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剑桥雅思6Test4阅读Passage1原文翻译Dotoring Sales医药营销
剑桥雅思6阅读第四套题目第 一篇文章的主题为医药营销。文章分为7段,从医生期望得到医药公司的回报展开,分别介绍了药品推销的预算,负责人群,积极方面,相关研究,以及政策建议等。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 4 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
前言
Pharmaceuticals is one of the most profitable industries in North America.But do the drugs industry’s sales and marketing strategies go too far?
制药业是北美赚钱的产业之一。但是,制药行业的销售和营销策略是否太过分了?
自然段A
A few months ago Kim Schaefer,sales representative of a major global pharmaceutical company,walked into a medical center in New York to bring information and free samples of her company’s latest products.That day she was lucky–a doctor was available to see her.‘The last rep offered me a trip to Florida.What do you have?’the physician asked.He was only half joking.
几个月前金·舍费尔,一名全球主要制药公司的销售代表,走进纽约一个医疗中心带来其公司最新产品的信息和免费样本。那天她很幸运-有一个医生有空见她。医生问:“上一位医药代表为我提供了去佛罗里达的旅行。你有什么?’。他不仅仅是开玩笑。
自然段B
What was on offer that day was a pair of tickets for a New York musical.But on any given day,what Schaefer can offer is typical for today’s drugs rep–a car trunk full of promotional gifts and gadgets,a budget that could buy lunches and dinners for a small country,hundreds of free drug samples and the freedom to give a physician$200 to prescribe her new product to the next six patients who fit the drug’s profile.And she also has a few$1,000 honoraria to offer in exchange for doctors’attendance at her company’s next educational lecture.
那天提供的物品是纽约音乐剧的两张门票。但是在任何一天,舍费尔所能提供的都是当今药品代表的典型举动-装满促销礼品和小配件的汽车后备箱,可以为一个小国购买午餐和晚餐的预算,数百个免费药品样品以及给予一名医生200美元的自由,只要他愿意将她的新产品开给接下来六名符合该药物资料的患者。她还提供几千美元的酬金,以换取医生参加她公司下一次的教育讲座。
自然段C
Selling pharmaceuticals is a daily exercise in ethical judgment.Salespeople like Schaefer walk the line between the common practice of buying a prospect’s time with a free meal,and bribing doctors to prescribe their drugs.They work in an industry highly criticized for its sales and marketing practices,but find themselves in the middle of the age-old chicken-or-egg question–businesses won’t use strategies that don’t work,so are doctors to blame for the escalating extravagance of pharmaceutical marketing?Or is it the industry’s responsibility to decide the boundaries?
销售药品的工作每天都处于道德审判之下。像舍费尔这样的推销员的行为从用免费午餐购买潜在客户的时间,到贿赂医生让他来开自己的药。他们在一个因销售和市场营销行为而备受批评的行业中工作,但发现自己陷入了古老的“先有鸡还是先有蛋”的问题。企业不会使用无效的策略,因此,难道说医生也应为药品销售日益猖獗的行为负责?还是说决定行为边界完全是该行业自己的责任?
自然段D
The explosion in the sheer number of salespeople in the field–and the amount of funding used to promote their causes–forces close examination of the pressures,influences and relationships between drug reps and doctors.Salespeople provide much-needed information and education to physicians.In many cases the glossy brochures,article reprints and prescriptions they deliver are primary sources of drug education for healthcare givers.With the huge investment the industry has placed in face-to-face selling,salespeople have essentially become specialists in one drug or group of drugs–a tremendous advantage in getting the attention of busy doctors in need of quick information.
行业中销售人员数量和用于推动他们行为的资金的爆炸性增长,迫使我们仔细审查其压力,影响,以及医生和药品代表之间的关系。销售人员向医生提供他们急需的信息和教育。许多情况下,它们送出的有光泽的小册子,再版的文章和处方是医疗保健人员有关药物教育的主要来源。由于该行业在面对面销售方面的巨额投资,销售人员本质上已经成为一种药物或一组药物的专家-这在吸引需要快速信息的繁忙医生的注意力方面具有巨大优势。
自然段E
But the sales push rarely stops in the office.The flashy brochures and pamphlets left by the sales reps are often followed up with meals at expensive restaurants,meetings in warm and sunny places,and an inundation of promotional gadgets.Rarely do patients watch a doctor write with a pen that isn’t emblazoned with a drug’s name,or see a nurse use a tablet not bearing a pharmaceutical company’s logo.Millions of dollars are spent by pharmaceutical companies on promotional products like coffee mugs,shirts,umbrellas,and golf balls.Money well spent?It’s hard to tell.‘I’ve been the recipient of golf balls from one company and I use them,but it doesn’t make me prescribe their medicine,’says one doctor.‘I tend to think I’m not influenced by what they give me.’
但是,销售很少止于办公室内。销售代表留下的浮华的小册子通常伴随着在昂贵的餐厅用餐,在温暖和阳光充足的地方开会,以及大量小物品。很少有患者看到医生用不带药物名称的笔写字,或者看到护士使用不带有制药公司标志的平板电脑。制药公司在诸如咖啡杯,衬衫,雨伞和高尔夫球等促销产品上花费数百万美元。钱花得好吗?很难说。一位医生说:“我收到一家医药公司的高尔夫球,我使用它们,但这并不能使我开出它们的药。我倾向于认为我不受他们给我的东西的影响。”
自然段F
Free samples of new and expensive drugs might be the single most effective way of getting doctors and patients to become loyal to a product.Salespeople hand out hundreds of dollars’worth of samples each week-$7.2 billion worth of them in one year.Though few comprehensive studies have been conducted,one by the University of Washington investigated how drug sample availability affected what physicians prescribe.A total of 131 doctors self-reported their prescribing patterns–the conclusion was that the availability of samples led them to dispense and prescribe drugs that differed from their preferred drug choice.
免费获得昂贵新药的样本可能是使医生和患者忠于某种产品的最有效方法。销售人员每周派发价值数百美元的样品-一年就是72亿美元。尽管很少有全面的研究,但华盛顿大学的一项研究调查了药物样本的可获得性如何影响医生的处方。共有131位医生主动报告了他们开处方的方式-结论是样品的可获得性导致他们开出与自己偏爱的药物不同的处方。
自然段G
The bottom line is that pharmaceutical companies as a whole invest more in marketing than they do in research and development.And patients are the ones who pay–in the form of sky-rocketing prescription prices–for every pen that’s handed out,every free theatre ticket,and every steak dinner eaten.In the end the fact remains that pharmaceutical companies have every right to make a profit and will continue to find new ways to increase sales.But as the medical world continues to grapple with what’s acceptable and what’s not,it is clear that companies must continue to be heavily scrutinized for their sales and marketing strategies.
底线是,制药公司作为一个整体在市场营销方面的投资超过了研发方面的投资。而且,患者以支付高昂的处方价格的形式为每支钢笔,每张免费剧院票和每顿牛排晚餐付费。最终,事实仍然是制药公司完全有权利获得利润,并将继续寻找增加销售额的新方法。但是,随着医学界继续努力确定哪些行为可接受,哪些行为不可接受,公司显然必须继续对其销售和营销策略进行严格审查。
剑桥雅思6Test3阅读Passage3原文翻译The Search for the Anti-aging Pill抗衰老药物的寻找
剑桥雅思6阅读第三套题目第三篇文章的主题为抗衰老药物的寻找。文章分为8段,分别介绍了限制热量摄入的背景和好处,动物实验的结果,目前药物的作用原理和相关缺陷等内容。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 3 Passage 3阅读原文翻译
第1自然段
As researchers on aging noted recently,no treatment on the market today has been proved to slow human aging–the build-up of molecular and cellular damage that increases vulnerability to infirmity as we grow older.But one intervention,consumption of a low-calorie*yet nutritionally balanced diet,works incredibly well in a broad range of animals,increasing longevity and prolonging good health.Those findings suggest that caloric restriction could delay aging and increase longevity in humans,too.
正如衰老研究人员最近指出的那样,当今市场上尚无任何疗法能减缓人类衰老-随着年龄的增长,分子和细胞损伤的累积会让人变得体弱多病。但是,一项干预措施-食用低热量且营养均衡的饮食-在多种动物中都表现得非常好,延长了寿命并改善了健康状况。这些发现表明热量限制可能也可以延缓衰老并延长人类的寿命。
第2自然段
Unfortunately,for maximum benefit,people would probably have to reduce their caloric intake by roughly thirty per cent,equivalent to dropping from 2,500 calories a day to 1,750.Few mortals could stick to that harsh a regimen,especially for years on end.But what if someone could create a pill that mimicked the physiological effects of eating less without actually forcing people to eat less?Could such a‘caloric-restriction mimetic’,as we call it,enable people to stay healthy longer,postponing age-related disorders(such as diabetes,arteriosclerosis,heart disease and cancer)until very late in life?Scientists first posed this question in the mid-1990s,after researchers came upon a chemical agent that in rodents seemed to reproduce many of caloric restriction’s benefits.No compound that would safely achieve the same feat in people has been found yet,but the search has been informative and has fanned hope that caloric-restriction(CR)mimetics can indeed be developed eventually.
不幸的是,为了获得大的收益,人们可能不得不将其热量摄入减少约30%,相当于从每天2500卡路里减少到1,750卡路里。很少有凡人可以坚持这种苛刻的治疗方法,尤其是连续数年。但是,如果有人可以制造出一种药。这种药可以模仿减少饮食的生理效果,但又不用迫使人们真的少吃东西又如何呢?这种我们称之为“热量限制模拟物”东西能否使人们保持更长的健康,将与年龄有关的疾病(例如糖尿病,动脉硬化,心脏病和癌症)推迟到很晚才出现呢?研究人员在啮齿动物中发现了一种化学物质,它似乎能够产生限制热量的众多好处。随后,科学家在20世纪90年代中期首 次提出了这个问题。虽然尚未找到可以安全地在人类中实现相同作用的化合物,但是这种搜寻提供了有用信息,并激发了人们最终开发出热量限制(CR)模拟物的希望。
热量限制的好处
第3自然段
The hunt for CR mimetics grew out of a desire to better understand caloric restriction’s many effects on the body.Scientists first recognized the value of the practice more than 60 years ago,when they found that rats fed a low-calorie diet lived longer on average than free-feeding rats and also had a reduced incidence of conditions that become increasingly common in old age.What is more,some of the treated animals survived longer than the oldest-living animals in the control group,which means that the maximum lifespan(the oldest attainable age),not merely the normal lifespan,increased.Various interventions,such as infection-fighting drugs,can increase a population’s average survival time,but only approaches that slow the body’s rate of aging will increase the maximum lifespan.
