China Daily reports that more than 5,000 tons of highly toxic industrial waste were dumped illegally in rural areas in Yunnan province, causing livestock deaths and soil and water pollution.

據《中國日報》報道，5000多噸劇毒化工廢料在云南省的農村地區被非法傾倒，造成家畜死亡、土壤水源污染。

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Dump is a word that has lots of meaning in English. Dumping toxic wastes into a river means emptying material into something else. It usually has a negative connotation. A place where it’s legal to dump non-toxic wastes is often called a dump.

But dump also means a big mess. So you could tell your messy girlfriend: “Your place is a dump.”

Dump also means breaking up with someone. So if you tell your girlfriend her place is a dump, she just might dump you.

In politics, dumping means selling something at a lower price abroad than at home. Countries sometimes accuse each other of dumping.

And when you transfer computer data to an external storage device, guess what? That’s also called dumping.

Dump一詞在英文里有很多意思，比如dump（傾倒）有毒廢物到河里，這種用法常帶有貶義。可以合法傾倒無毒廢物的地方就是dump（垃圾場）。

Dump還可以表示“一團糟”。如果你的女友很邋遢，你可以對她說：“Your place is a dump.”。但她聽過之后可能就會dump you（甩了你）。這里的dump表示“和某人分手”。

Dump還可以表示“傾銷”，也就是以低于國內的價格將某物賣到國外。各國有時為此互相指責。

而當你將電腦數據轉移到一個外部的儲存設備，你猜怎么著？那也叫dump（內存信息轉儲）。

（中國日報網英語點津 實習生沈清 編輯：Julie）

About the broadcaster:

Renee Haines is an editor and broadcaster at China Daily. Renee has more than 15 years of experience as a newspaper editor, radio station anchor and news director, news-wire service reporter and bureau chief, magazine writer, book editor and website consultant. She came to China from the United States.