Millions of Trees on Fire
森林火灾
In South-east Asia, thousands of hectares of forests are still on fire.
在东南亚，成千上万公顷的森林火灾仍在继续。
The smog from the fire has already caused hundreds of deaths and illnesses.
大火燃烧冒出的浓烟已经导致了上百人或死亡、或生病。
Our reporter, Penny Wang, is there and has this report.
我们的记者，潘尼·王在前线为我们报道。
It's now just three in the afternoon, but it seems like night-time.
现在只是下午三点钟，但是看起来已经像晚上了。
A thick smog is covering most of the countries in South-east Asia.
一股浓烟正在笼罩着东南亚大部分国家。
Many people are wearing masks to cover their mouths and noses.
许多人都戴着面具遮挡自己的嘴巴和鼻子。
Thousands are suffering from eye or breathing problems.
上千人患有着眼睛或呼吸疾病。
One doctor told me that living in this smog is like smoking 600 cigarettes a day.
一位医生告诉我，在这样的浓烟下生活，就好比一天抽600支烟。
The fires are still burning. There are 8,500 firefighters trying to put out the fires,
大火仍在继续燃烧着。8500名消防员试图扑灭大火，
and another 2,000 are coming from around the world to help them.
还有2000名消防员正从世界各地赶过来帮助他们。
But the fires are too big to put out.
但是火太大了，很难扑灭。
The only thing that can extinguish them now is lots of rain-and rain is not expected for several weeks.
只有一样东西可以现在灭火，就是大量的雨水，但好几星期都没下雨了。
Penny, can you remind us how these terrible fires started?
潘尼，你能给我们说说这场大火是怎么引起的吗？
Well, most of the fires were started by farmers.
好的，大部分大火是由农民们引起的。
They wanted to clear the land before they planted new fields.
他们想在种植新土地之前，把田地清理干净。
But this year things are much worse than usual.
但是今年，事情比往年更加糟糕。
Some big companies bought large areas of land.
一些大公司买下了大片田地。
They are using fires to clear them quickly so that they can plant rice, palm oil trees or rubber trees.
他们想利用大火尽快赶走他们，这样他们就可以种植水稻、棕榈树或橡胶树。
Second, a drought started many months ago so the land is very dry.
另外，干旱也持续了好几个月，所以田地非常干。
Penny, you've told us about some of the effects of the fire on people. What other problems are the fires causing?
潘尼，你给我们讲了大火给人们带来的一些影响。大火还导致了什么问题？
Well, there are almost no tourists here at the moment.
嗯，现在这里几乎没有游客了。
Also, the smog has caused some bad accidents.
另外，浓烟已经导致了一些严重的交通事故。
But the most serious problem is that the fire is destroying the forests.
但是最严重的问题是大火正在破坏森林。
As you know, trees take harmful gases from the air, and release oxygen.
大家都知道，树木吸收空气中的有害气体并释放氧气。
They are very important to the world, and now millions of them ore burning.
它们对世界非常重要，而现在数百万的树木却在燃烧着。
I hope the fire will be put out soon.
我希望大火很快就被扑灭。