寻找CR模拟物的原因是希望更好地了解热量限制对身体的多种影响。六十多年前,当科学家发现喂养低热量饮食的老鼠的平均寿命要比自由喂养的老鼠更长,并且它们老年阶段出现的健康状况明显减少时,科学家第 一次意识到了这种做法的价值。而且,某些动物的存活时间比对照组中最老的动物更长,这意味着寿命(可达到的年龄)而不仅仅是正常寿命增加了。诸如抗感染药物之类的各种干预措施可以增加人口的平均生存时间,但是只有减慢人体衰老速度的方法才会增加寿命。
第4自然段
The rat findings have been replicated many times and extended to creatures ranging from yeast to fruit flies,worms,fish,spiders,mice and hamsters.Until fairly recently,the studies were limited to short-lived creatures genetically distant from humans.But caloric-restriction projects underway in two species more closely related to humans–rhesus and squirrel monkeys–have made scientists optimistic that CR mimetics could help people.
老鼠身上的发现已被重复了很多次,并扩展到从酵母菌到果蝇,蠕虫,鱼,蜘蛛,小老鼠和仓鼠之类的生物。直到最近,研究还局限于与人类遗传基因距离较远的短寿命生物。但是,在与人类关系更加紧密的两个物种(恒河猴和松鼠猴)身上正在进行热量限制项目使科学家们对CR模拟物可以帮助人们感到乐观。
第5自然段
The monkey projects demonstrate that,compared with control animals that eat normally,caloric-restricted monkeys have lower body temperatures and levels of the pancreatic hormone insulin,and they retain more youthful levels of certain hormones that tend to fall with age.
猴子项目表明,与正常饮食的对照动物相比,受热量限制的猴子的体温和胰岛素水平较低,并且它们更多地保留了某些会随着年龄增长而下降的荷尔蒙水平。
第6自然段
The caloric-restricted animals also look better on indicators of risk for age-related diseases.For example,they have lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels(signifying a decreased likelihood of heart disease),and they have more normal blood glucose levels(pointing to a reduced risk for diabetes,which is marked by unusually high blood glucose levels).Further,it has recently been shown that rhesus monkeys kept on caloric-restricted diets for an extended time(nearly 15 years)have less chronic disease.They and the other monkeys must be followed still longer,however,to know whether low-calorie intake can increase both average and maximum lifespans in monkeys.Unlike the multitude of elixirs being touted as the latest anti-aging cure,CR mimetics would alter fundamental processes that underlie aging.We aim to develop compounds that fool cells into activating maintenance and repair.
受热量限制的动物在与年龄有关的疾病风险指标上也表现更好。例如,它们具有较低的血压和甘油三酸酯水平(表明心脏病的可能性降低),并且它们的血糖水平更加正常(表明患糖尿病的风险降低,其特征在于异常高的血糖水平)。此外,最近已显示,长期限制热量摄入(近15年)的恒河猴的慢性病较少。他们和其他猴子必须被研究更长的时间,才能知道低热量摄入是否可以增加猴子的平均寿命和最 大寿命。与众多被誉为最新抗衰老疗法的灵丹妙药不同,CR模拟剂将改变形成衰老的本质过程。我们的目标是开发出可以哄骗细胞,并激活其维护和修复作用的化合物。
热量限制模拟物原型如何起作用
第7自然段
The best-studied candidate for a caloric-restriction mimetic,2DG(2-deoxy-D-glucose),works by interfering with the way cells process glucose.It has proved toxic at some doses in animals and so cannot be used in humans.But it has demonstrated that chemicals can replicate the effects of caloric restriction;the trick is finding the right one.
研究中最好的热量限制模拟物2DG(2-deoxy-D-glucose)通过干扰细胞处理葡萄糖的方式起作用。它已被证明对动物有一定的毒性,因此不能用于人类。但它证明,化学物质可以复制热量限制的作用。诀窍是找到合适的那一种。
第8自然段
Cells use the glucose from food to generate ATP(adenosine triphosphate),the molecule that powers many activities in the body.By limiting food intake,caloric restriction minimizes the amount of glucose entering cells and decreases ATP generation.When 2DG is administered to animals that eat normally,glucose reaches cells in abundance but the drug prevents most of it from being processed and thus reduces ATP synthesis.Researchers have proposed several explanations for why interruption of glucose processing and ATP production might retard aging.One possibility relates to the ATP-making machinery’s emission of free radicals,which are thought to contribute to aging and to such age-related diseases as cancer by damaging cells.Reduced operation of the machinery should limit their production and thereby constrain the damage.Another hypothesis suggests that decreased processing of glucose could indicate to cells that food is scarce(even if it isn’t)and induce them to shift into an anti-aging mode that emphasizes preservation of the organism over such‘luxuries’as growth and reproduction.
细胞利用食物中的葡萄糖产生ATP(三磷酸腺苷),该分子为体内的许多活动提供动力。通过限制食物的摄入,热量限制可大程度地减少进入细胞的葡萄糖量并减少ATP的产生。当将2DG用于正常饮食的动物时,大量的葡萄糖仍然会到达细胞,但是该药物阻止了其中大部分被加工,从而降低了ATP的合成。研究人员针对为何中断葡萄糖加工和ATP产生会延缓衰老提出了几种解释。一种可能性与ATP产生机制释放的自由基有关。自由基被认为会通过破坏细胞而导致衰老,并导致诸如癌症等与年龄有关的疾病。减少这一机制的运转应该可以限制自由基的产生,从而控制损坏。另一种假设认为,葡萄糖加工的减少可能会向细胞表明食物缺乏(即使不是),并导致它们转变为抗衰老模式。该模式强调生长和繁殖等“奢 侈品”器官的保存。
剑桥雅思6Test3阅读Passage2原文翻译Motivating Employees under Adverse Conditions在逆境中激励员工
剑桥雅思6阅读第三套题目第二篇文章的主题为如何在逆境中激励员工。文中分为8段。前两段用来描述在逆境中激励员工所面临的挑战,后六段给出六种具体的激励方案。文章结构为典型的提出问题-解决问题类型。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 3 Passage 2阅读原文翻译
挑战
It is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organisation than a declining one.When organisations are expanding and adding personnel,promotional opportunities,pay rises,and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organisation create feelings of optimism.Management is able to use the growth to entice and encourage employees.When an organisation is shrinking,the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily.Unfortunately,they are the ones the organisation can least afford to lose–those with the highest skills and experience.The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.
在成长中的组织中激励员工要比在衰落中的组织这么做容易得多。当组织不断壮大并增加人员时,晋升机会,加薪以及与充满活力的组织相关联的兴奋会产生乐观的感觉。管理层能够利用这一增长来吸引和鼓励员工。当组织机构萎缩时,流动性最 好的员工往往会自愿离开。不幸的是,他们是组织最无法承受的损失-具有最好技能和经验的人。次要的雇员留下是因为他们的工作选择有限。
Morale also suffers during decline.People fear they may be the next to be made redundant.Productivity often suffers,as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing one another with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs.For those whose jobs are secure,pay increases are rarely possible.Pay cuts,unheard of during times of growth,may even be imposed.The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such retrenchment conditions.The ways of meeting this challenge can be broadly divided into six Key Points,which are outlined below.
士气在衰落期间也遭受苦难。人们担心他们可能会成为下一个多余的人。由于员工将大部分时间用于传播谣言并相互提供道德支持,而不是专注于工作,因此生产力通常会受到影响。对于那些工作稳定的人来说,加薪几乎不可能。甚至还可能实行降薪,这在增长时期闻所未闻。管理人员面临的挑战是如何在这种紧缩的条件下激励员工。应对挑战的方法大致可分为六个关键点,概述如下。
要点一
There is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs.For example,if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within a larger business,high achievers should be sought.However,if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation,a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected.Accordingly,high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs.High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback.However,it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence,variety and responsibility.
有充分的证据支持将人们精心匹配工作所产生的动机收益。例如,如果工作是经营小型企业或大型企业中的自主部门,则应寻求高成就者。但是,如果要担任的职务是大型官僚组织中的管理职位,则应选择对权力有较高要求而对隶属关系需求不大的候选人。因此,高成就者不应从事与其需求不一致的工作。当工作提供中等难度的目标且有独立性和反馈时,高成就者将会做到最好。但是,应该记住,并不是每个人都会受到独立性,多样性和责任感高的工作的激励。
要点二
The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals.For those with high achievement needs,typically a minority in any organisation,the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated.The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with the employees.The answer to that depends on perceptions of goal acceptance and the organisation’s culture.If resistance to goals is expected,the use of participation in goal-setting should increase acceptance.If participation is inconsistent with the culture,however,goals should be assigned.If participation and the culture are incongruous,employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.
关于目标设定理论的文献表明,管理者应确保所有员工都有特定的目标,并接受有关他们在这些目标中表现的评价。对于那些具有较高成就要求的人(任何组织中的少数派),外部目标的存在不那么重要,因为高成就者往往已经具有内部动机。下一个要确定的因素是目标应该由经理分配还是与员工共同设定。答案取决于目标接受度和组织文化。如果对目标可能存在抵触,那么参与目标制定会增加接受度。但是,如果参与与公司文化不一致,则应指定目标。因为如果参与和公司文化不匹配,则员工可能会认为参与过程受到操控,并因此受到负面影响。
要点三
Regardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management’s perceptions of the employee’s ability,if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort.Managers must be sure,therefore,that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals.For managers,this means that employees must have the capability of doing the job and must regard the appraisal process as valid.
