiang fine-wool sheep are raised here.
China's cultivated lands, forest and grasslands are among the world's largest in terms of total area. But due to China's large population, the areas of cultivated land, forest and grassland per capita are small, especially in the case of 
cultivated land—less than 0.08 ha per capita, or only one third of the world's average.
China is rich in mineral resources, and all the world's known minerals can be found here. To date, geologists have confirmed reserves of 151 different minerals, putting China third in the world in total reserves. Proven reserves of energy sources include coal, petroleum, natural gas, and oil shale; and radioactive minerals include uranium and thorium.
China's coal reserves total 1,002.49 billion tons, and are mainly distributed in north China, with Shanxi and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region taking the lead. Petroleum reserves are mainly in northwest and also in northeast China, north China and the continental shelves in east China. Proven reserves of ferrous metals include iron, manganese, vanadium and titanium.
China's 46.35 billion 
tons of iron ore are mainly distributed in northeast, north and southwest China. The Anshan-Benxi Area in Liaoning, east Hebei and Panzhihua in Sichuan are major iron producers. China has the world's largest reserves of tungsten, tin, antimony, zinc, molybdenum, lead, mercury and other nonferrous metals; its reserves of rare earth metals far exceed the total for the rest of the world.
2 与中国自然资源有关的术语
1．主要的资源种类
《辞海》对自然资源的定义为：指天然存在的自然物（不包括人类加工制造的原材料）如土地资源、矿产资源、水利资源、生物资源、气候资源等，是生产的原料来源和布局场所。主要的自然资源种类有：
矿产资源 mineral resources
土地资源 land resources
水资源 water resources
气候资源 climatic resources
生物资源 biological resources
可再生自然资源 renewable resources
不可再生资源 nonrenewable resources
能源 energy
矿产 minerals
森林 forest
2．几种常见的能源矿产种类
煤炭 coal
铁 iron
铅 lead
银 silver
3 让我们谈谈中国自然资源
Jack: Let's talk about China's natural resources. 杰克：我们来说说中国的自然资源吧。
Daisy: China's land resources are very rich and there is a great variety in type- cultivated land, forests, grasslands, and deserts. 黛西：中国的土地资源非常丰富，种类繁多，有耕地、森林、草地、沙漠等。
Jack: China's water resources are also rich, and can rank Number Four in the world. 杰克：中国的水资源也很丰富，在世界上可以排到第四位。
Daisy: In China, various natural resources are all very rich. But since China has a large population, its rank of per capita resources in the world is very low. 黛西：中国各种各样的资源都非常丰富，但是中国的人口太多，所以人均资源在世界的排名还是很低的。
Jack: So it is. 杰克：这倒也是。
Daisy: Take the water resource for example. Although China's total water resources are ranked Number Four in the world, its per capita resources are just one fourth of that of the world. And it is one of the countries which lack water. 黛西：譬如说水资源，虽然中国的排名是世界第四，但是中国的人均仅为世界平均水平的1/4，是全球人均水资源最贫乏的国家之一。
Jack: Is it true? Is it really so serious? 杰克：真的吗？有那么严重吗？
Daisy: Yes, it is. Now, the biggest issue is water. 黛西：有的。现在最大的问题我觉得就是水资源问题。
Jack: Why? 杰克：为什么呢？
Daisy: Because China is on the way of fast development, the pollution is very serious. 黛西：因为中国现在正在迅速发展，污染特别严重。
Jack: Many rivers and lakes have also been polluted. 杰克：很多河流和湖泊都被污染了。
Daisy: And China has a marked continental monsoonal climate. Therefore, droughts often happen in autumn and winter times. 黛西：而且中国是典型的季风性季候，这样的话，秋冬季的时候特别容易发生旱灾。
Jack: During the Spring Festival, when I was watching TV news, I heard a news report saying that the drought in the north this year was very serious. 杰克：今年过年的时候，我在看新闻，新闻上说今年北方的旱灾特别严重。
Daisy: Yes, so we have to protect our water resource. When the climate is dry, the water conservation is even more important. 黛西：是的，所以我们要保护水资源。天气干旱的时候，保存水资源更加重要。
4 再多学点单词吧！
★composition n. 作文，作曲；［材］构成；合成物
The secret is the composition of the hairpin's turn.
秘密就在于发夹型分子的螺旋结构。
★topsoil n. 表层土；上层土
This topsoil tends to wash away.
表层土壤要冲掉了。
★mineral adj. 矿物的；矿质的
The experts say the wax can be softened by mineral oil, glycerin or eardrops.
专家们说耳蜡可以通过矿物油、甘油或者滴耳剂进行软化。
★total n. 总数，合计
The sum total of innumerable relative truths constitute absolute truth.
无数相对的真理的总和就是绝对的真理。