无论目标是否可以实现,或者是否在管理层对员工能力的认知之内,如果员工认为目标无法实现,他们将减少工作量。因此,管理人员必须确保员工对自己通过努力能够实现绩效目标充满信心。对于管理人员来说,这意味着员工必须具有完成工作的能力,并且必须认为评估过程是有效的。
要点四
Since employees have different needs,what acts as a reinforcement for one may not for another.Managers could use their knowledge of each employee to personalise the rewards over which they have control.Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay,promotions,autonomy,job scope and depth,and the opportunity to participate in goal-setting and decision-making.
由于员工有不同的需求,因此对一个人的激励可能不适合另外一个人。管理人员可以利用他们对每个员工的了解来个性化他们所控制的奖励。管理人员分配的一些显而易见的奖励包括薪资,晋升,自主权,工作范围和深度,以及参与目标设定和决策的机会。
要点五
Managers need to make rewards contingent on performance.To reward factors other than performance will only reinforce those other factors.Key rewards such as pay increases and promotions or advancements should be allocated for the attainment of the employee’s specific goals.Consistent with maximising the impact of rewards,managers should look for ways to increase their visibility.Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone’s remuneration,publicising performance bonuses and allocating annual salary increases in a lump sum rather than spreading them out over an entire year are examples of actions that will make rewards more visible and potentially more motivating.
管理人员需要根据绩效来给予奖励。奖励绩效以外的其他因素只会增强这些因素。应根据员工是否实现特定目标来给予关键性奖励,如加薪和晋升。与大程度地发挥奖励的作用相一致,管理人员应寻求提高可见度的方法。通过公开地交流每个人的薪酬,公布绩效奖金并一次性分配年薪增长而不是将其分摊到整个年度中,消除围绕工资的保密性。这些举动将使奖励更加显眼并且可能更具激励作用。
要点六
The way rewards are distributed should be transparent so that employees perceive that rewards or outcomes are equitable and equal to the inputs given.On a simplistic level,experience,abilities,effort and other obvious inputs should explain differences in pay,responsibility and other obvious outcomes.The problem,however,is complicated by the existence of dozens of inputs and outcomes and by the fact that employee groups place different degrees of importance on them.For instance,a study comparing clerical and production workers identified nearly twenty inputs and outcomes.The clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed and job knowledge near the top of their list,but these were at the bottom of the production workers’list.Similarly,production workers thought that the most important inputs were intelligence and personal involvement with task accomplishment,two factors that were quite low in the importance ratings of the clerks.There were also important,though less dramatic,differences on the outcome side.For example,production workers rated advancement very highly,whereas clerical workers rated advancement in the lower third of their list.Such findings suggest that one person’s equity is another’s inequity,so an ideal should probably weigh different inputs and outcomes according to employee group.
奖励的分配方式应该保持透明,以便员工认为奖励或成果是公正的,与投入相当。简单来说,经验、能力、努力和其他明显的投入应该足以解释薪酬、责任和其他明显成果的差异。但是,由于存在数十种投入和成果以及员工群体对它们的重视程度不同,这一问题其实非常复杂。例如,一项比较办公职员和生产工人的研究确定了近二十种投入和成果。办公职员将诸如工作质量和工作知识之类的因素放在他们的列表的顶部,但是这些因素却在生产工人列表的底部。同样,生产工人认为最重要的投入是智力和完成任务的个人参与度,这两个因素在文员的重要等级中都很低。结果方面也存在着重要的差异,尽管没有那么戏剧性。例如,生产工人将晋升列地很高,而文职人员则将晋升放在他们列表的后三分之一处。这些发现表明,一个人的公平意味着另一个人的不公平,因此理想情况下,应该根据员工群体权衡不同的投入和结果。
剑桥雅思6Test3阅读Passage1原文翻译电影的诞生与发展
剑桥雅思6阅读第三套题目第 一篇文章的主题为电影的诞生和发展。文章分为10段,除了描述电影的出现过程之外,还解释了电影对世界、后辈、电影明星、真实生活的影响。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 3 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
自然段A
The Lumière Brothers opened their Cinematographe,at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris,to 100 paying customers over 100 years ago,on December 8,1895.Before the eyes of the stunned,thrilled audience,photographs came to life and moved across a flat screen.
1895年12月8日,卢米埃尔兄弟(LumièreBrothers)在100年多前的巴黎Boulevard des Capucines 14号向100位付费客户播放了他们的电影。在震惊而激动的观众眼前,照片活了过来,在屏幕上移动。
自然段B
So ordinary and routine has this become to us that it takes a determined leap of the imagination to grasp the impact of those first moving images.But it is worth trying,for to understand the initial shock of those images is to understand the extraordinary power and magic of cinema,the unique,hypnotic quality that has made film the most dynamic,effective art form of the 20th century.
这对我们来说是如此的普通和平凡,以致于需要想象力的飞跃,才能掌握这些首 次出现的动图的影响。但是这值得一试,因为了解这些图像最初的震撼就是了解电影的非凡力量和魔力。这一独特、催眠般的特点使电影成为20世纪最 具活力,最有效的艺术形式。
自然段C
One of the Lumière Brothers’earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform flooded with sunshine.A train appears and heads straight for the camera.And that is all that happens.Yet the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky,one of the greatest of all film artists,described the film as a‘work of genius’.‘As the train approached,’wrote Tarkovsky,‘panic started in the theatre:people jumped and ran away.That was the moment when cinema was born.The frightened audience could not accept that they were watching a mere picture.Pictures were still,only reality moved;this must,therefore,be reality.In their confusion,they feared that a real train was about to crush them.’
卢米埃尔兄弟(LumièreBrothers)最早的一部电影是一部30秒的片段,它展示了阳光照射下铁路站台的一部分。一列火车出现,直奔摄像机而去。这就是所有发生的事情。然而,俄罗斯导演安德烈·塔尔科夫斯基(Andrei Tarkovsky),最伟大的电影艺术家之一,将这部电影描述为“天才之作”。塔尔科夫斯基写道:“火车驶近时,剧院开始慌乱:人们跳了起来,然后逃跑。”那正是电影诞生的时刻。惊恐的观众无法接受他们只是在看图片。图片是静止的,只有现实世界才会动。因此,这必须是现实。在他们的困惑中,他们担心一辆真正的火车要碾压他们。”
自然段D
Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion.In time,the idea of film became familiar,the magic was accepted-but it never stopped being magic.Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audiences and transport them to a different world.For Tarkovsky,the key to that magic was the way in which cinema created a dynamic image of the real flow of events.A still picture could only imply the existence of time,while time in a novel passed at the whim of the reader.But in cinema,the real,objective flow of time was captured.
早期的电影观众经常经历同样的困惑。随着时间的流逝,电影的概念变得熟悉起来,魔法被接受了-但是它永远不会停止自己的魔力。电影从未失去过吸引观众并将他们带到另一个世界的独特能力。对于塔科夫斯基来说,魔术的关键在于电影院如何创建真实事件发生的动态图像。静止的画面只能暗示时间的存在,小说中的时间在读者心中流逝。但是在电影院中,人们却捕获了真实,客观的时间流动。
自然段E
One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself.For cinema makes the world smaller.Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else,they knew what other places looked like;they knew how other people worked and lived.
这种现实主义的作用之一是让世界认识自己。电影使世界变得更小。人们远赴美国或其他任何地方之前,他们就知道其他地方的样子。他们知道其他人的工作和生活的方式。
Overwhelmingly,the lives recorded–at least in film fiction–have been American.From the earliest days of the industry,Hollywood has dominated the world film market.
至少在电影中,被记录的生活绝大多数都是美国式的。从电影产业的诞生开始,好莱坞就一直统治着世界电影市场。
American imagery–the cars,the cities,the cowboys–became the primary imagery of film.Film carried American life and values around the globe.
美国的影像-汽车,城市,牛仔-成为电影的主要内容。电影在全世界传播着美国的生活和价值观。
自然段F
And,thanks to film,future generations will know the 20th century more intimately than any other period.We can only imagine what life was like in the 14th century or in classical Greece.But the life of the modern world has been recorded on film in massive,encyclopedic detail.We shall be known better than any preceding generations.
由于有了电影,子孙后代将比其他任何时期都更加了解20世纪。我们只能想象14世纪或古典希腊时代的生活。但是,现代世界的生活已经被巨细无遗地记录在电影之中。相比于前辈而言,我们更容易被了解。
自然段G
The‘star’was another natural consequence of cinema.The cinema star was effectively born in 1910.Film personalities have such an immediate presence that,inevitably,they become super-real.Because we watch them so closely and because everybody in the world seems to know who they are,they appear more real to us than we do ourselves.The star as magnified human self is one of cinema’s most strange and enduring legacies.
“明星”是电影院的另一自然产物。电影明星实际上是1910年诞生的。电影人物具有如此直接的存在,以至于他们不可避免地变得超级真实。因为我们密切关注它们,因为世界上每个人似乎都知道他们是谁,所以对我们来说,他们比我们自己更加真实。明星作为人类自身的放大,是电影最奇怪,最持久的遗产之一。
自然段H
Cinema has also given a new lease of life to the idea of the story.When the Lumière Brothers and other pioneers began showing off this new invention,it was by no means obvious how it would be used.All that mattered at first was the wonder of movement.Indeed,some said that,once this novelty had worn off,cinema would fade away.It was no more than a passing gimmick,a fairground attraction.
电影也使故事的构思焕然一新。当卢米埃兄弟(LumièreBrothers)和其他先驱者开始炫耀这项新发明时,它的使用方式绝不是显而易见的。一开始,最重要的是活动带来的惊奇。确实,有人说,一旦这种新颖消失了,电影就会消失。它不过是种把戏,就像游乐场一样。
自然段I
Cinema might,for example,have become primarily a documentary form.Or it might have developed like television–as a strange,noisy transfer of music,information and narrative.But what happened was that it became,overwhelmingly,a medium for telling stories.Originally these were conceived as short stories–early producers doubted the ability of audiences to concentrate for more than the length of a reel.Then,in 1912,an Italian 2-hour film was hugely successful,and Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative that remains the dominant cinematic convention of today.
例如,电影可能会变成一种记录形式。或者它可能像电视一样发展,成为音乐、信息和叙事的一种奇怪而又嘈杂的传播。但是事实是,它成为压倒一切的讲故事的媒介。最初,它们被认为是短篇故事-早期的制片人怀疑观众集中注意力的能力不会超过一卷胶片的长度。然后,在1912年,一部两小时的意大利电影取得了巨大的成功。好莱坞决定采用新颖的叙事形式。它至今仍是当今电影界的主流。
自然段J
And it has all happened so quickly.Almost unbelievably,it is a mere 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed and fled,convinced by the dangerous reality of what they saw,and,perhaps,suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again–that,maybe,it could be better,brighter,more astonishing,more real than reality.
一切都发生得如此之快。几乎令人难以置信的是,距火车到达、观众尖叫和逃跑才仅仅仅100年的时间。他们当时对自己看到的危险事实深信不疑,或许突然之间意识到世界再也不会一样了-也许,它可能比现实更好,更光明,更令人惊讶,更真实。
剑桥雅思6Test2阅读Passage3原文翻译Numeration计数的历史
剑桥雅思6阅读第二套题目第三篇文章的主题为计数的历史。文章分为七段,第 一段先解释计数的重要意义,然后按照时间顺序描述人类在计数方面的发展。因为主题有些抽象,所以读起来可能不那么好懂。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 2 Passage 3阅读答案解析
第1自然段
One of the first great intellectual feats of a young child is learning how to talk,closely followed by learning how to count.From earliest childhood we are so bound up with our system of numeration that it is a feat of imagination to consider the problems faced by early humans who had not yet developed this facility.Careful consideration of our system of numeration leads to the conviction that,rather than being a facility that comes naturally to a person,it is one of the great and remarkable achievements of the human race.
幼儿首先展现出来的伟大的智力特长之一是学习如何说话,紧接着是学习如何计数。从童年早期开始,我们就与我们的计数体系紧密相连,以至于思考尚未开发出这种工具的早期人类所面临的问题需要极大的想象力。认真考虑我们的计数体系会导致这样一种信念,那就是它不是人类固有的便利,而是人类伟大而卓越的成就之一。
第2自然段
It is impossible to learn the sequence of events that led to our developing the concept of number.Even the earliest of tribes had a system of numeration that,if not advanced,was sufficient for the tasks that they had to perform.Our ancestors had little use for actual numbers;instead their considerations would have been more of the kind Is this enough?rather than How many?when they were engaged in food gathering,for example.However,when early humans first began to reflect on the nature of things around them,they discovered that they needed an idea of number simply to keep their thoughts in order.As they began to settle,grow plants and herd animals,the need for a sophisticated number system became paramount.It will never be known how and when this numeration ability developed,but it is certain that numeration was well developed by the time humans had formed even semi-permanent settlements.
要了解引发我们发展数字概念的事件的顺序是不可能的。即使是最早的部落,也都有其计数系统,即使不先进,也足以完成他们必须执行的任务。我们的祖先很少使用实际数字。例如,当他们进行食物收集时,他们会更多的考虑这是否足够,而不是多少。但是,当早期人类开始反思周围事物的本质时,他们发现他们需要数字的概念以保持思想的井然有序。随着他们开始定居,种植植物和放养牲畜,对复杂数字系统的需求变得至关重要。这种计数能力的发展方式和时间都是未知的。但是可以肯定的是,甚至在人类形成半永 久性定居点的之前,计数就已经很好地发展了。
第3自然段
Evidence of early stages of arithmetic and numeration can be readily found.The indigenous peoples of Tasmania were only able to count one,two,many;those of South Africa counted one,two,two and one,two twos,two twos and one,and so on.But in real situations the number and words are often accompanied by gestures to help resolve any confusion.For example,when using the one,two,many type of system,the word many would mean,Look at my hands and see how many fingers I am showing you.This basic approach is limited in the range of numbers that it can express,but this range will generally suffice when dealing with the simpler aspects of human existence.
很容易找到算术和计数早期阶段的证据。塔斯马尼亚州的土著人民只会数一,二,多;而南非的土著人民则可以数一,二,二和一,两个二,两个二和一,依此类推。但是在实际情况下,数字和词汇经常伴随着手势,以帮助解决困惑。例如,当使用“一,二,多”系统时,“多”这个词汇意味着,看我的手,看看我给你看了多少根手指。这种基本方法可以表达的数字范围有限。但是在处理人类存在的简单问题时,它通常就够用了。
第4自然段
The lack of ability of some cultures to deal with large numbers is not really surprising.European languages,when traced back to their earlier version,are very poor in number words and expressions.The ancient Gothic word for ten,tachund,is used to express the number 100 as tachund tachund.By the seventh century,the word teon had become interchangeable with the tachund or hund of the Anglo-Saxon language,and so 100 was denoted as hund teontig,or ten times ten.The average person in the seventh century in Europe was not as familiar with numbers as we are today.In fact,to qualify as a witness in a court of law a man had to be able to count to nine!
某些文化缺乏处理大数字的能力并不令人感到意外。当将欧洲语言追溯到早期版本时,其数字方面的单词和表达就很差。古代的哥特语中用来表达十的单词是tachund,而数字100则被表达为tachund tachund。到了七世纪,teon一词已与盎格鲁-撒克逊语言中的tachund或hund互换使用,因此100被表示为hund teontig,或十乘十。欧洲七世纪的普通人对数字的熟悉程度不如今天。实际上,要想在法庭上取得证人资格,一个人必须能够数到九才行!
第5自然段
Perhaps the most fundamental step in developing a sense of number is not the ability to count,but rather to see that a number is really an abstract idea instead of a simple attachment to a group of particular objects.It must have been within the grasp of the earliest humans to conceive that four birds are distinct from two birds;however,it is not an elementary step to associate the number 4,as connected with four birds,to the number 4,as connected with four rocks.Associating a number as one of the qualities of a specific object is a great hindrance to the development of a true number sense.When the number 4 can be registered in the mind as a specific word,independent of the object being referenced,the individual is ready to take the first step toward the development of a notational system for numbers and,from there,to arithmetic.
数字意识形成的最基本步骤也许不是计数能力,而是要意识到数字实际上是一种抽象概念,而不是一组特定物品的附属物。最早的人类应该知道四只鸟与两只鸟有区别。但是,将与四个鸟相连的数字4和与四个岩石相连的数字4关联起来并不是一个简单的步骤。将数字作为特定物品的一种特质极大地阻碍了真正数字观念的发展。当数字4可以在大脑中被记忆为一个特定的单词,而与被引用的物品无关时,那么这个人就可以朝着数字符号系统的发展迈出第 一步,并从那里走向算术。
第6自然段
Traces of the very first stages in the development of numeration can be seen in several living languages today.The numeration system of the Tsimshian language in British Columbia contains seven distinct sets of words for numbers according to the class of the item being counted:for counting flat objects and animals,for round objects and time,for people,for long objects and trees,for canoes,for measures,and for counting when no particular object is being numerated.It seems that the last is a later development while the first six groups show the relics of an older system.This diversity of number names can also be found in some widely used languages such as Japanese.今天,在几种活着的语言中可以看到计算发展初期的痕迹。不列颠哥伦比亚省的Tsimshian语言计数系统包含七组不同的数字单词,这些数字根据要计数的物品的类别不同而不同:扁平物体和动物,圆形物体和时间,人,长物体和树木,独木舟,度量以及在没有对特定对象进行编号时进行计数。最后一种似乎是后来的发展,而前六个组则展现了古老体统的残留。数字名称的这种多样性还可以在某些广泛使用的语言(例如日语)中找到。
第7自然段
Intermixed with the development of a number sense is the development of an ability to count.Counting is not directly related to the formation of a number concept because it is possible to count by matching the items being counted against a group of pebbles,grains of corn,or the counter’s fingers.These aids would have been indispensable to very early people who would have found the process impossible without some form of mechanical aid.Such aids,while different,are still used even by the most educated in today’s society due to their convenience.All counting ultimately involves reference to something other than the things being counted.At first it may have been grains or pebbles but now it is a memorised sequence of words that happen to be the names of the numbers.
计数能力的发展与数字概念的发展混杂在一起。计数与数字概念的形成没有直接关系,因为可以通过将要计数的物品与一组小卵石,玉米粒或数数人的手指相匹配来进行计数。这些辅助工具对于非常早期的人们来说是必不可少的,他们会发现,如果没有某种形式的机械辅助,该过程是不可能的。尽管这些辅助工具有所不同,但由于它们的方便性,即使是当今社会上受过良好教育的人也仍然在使用。所有的计数最终都涉及到对被计数物品以外的事物的引用。起初它可能是谷物或小卵石,但是现在它是一个对应数字名称的,可供记忆的单词序列。
剑桥雅思6Test2阅读Passage2原文翻译Greying Population Stays in the Pink老年人依旧健康
剑桥雅思6阅读第二套题目第二篇文章的主题为老年人依旧健康。文章分为12段,大体包含两部分的内容:其一,各种常见的老年病发病时间推迟,发病率降低;其二,探讨影响老年人健康水平的各种因素。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 2 Passage 2阅读原文翻译
第1自然段
Elderly people are growing healthier,happier and more independent,say American scientists.The results of a 14-year study to be announced later this month reveal that the diseases associated with old age are afflicting fewer and fewer people and when they do strike,it is much later in life.
美国科学家说,老年人正在变得更健康,更快乐,更独立。一项将在本月晚些时候宣布的为期14年的研究结果表明,受老年疾病困扰的人越来越少,而且哪怕疾病确实出现了,也在人生更为靠后的阶段。
第2自然段
In the last 14 years,the National Long-term Health Care Survey has gathered data on the health and lifestyles of more than 20,000 men and women over 65.Researchers,now analysing the results of data gathered in 1994,say arthritis,high blood pressure and circulation problems–the major medical complaints in this age group–are troubling a smaller proportion every year.And the data confirms that the rate at which these diseases are declining continues to accelerate.Other diseases of old age–dementia,stroke,arteriosclerosis and emphysema–are also troubling fewer and fewer people.
在过去的14年里,国家长期健康护理调查收集了有关20,000多名65岁以上男性和女性健康与生活方式的数据。现在,研究人员在分析1994年所收集的数据的结果时说,关节炎,高血压和血液循环问题-该年龄段的主要医疗疾病-每年影响的人群比例都在减小。数据证实这些疾病的下降速度继续加快。受老年痴呆,中风,动脉硬化和肺气肿等其他疾病困扰的人也越来越少。
第3自然段
‘It really raises the question of what should be considered normal ageing,’says Kenneth Manton,a demographer from Duke University in North Carolina.He says the problems doctors accepted as normal in a 65-year-old in 1982 are often not appearing until people are 70 or 75.
北卡罗来纳州杜克大学人口统计学家,肯尼斯·曼顿说:“这真的提出了什么应该被认为是正常老化的问题”。他说,1982年医生认为在65岁的老年人身上很正常的问题现在到70或者75岁才会出现。
第4自然段
Clearly,certain diseases are beating a retreat in the face of medical advances.But there may be other contributing factors.Improvements in childhood nutrition in the first quarter of the twentieth century,for example,gave today’s elderly people a better start in life than their predecessors.
显然,面对医学进步,某些疾病正在消退。但是可能还有其他促成因素。例如,在二十世纪前二十五年中,儿童营养的改善为当今的老年人提供了比其前辈更好的生活起点。
第5自然段
On the downside,the data also reveals failures in public health that have caused surges in some illnesses.An increase in some cancers and bronchitis may reflect changing smoking habits and poorer air quality,say the researchers.‘These may be subtle influences,’says Manton,‘but our subjects have been exposed to worse and worse pollution for over 60 years.It’s not surprising we see some effect.’
不利的一面是,该数据还揭示了公共健康的失败导致某些疾病激增。研究人员说,某些癌症和支气管炎的增加可能反映了吸烟习惯的改变和空气质量的下降。曼顿说:“这些可能是微妙的影响。但60多年来,我们的受试者一直忍受越来越严重的污染。我们看到一些影响不足为奇”。
第6自然段
One interesting correlation Manton uncovered is that better-educated people are likely to live longer.For example,65-year-old women with fewer than eight years of schooling are expected,on average,to live to 82.Those who continued their education live an extra seven years.Although some of this can be attributed to a higher income,Manton believes it is mainly because educated people seek more medical attention.
曼顿发现的一个有趣的联系是,受过良好教育的人寿命可能更长。例如,受教育少于八年的65岁女性平均预期寿命为82岁。那些继续接受教育的人则会多活七年。尽管其部分原因可以归于较高的收入,但曼顿认为,这主要是因为受过教育的人们会寻求更多的医疗关注。
第7自然段
The survey also assessed how independent people over 65 were,and again found a striking trend.Almost 80%of those in the 1994 survey could complete everyday activities ranging from eating and dressing unaided to complex tasks such as cooking and managing their finances.That represents a significant drop in the number of disabled old people in the population.If the trends apparent in the United States 14 years ago had continued,researchers calculate there would be an additional one million disabled elderly people in today’s population.According to Manton,slowing the trend has saved the United States government’s Medicare system more than$200 billion,suggesting that the greying of America’s population may prove less of a financial burden than expected.
调查还评估了65岁以上人士的独立状况,并再次发现了惊人的趋势。在1994年的调查中,几乎80%的人可以完成日常活动,从不需帮助就可以吃饭穿衣到诸如烹饪和财务管理等复杂任务。这表示人口中残疾老年人的数量大大减少。如果14年前美国这一明显趋势继续下去,研究人员计算得出,现在的人口将再增加100万残疾人。曼顿认为,趋势放缓已为美国政府的医疗保险体系节省了超过2000亿美元。这表明美国人口老龄化的财务负担可能比预期的要少。
第8自然段
The increasing self-reliance of many elderly people is probably linked to a massive increase in the use of simple home medical aids.For instance,the use of raised toilet seats has more than doubled since the start of the study,and the use of bath seats has grown by more than 50%.These developments also bring some health benefits,according to a report from the MacArthur Foundation’s research group on successful ageing.The group found that those elderly people who were able to retain a sense of independence were more likely to stay healthy in old age.
许多老年人的自力更生可能与简单家庭医疗辅助设备使用的大量增加有关。例如,自研究开始以来,加高马桶座圈的使用量增加了一倍以上,而浴室座圈的使用量已增长了50%以上。麦克阿瑟基金会研究小组关于成功衰老的报告指出,这些进展也带来了一些健康上的好处。该小组发现,那些能够保持独立感的老年人在老年时更可能保持健康。
第9自然段
Maintaining a level of daily physical activity may help mental functioning,says Carl Cotman,a neuroscientist at the University of California at Irvine.He found that rats that exercise on a treadmill have raised levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor coursing through their brains.Cotman believes this hormone,which keeps neurons functioning,may prevent the brains of active humans from deteriorating.
加利福尼亚大学尔湾校区神经学家Cotman说,维持日常的体力活动水平可能有助于心理机能。他发现,在跑步机上运动的老鼠的大脑中神经源性神经营养因子水平升高。Cotman认为,这种使神经元保持运转的激素可以防止活跃的人的大脑退化。
第10自然段
As part of the same study,Teresa Seeman,a social epidemiologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles,found a connection between self-esteem and stress in people over 70.In laboratory simulations of challenging activities such as driving,those who felt in control of their lives pumped out lower levels of stress hormones such as cortisol.Chronically high levels of these hormones have been linked to heart disease.
作为同样研究的一部分,洛杉矶南加利福尼亚大学社会流行病学家Teresa Seeman发现,在70岁以上的人群中自尊与压力存在联系。在实验室模拟的诸如驾车等具有挑战性的活动中,那些觉得能够控制自己生活的人释放较低水平的压力荷尔蒙,例如皮质醇。如果这些激素长期处于较高水平可能会导致心脏病。
第11自然段
But independence can have drawbacks.Seeman found that elderly people who felt emotionally isolated maintained higher levels of stress hormones even when asleep.The research suggests that older people fare best when they feel independent but know they can get help when they need it.
但是独立性也有弊端。西曼(Seeman)发现,感觉情感孤立的老年人即使在睡觉时也保持较高的压力激素水平。研究表明,老年人在感到独立,但知道他们可以在需要时获得帮助的时候表现最好。
第12自然段
‘Like much research into ageing,these results support common sense,’says Seeman.They also show that we may be underestimating the impact of these simple factors.‘The sort of thing that your grandmother always told you turns out to be right on target,’she says.
西曼说:“就像对衰老的许多研究一样,这些结果与常识相符”。它们还表明,我们可能低估了这些简单因素的影响。她说:“奶奶总是告诉你的那些事情证明确实是正确的”。
剑桥雅思6Test2阅读Passage1原文翻译Advantages of public transport公共交通的优点
剑桥雅思6第二套题目阅读第 一篇文章的主题为公共交通的优点。文章一共分为12段。虽然段数较多,但每段的主题都很明确。开头说明公共交通的各项优势,然后以各个城市的例子分别说明有轨电车、自行车以及公交体系统的好处,并反驳了一些反对公共交通的观点。下面是每一自然段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 2 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
第1自然段
A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy(ISTP)has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars.The study compared the proportion of wealth poured into transport by thirty-seven cities around the world.This included both the public and private costs of building,maintaining and using a transport system.
默多克大学科学技术政策研究所(ISTP)为世界银行进行的一项新研究表明,公共交通比汽车更高效。这项研究比较了全球37个城市投入运输的资金比例。其中包括建设,维护和使用运输系统的公共和私人成本。
第2自然段
The study found that the Western Australian city of Perth is a good example of a city with minimal public transport.As a result,17%of its wealth went into transport costs.Some European and Asian cities,on the other hand,spent as little as 5%.Professor Peter Newman,ISTP Director,pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.
研究发现,澳大利亚西部的珀斯市是公共交通稀缺城市的一个很好例子。结果,其财富的17%被用在交通运输的花费上。另一方面,一些欧洲和亚洲城市的花费则仅为5%。ISTP主任彼得·纽曼(Peter Newman)教授指出,这些效率更高的城市能够在吸引产业和就业机会,或创造更好的居住环境方面带来差异。
第3自然段
According to Professor Newman,the larger Australian city of Melbourne is a rather unusual city in this sort of comparison.He describes it as two cities:‘A European city surrounded by a car-dependent one’.Melbourne’s large tram network has made car use in the inner city much lower,but the outer suburbs have the same car-based structure as most other Australian cities.The explosion in demand for accommodation in the inner suburbs of Melbourne suggests a recent change in many people’s preferences as to where they live.
根据纽曼教授的说法,在这种比较中,墨尔本这一澳大利亚较大的城市表现的很不寻常。他将其描述为两个城市:“一个被高度依赖汽车的城市所环绕的欧洲城市”。墨尔本的大型有轨电车网络使内城区的汽车使用率大大降低,但外部郊区与大多数澳大利亚其他城市一样,以汽车交通为主。墨尔本郊区内部对住房需求的激增表明,最近许多人对居住地的偏好发生了变化。
第4自然段
Newman says this is a new,broader way of considering public transport issues.In the past,the case for public transport has been made on the basis of environmental and social justice considerations rather than economics.Newman,however,believes the study demonstrates that‘the auto-dependent city model is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as environmental terms’.
纽曼说,这是一种新的,更广泛的考虑公共交通问题的方式。过去,公共交通的理由往往是基于环境和社会正义考虑,而不是出于经济考虑。然而,纽曼(Newman)认为,该研究表明“依赖汽车的城市模式在经济和环境方面效率低下,严重不足”。
第5自然段
Bicycle use was not included in the study but Newman noted that the two most‘bicycle friendly’cities considered–Amsterdam and Copenhagen–were very efficient,even though their public transport systems were‘reasonable but not special’.
该研究不包括自行车的使用,但纽曼指出,被认为是“对自行车最为友好”的两个城市-阿姆斯特丹和哥本哈根-效率很高,尽管它们的公共交通系统“合理但不特殊”。
第6自然段
It is common for supporters of road networks to reject the models of cities with good public transport by arguing that such systems would not work in their particular city.One objection is climate.Some people say their city could not make more use of public transport because it is either too hot or too cold.Newman rejects this,pointing out that public transport has been successful in both Toronto and Singapore and,in fact,he has checked the use of cars against climate and found‘zero correlation’.
道路网络的支持者通常会争辩说这样的系统在特定城市中不起作用,从而拒绝具有良好公共交通的城市模式。一种反对意见是气候。有人说他们的城市太热或太冷,无法充分利用公共交通。纽曼对此表示反对,他指出,多伦多和新加坡的公共交通都取得了成功,事实上,他已经检验了汽车使用与气候之间的关系,但发现相关性为零。
第7自然段
When it comes to other physical features,road lobbies are on stronger ground.For example,Newman accepts it would be hard for a city as hilly as Auckland to develop a really good rail network.However,he points out that both Hong Kong and Zürich have managed to make a success of their rail systems,heavy and light respectively,though there are few cities in the world as hilly.
当涉及其他地理特征时,道路游说集团的理由会更加充分一些。例如,纽曼(Newman)承认,像奥克兰这样的丘陵城市很难发展一个真正良好的铁路网络。但是,他指出,尽管世界上很少有丘陵城市,但香港和苏黎世都实现了重型和轻型铁路系统的成功。
第8自然段/段落A
In fact,Newman believes the main reason for adopting one sort of transport over another is politics:‘The more democratic the process,the more public transport is favored.’He considers Portland,Oregon,a perfect example of this.Some years ago,federal money was granted to build a new road.However,local pressure groups forced a referendum over whether to spend the money on light rail instead.The rail proposal won and the railway worked spectacularly well.In the years that have followed,more and more rail systems have been put in,dramatically changing the nature of the city.Newman notes that Portland has about the same population as Perth and had a similar population density at the time.
事实上,纽曼认为,采用一种交通方式而不采用另一种的主要原因是政治:“选择的过程越民主,公共交通方式就越受亲赖。“他认为,波特兰,俄勒冈州,都是这方面的很好例子。几年前,联邦拨款用于修建一条新道路。但是,当地的压力团体迫使人们就是否将钱花在轻轨上进行了全民公决。铁路提案获胜,并且运行异常出色。在随后的几年中,越来越多的铁路系统被投入使用,从而极大地改变了城市的性质。纽曼指出,当时波特兰与珀斯人口大致相同,人口密度相似。
第9自然段/段落B
In the UK,travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries,with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work.Trains and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination.However,public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl,causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.
在英国,上班时间至少已经稳定了六个世纪。人们会回避需要他们花半个多小时上班的情况。最初,火车和汽车使人们能够住得更远,而无需花费更长的时间到达目的地。但是,公共基础设施无法跟上城市扩张的步伐,导致大规模的交通拥堵问题。现在通勤时间大大增加。
第10自然段/段落C
There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where cars are the only viable transport.The example of European cities refutes that.They are often wealthier than their American counterparts but have not generated the same level of car use.In Stockholm,car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and wealthier.A new study makes this point even more starkly.Developing cities in Asia,such as Jakarta and Bangkok,make more use of the car than wealthy Asian cities such as Tokyo and Singapore.In cities that developed later,the World Bank and Asian Development Bank discouraged the building of public transport and people have been forced to rely on cars-creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.
人们普遍认为,财富的增长会鼓励人们住的更远,造成汽车是唯 一可用的交通工具。欧洲城市的例子反驳了这一点。他们通常比美国城市更加富裕,但汽车使用水平却不高。在斯德哥尔摩,随着城市越来越大,越来越富裕,近年来汽车的使用量实际上有所下降。一项新的研究使这一点更加明显。与亚洲富裕的城市(如东京和新加坡)相比,亚洲的发展中城市(如雅加达和曼谷)对汽车的使用更多。在后来发展的城市中,世界银行和亚洲开发银行不鼓励建设公共交通。人们被迫依赖汽车,造成了这些城市的交通拥堵。
第11自然段/段落D
Newman believes one of the best studies on how cities built for cars might be converted to rail use is The Urban Village report,which used Melbourne as an example.It found that pushing everyone into the city centre was not the best approach.Instead,the proposal advocated the creation of urban villages at hundreds of sites,mostly around railway stations.
纽曼认为,关于以汽车为主城市如何转换为以铁路为主的研究之一是《城市乡村》报告。该报告以墨尔本为例。研究发现,让每个人都进入市中心并不是最好的办法。相反,该提案主张在数百个地点(主要是火车站附近)建立城市村庄。
第12自然段/段落E
It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities.However,the ISTP team’s research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline.The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together.‘The new world will largely depend on human creativity,and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.’
人们曾经认为,电信的发展将导致人口分散,因为人们不再被迫进入城市。但是,ISTP团队的研究表明,在经历了数十年的下降之后,20世纪80年代城市的人口和工作密度有所上升或保持不变。对此的解释似乎是,将在相关领域工作的人们聚集在一起很有价值。“新世界将在很大程度上取决于人类的创造力,而创造力在人们面对面聚集的地方蓬勃发展”。
剑桥雅思6 Test1阅读Passage3原文翻译Climate Change and the Inuit气候变化与因纽特人
剑桥雅思6阅读第 一套题目第三篇文章的主题为气候变化与因纽特人。文章一共7个自然段,介绍了气候变化对北极-因纽特人主要生活区域-的影响,以及他们应对措施和生活方式的变化。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 1 Passage 3阅读原文翻译
A部分
Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic.Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud,following early thaws.There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes,of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts,and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual,carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters.Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us,but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects–if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate,the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer.The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming,cloudier skies,increased precipitation and higher sea levels.Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the‘canary in the mine’for global warming–a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.
北极各地都有不寻常事件的报道。因提前解冻,乘坐雪地摩托去准备夏季狩猎营地的因纽特人发现自己被泥泞的海水隔绝了。有报道说,因为积雪滴落并重新冻结,冰屋失去了其隔热性;随着永 久冻土融化,湖水被排入海中;海冰比平时更早破裂,使海豹无法被猎人触及。对于我们大多数人来说,气候变化可能仍然是一个相当抽象的概念。但是在北极,它已经产生了巨大的影响-如果夏季冰面继续以当前的速度缩小,则北冰洋可能很快在夏天变得彻底无冰。连锁效应可能包括气候更加温暖,天空更加多云,降水量增加和海平面升高。科学家们越来越渴望弄清楚正在发生什么,因为他们认为北极是全球变暖中“矿井里的金丝雀”,是对世界其他地区接下来发生事情的警告。
B部分
For the Inuit the problem is urgent.They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth.Climate change,whatever its causes,is a direct threat to their way of life.Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals,which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening.In Canada,where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory,Nunavut,they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science.This is a challenge in itself.
对于因纽特人来说,这个问题很紧急。他们与地球上最艰难的环境之一共同存在于不稳定的平衡中。不论其成因如何,气候变化都直接威胁着他们的生活方式。没有人像当地人那样了解北极,这也是为什么他们不满足于简单地退缩并让外部专家告诉他们所发生的事情的原因。在加拿大,因纽特人在该国最新领土努纳武特(Nunavut)捍卫来之不易的自治,他们相信在这一正在变化的环境中生存的最 大希望在于将其祖先知识与现代科学的精华相结合。这本身就是一个挑战。
C部分
The Canadian Arctic is a vast,treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year.Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home.Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings.Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago,surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish.The environment tested them to the limits:sometimes the colonists were successful,sometimes they failed and vanished.But around a thousand years ago,one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment.These Thule people moved in from Alaska,bringing kayaks,sleds,dogs,pottery and iron tools.They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.
加拿大北极地区是一片广阔而寸草不生的极地荒漠,一年中大部分时间都覆盖着白雪。冒险进入这片土地,你就会对那些将其称之为家的人所面临的困境有所了解。农业是不可能的,自然采集也很少。距今4,500年前,人类才开始在北极定居,并通过利用海洋哺乳动物和鱼类生存。环境将他们逼到极限:有时殖民者成功,有时他们失败并且消失。但是在大约一千年前,出现了一个非常适应北极环境的群体。这些图勒人从阿拉斯加迁移过来,带来了皮划艇,雪橇,狗,陶器和铁制工具。他们是当今因纽特人的祖先。
D部分
Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh.Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometers of rock and ice,and a handful of islands around the North Pole.It’s currently home to 2,500 people,all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit.Over the past 40 years,most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities,but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing.
图勒人后代的生活仍然严峻。努纳武特(Nunavut)是一块1900万平方公里土地。它布满岩石和冰山,还包括北极周围的一些岛屿。目前有2500人居住在这里。除了少数人之外,其他全都是土著因纽特人。在过去40年中,大多数人放弃了游牧方式,定居在该地区28个孤立的社区之中,但他们仍然严重依赖自然来提供食物和衣物。
Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world,or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer.It would cost a family around f7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat.Economic opportunities are scarce,and for many people state benefits are their only income.
当地商店中的物品必须经过世界上最昂贵的空中网络之一运到努纳武特,或者在夏季少数几个无冰周里通过补给船运送。如果一个家庭用进口肉类代替他们自己打猎所获得的肉,他们每年将花费7000英镑。经济机会稀缺,对许多人来说,国家福利是他们唯 一的收入。
E部分
While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change,there has certainly been an impact on people’s health.Obesity,heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems.There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting,trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear.In Nunavut’s‘igloo and email’society,where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land,there’s a high incidence of depression.
尽管气候变化限制了狩猎和诱捕,因纽特人实际上并不太可能会饿死。但这无疑对人们的健康产生了影响。肥胖,心脏病和糖尿病开始在一个之前从来没有出现过这些问题的人群中出现。随着传统的狩猎,诱捕和制皮技能开始消失,身份认同出现危机。在努纳武特(Nunavut)的“冰屋与电子邮件”社会中,在冰屋中出生的成年人所生的孩子可能从来没有在外地生活过,这造成抑郁症的发生率很高。
F部分
With so much at stake,the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic.Having survived there for centuries,they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task.And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom,increasingly referred to as‘Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit’,or IQ.‘In the early days,scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything.They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’says John Amagoalik,an Inuit leader and politician.‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities,who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns.They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests,or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.
有如此多的事情处于危险之中,因纽特人决心在探索北极气候变化的秘密方面发挥关键作用。在那里生存了几个世纪,他们相信自己丰富的传统知识对这项任务至关重要。西方科学家也开始利用这种智慧,越来越多地将其称为“Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit”或IQ。“早些时候,科学家来我们这里研究东西时都无视我们。他们只是认为这些人了解不多,所以我们不会问他们。”因纽特人领导人和政治家约翰·阿马戈阿利克(John Amagoalik)说,“但是近年来,IQ有了更多的信誉和重要性”。事实上,咨询当地社区现在已经是任何想要获得许可进行研究的人的基本要求。他们能够帮助设立研究日程,以反映其最主要的关切。他们可以拒绝他们认为会损害其利益的科学家的申请,或者拒绝可能对他们的日常生活和传统活动造成太大影响的研究项目。
G部分
Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough.Others,however,point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years.There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge,and despite the scientific onslaught,many predictions are no more than best guesses.IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.
一些科学家怀疑传统知识的价值,因为对北极的占领并不够久远。然而,其他人指出,最北端第 一个气象站的历史才可以追溯到50年前。我们的环境知识仍然存在巨大差距。尽管科学家们努力探索,但许多预测不过是最好的猜测而已。IQ可以帮助缩小差距,解决巨大的不确定性,即我们看到的情况中有多少是自然的反复无常,有多少是人类活动的结果。
剑桥雅思6 Test1阅读Passage2原文翻译Delivering the Goods货物运输
剑桥雅思6第 一套题目阅读第二篇文章的主题为国际贸易运输货物方式的变化。文章先概括了国际贸易在近期的快速发展,然后分析其背后的原因,指出货物运输方式和物品的变化起到很大作用,随后详细说明具体的变化有哪些。结构还是比较清晰的。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 1 Passage 2阅读原文翻译
自然段A
International trade is growing at a startling pace.While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3%a year,the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that.Foreign products,from meat to machinery,play a more important role in almost every economy in the world,and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation’s borders.
国际贸易正以惊人的速度增长。尽管全球经济以每年3%的速度扩张,但贸易量却以每年约两倍的复合年增长率增长。从肉类到机械,外国产品在世界上几乎每个经济体中都扮演着更重要的角色。现在的外国市场吸引着哪些从不担心境外销售的企业。
自然段B
What lies behind this explosion in international commerce?The general worldwide decline in trade barriers,such as customs duties and import quotas,is surely one explanation.The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another.But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed:the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market.Theoretically,in the world of trade,shipping costs do not matter.Goods,once they have been made,are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place.The real world,however,is full of frictions.Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America,but if delays in shipment tie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring,trade may lose its advantages.
国际贸易爆炸性增长背后的原因是什么?全世界范围内诸如关税和进口配额等贸易壁垒的普遍下降无疑是一种解释。传统上,一直是次要角色的国家的经济开放是另一种解释。但是,进出口热潮背后的一种力量被忽略了,即将商品推向市场的成本的迅速下降。从理论上讲,在贸易世界中,运输成本并不重要。货物一旦制成,就被认为可以立刻并且毫无成本地在不同地方之间移动。但是,现实世界充满摩擦。廉价劳动力可能会使中国服装在美国具有竞争力。但是,如果运输延误占用了营运资金并导致冬季大衣在春季到达,贸易可能会失去其优势。
自然段C
At the turn of the 20th century,agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere,accounting for about 70%of total output in Germany,Italy and France,and 40-50%in America,Britain and Japan.International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials,such as wheat,wood and iron ore,or processed commodities,such as meat and steel.But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.
20世纪初,农业和制造业几乎是世界上最重要的两个部门,占到德国、意大利和法国总产量的70%,美国、英国和日本的40-50%。因此,国际贸易以诸如小麦,木材和铁矿石之类的原材料,或诸如肉类和钢铁之类的加工商品为主。但是这些产品十分笨重,而且运输成本较高。
自然段D
Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours.Over time,however,world output has shifted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight.Today,it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade,and,thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components,manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky.As a result,less transportation is required for every dollar’s worth of imports or exports.
各国仍然与其地理上的邻国进行不成比例的贸易。但是,随着时间的流逝,世界产出已经转移到其价值与大小和重量无关的商品上。如今,制成品主导着贸易的流动。由于诸如轻量化组件之类的技术进步,制成品本身变得更轻,体积更小。结果,每进口或出口一美元产品所需的运输量就变少了。
自然段E
To see how this influences trade,consider the business of making disk drives for computers.Most of the world’s disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia.This is possible only because disk drives,while valuable,are small and light and so cost little to ship.Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market.Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.
要了解这如何影响贸易,可以考虑下为计算机制造磁盘驱动器的业务。世界上大多数磁盘驱动器的制造都集中在东南亚。这之所以成为可能是因为磁盘驱动器虽然价值很高,但又小又轻,因此运输成本很小。如果日本或德州的计算机制造商从新加坡进口驱动器而不是在国内市场上购买驱动器,他们并不会面临高的太多的运费。因此,距离对磁盘驱动器行业的全球化没有任何障碍。
自然段F
This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries.Films and compact discs cost little to transport,even by aeroplane.Computer software can be‘exported’without ever loading it onto a ship,simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another,so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product.Businesses can locate based on other considerations,such as the availability of labour,while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.
在迅速发展的信息产业中,情况更是如此。胶卷和光盘即使用飞机运输成本也很低。计算机软件可以通过电话线从一个国家传输到另一个国家实现出口,而无需将其装载到船上。因此运费和货物装卸安排对于决定在哪里生产该产品并不重要。企业可以基于其他考虑(例如劳动力)来定位,而不必担心交付产品的成本。
自然段G
In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along.But,behind the scenes,a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and intermodal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling.Forty years ago,the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling,which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way.The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship.By 1967,dual-purpose ships,carrying loose cargo in the hold*and containers on the deck,were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.
在许多国家,放松管制有助于推动这一进程。但是,在幕后,一系列被称为集装箱化和多式联运的技术创新导致了货物装卸效率的迅速提高。四十年前,进出口过程涉及很多处理阶段,这可能会导致运输途中部分货物被损坏或被盗。集装箱起重机的发明使得装卸集装箱而不颠覆船舶成为可能。采用标准集装箱尺寸使得可以在几乎任何船舶上运输任何箱子。到1967年,把零散货物放在船舱内和在甲板上堆放集装箱的两用船,已被让一次移动数千箱的全集装箱船所取代。
自然段H
The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient,intensely competitive business.But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story.National governments,by and large,kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight.This started changing,however,in the mid-1970s,when America began to deregulate its transportation industry.First airlines,then road hauliers and railways,were freed from restrictions on what they could carry,where they could haul it and what price they could charge.Big productivity gains resulted.Between 1985 and 1996,for example,America’s freight railways dramatically reduced their employment,trackage,and their fleets of locomotives–while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled.Europe’s railways have also shown marked,albeit smaller,productivity improvements.
集装箱运输将海运转变为高效,竞争激烈的业务。但是,往返码头运输货物却是另外一回事。总体而言,各国政府对卡车和铁路关税的态度要比对海运更为坚定。但是,这种情况在20世纪70年代中期开始改变,当时美国开始放宽对运输业的管制。首先是航空公司,然后是公路运输公司和铁路。它们的运输物品,运输地点和运输价格不再受到限制。从而大大提高了生产率。例如,在1985年至1996年之间,美国的货运铁路大大减少了他们的员工数量,轨道长度和火车头数量-同时增加了运输的货物量。尽管规模较小,欧洲的铁路也展现出明显的生产率提升。
自然段I
In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over,but in most countries the process still has far to go.State ownership of railways and airlines,regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices,such as cargo-handling monopolies,all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade.Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.
在美国,运输业大幅提高生产率的时期可能快要结束了,但是在大多数国家,这一过程还有很长的路要走。国家对铁路和航空的所有权,对运费的管理以及对反竞争行为的容忍,例如货物处理的垄断,都使运输成本过高,并阻碍了国际贸易。消除这些障碍将有助于世界经济进一步发展。
剑桥雅思6 Test 1阅读Passage 1原文翻译Australia’s Sporting Success澳大利亚的体育成就
剑桥雅思6第 一套题目阅读第 一篇文章介绍了澳大利亚在体育赛事上取得的成功。文章分为6段,从事实开始,逐步分析其成功的原因,尤其是测量所得的数据如何应用在提升运动员的成绩上。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思6 Test 1 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
自然段A
They play hard,they play often,and they play to win.Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles,demolishing rivals with seeming ease.How do they do it?A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine.At the Australian Institute of Sport(AIS),hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches.Another body,the Australian Sports Commission(ASC),finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women.Both provide intensive coaching,training facilities and nutritional advice.
他们努力工作,经常运动,并且努力赢得胜利。澳大利亚运动队赢得的冠 军数量远远超过他们应得的份额,似乎轻松地摧毁了对手。他们是怎么做到的呢?秘密的很大一部分是以科学和医学为基础的广泛而昂贵的体育学术网络。在澳大利亚体育学院(AIS),数百名年轻人和职业选手在教练的指导下生活和训练。另一个机构,澳大利亚体育委员会(ASC),为数千名男女运动员提供了96项体育项目的资助。两者都提供高强度的指导,培训设施和营养建议。
自然段B
Inside the academies,science takes centre stage.The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors,and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres.AIS scientists work across a number of sports,applying skills learned in one–such as building muscle strength in golfers–to others,such as swimming and squash.They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes.They all focus on one aim:winning.‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’says Peter Fricker,chief of science at AIS.
在学院内部,科学占据舞台的中心。AIS聘用了100多名体育科学家和医生,并与大学和研究中心的其他数十名人员进行了合作。AIS科学家的工作涵盖多种体育活动,将在一项运动中学到的技能(例如提高高尔夫球手的肌肉力量)应用到其他运动中,例如游泳和壁球。它们得到技术人员的支持。这些技术人员设计仪器以收集运动员数据。他们都专注于一个目标:获胜。AIS科学主任彼得·弗里克(Peter Fricker)表示:“我们不能浪费时间在飘渺的科学问题上,这些问题不能帮助教练与运动员合作并提高成绩。”
自然段C
A lot of their work comes down to measurement–everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist.This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes.The focus is on individuals,tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here,an extra millimetre there.No gain is too slight to bother with.It’s the tiny,gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results.To demonstrate how the system works,Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers.A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water,her arms moving in slow motion.Looking side-on,Mason measures the distance between strokes.From above,he analyses how her spine swivels.When fully developed,this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers.Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN(SWimming ANalysis)system now used in Australian national competitions.It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be analysed individually–stroke length,stroke frequency,average duration of each stroke,velocity,start,lap and finish times,and so on.At the end of each race,SWAN spits out data on each swimmer
他们的许多工作都归结为测量-从游泳者入水的确切角度到骑行者的每秒功率输出,无所不包。这些数据用于促进运动员的进步。重点放在个人身上,通过在这里提升百分之一秒,在那里提升一毫米来调整运动员的表现。没有任何提升是微不足道的。正是这种微小的、逐步的改进积累成世界瞩目的成果。为了演示该系统的工作原理,AIS的Bruce Mason展示了用于研究游泳者的3D分析工具的原型。冠 军游泳者的线框模型划过水面,手臂以慢动作运动。从侧面看,梅森测量每次划水之间的距离。从上面,他分析了她的脊椎如何旋转。完全开发后,该系统将使他能够建立生物力学特征,供教练使用,以帮助崭露头角的游泳者。梅森(Mason)对体育的贡献还包括开发了SWAN(SWimming ANalysis)系统,该系统现已在澳大利亚全国比赛中使用。它从以每秒50帧的速度运行的数码相机中收集图像,并将游泳者表现的每个部分分解为可以单独分析的因素-划水长度,划水频率,每次划水的平均持续时间,速度,开始,圈速和结束时间,等等。在每场比赛结束时,SWAN会向每位游泳者反馈数据。
自然段D
‘Take a look,’says Mason,pulling out a sheet of data.He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place,which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster.So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down?‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’says Mason.‘If he can improve on his turns,he can do much better’This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’research is bringing to a range of sports.With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne,they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate,sweating,heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run.There’s more to it than simply measuring performance.Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year.After years of experimentation,AlS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’saliva.If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level,training is eased or dropped altogether.Soon,IgA levels start rising again,and the danger passes.Since the tests were introduced,AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.
“看看吧”梅森拿出一张数据单,他指出了第二名和第三名游泳者的数据。它显示第三名的游泳者实际上游泳得更快。那么,为什么他慢了0.35秒呢?梅森说:“他的转身时间比另一个人慢了0.44秒。”“如果他能在转弯中有所进步,就可以做得更好”。这是AIS科学家的研究为一系列运动带来的准确性。通过与墨尔本微技术合作研究中心的合作,他们正在开发不显眼的传感器。该传感器将嵌入运动员的衣服或跑鞋中,以监测心率,出汗,产热量或任何其他可能影响运动员跑步能力的因素。除了简单地衡量表现之外,它还有更多的功能。弗里克(Fricker)举了每年可能因咳嗽和感冒而倒下11次或12次的运动员的例子。经过多年的实验,ALS和纽卡斯尔的新南威尔士大学开发出一种测试,可以测量运动员唾液中免疫球蛋白A的数量。如果IgA水平突然下降到一定水平以下,则训练就会更加轻松或完全放弃。很快,IgA水平又开始上升,危险过去了。自从引入测试以来,AIS所有项目的运动员在保持健康方面都非常成功。
自然段E
Using data is a complex business.Well before a championship,sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a‘competition model’,based on what they expect will be the winning times.‘You design the model to make that time,’says Mason.‘A start of this much,each free-swimming period has to be this fast,with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length,with turns done in these times.’All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets,both overall and for each segment of the race.Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.
使用数据是一项复杂的业务。在获得冠 军之前,体育科学家和教练开始根据他们期望的获胜节点开发“竞争模型”,为运动员做准备。梅森说:“您可以设计模型以节省时间。提前这么久开始,每次游泳周期必须这么快,并具有一定的划水频率和划水长度,并在这些时间点进行转弯”。然后,所有的训练都旨在使运动员在整个比赛过程和各个阶段达到这些目标。诸如此类的技术使澳大利亚成为了世界上最成功的体育国家。
自然段F
Of course,there’s nothing to stop other countries copying-and many have tried.Some years ago,the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes.At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996,these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists’and rowers’times.Now everyone uses them.The same has happened to the‘altitude tent’,developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level.But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes,and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.
当然,没有什么可以阻止其他国家模仿,而且许多国家已经尝试过。几年前,AIS为耐力运动员推出了内衬冷却剂的夹克。在1996年的亚特兰大奥运会上,这些设备最多可将自行车运动员和赛艇运动员的时间减少2%。现在每个人都在使用它们。AIS开发的用于复制海平面海拔训练效果的“海拔帐篷”也出现同样的情况。但是,澳大利亚的成功故事不仅仅在于简单地复制技术补丁。迄今为止,还没有哪个国家能够复制其整体的系统。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4阅读Passage 3原文翻译the effects of light on plant and animal species光对动植物的影响
剑桥雅思5第四套题目阅读第三篇文章的主题为光对动植物的影响。文章分为7段,分别介绍了光的重要性,光周期现象以及其对鸟类、植物的影响,并最后简单提到了耐阴类和喜光类植物的差别。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4 Passage 3阅读原文翻译
第1自然段
Light is important to organisms for two different reasons.Firstly it is used as a cue for the timing of daily and seasonal rhythms in both plants and animals,and secondly it is used to assist growth in plants.
光线对生物很重要的原因有两个。首先,它被用于动植物每天和季节性活动时间节点的提示,其次,它被用于辅助植物的生长。
第2自然段
Breeding in most organisms occurs during a part of the year only,and so a reliable cue is needed to trigger breeding behaviour.Day length is an excellent cue,because it provides a perfectly predictable pattern of change within the year.In the temperate zone in spring,temperatures fluctuate greatly from day to day,but day length increases steadily by a predictable amount.The seasonal impact of day length on physiological responses is called photoperiodism,and the amount of experimental evidence for this phenomenon is considerable.For example,some species of birds’breeding can be induced even in midwinter simply by increasing day length artificially(Wolfson 1964).Other examples of photoperiodism occur in plants.A short-day plant flowers when the day is less than a certain critical length.A long-day plant flowers after a certain critical day length is exceeded.In both cases the critical day length differs from species to species.Plants which flower after a period of vegetative growth,regardless of photoperiod,are known as day-neutral plants.
大多数生物的繁殖仅在一年的部分时间内发生,因此需要可靠的线索来触发繁殖行为。日长是一个很好的提示,因为它提供了一年中变化的可预测规律。在春季的温带地区,每天的温度波动很大,但日长每天稳定增加特定的数量。日长对生理反应的季节性影响称为光周期,这种现象的实验证据数量可观。例如,即使是在冬季,也可以通过人工增加日长来诱导某些鸟类的繁殖(Wolfson 1964)。光周期的其他例子存在于植物中。当白天短于特定的关键长度时,短日照植物就会开花。超过了某个关键的白天长度时,长日照植物就会开花。在这两种情况下,关键的日照长度因物种而异。在不考虑光周期的情况下,经过一段时间生长后开花的植物被称为日中性植物。
第3自然段
Breeding seasons in animals such as birds have evolved to occupy the part of the year in which offspring have the greatest chances of survival.Before the breeding season begins,food reserves must be built up to support the energy cost of reproduction,and to provide for young birds both when they are in the nest and after fiedging.Thus many temperate-zone birds use the increasing day lengths in spring as a cue to begin the nesting cycle,because this is a point when adequate food resources will be assured.
动物(如鸟类)的繁殖季节往往占据一年中后代生存概率最 大的一部分时间。在繁殖季节开始之前,必须建立食物储备以支持繁殖所需的能量消耗,并为幼鸟在巢中和飞翔后提供营养。因此,许多温带地区的鸟类利用春季不断增加的日长作为开始筑巢周期的提示,因为这时候可以确保有充足的食物来源。
第4自然段
The adaptive significance of photoperiodism in plants is also clear.Short-day plants that flower in spring in the temperate zone are adapted to maximising seedling growth during the growing season.Long-day plants are adapted for situations that require fertilization by insects,or a long period of seed ripening.Short-day plants that flower in the autumn in the temperate zone are able to build up food reserves over the growing season and over winter as seeds.Day-neutral plants have an evolutionary advantage when the connection between the favourable period for reproduction and day length is much less certain.For example,desert annuals germinate,flower and seed whenever suitable rainfall occurs,regardless of the day length.
光周期性在植物中的适应性意义也很明显。在温带地区春季开花的短日照植株在生长季节会最 大化幼苗的生长。长日照植物适合需要昆虫施肥或种子成熟期长的情况。在温带地区秋季开花的短日照植物能够在生长季节和冬季以种子的形式积累食物储备。当繁殖的有利时期和日长之间的联系不太确定时,日中性植物具有进化优势。例如,无论白天多长,只要有合适的降雨,沙漠的一年生植物就会发芽,开花和播种。
第5自然段
The breeding season of some plants can be delayed to extraordinary lengths.Bamboos are perennial grasses that remain in a vegetative state for many years and then suddenly flower,fruit and die(Evans 1976).Every bamboo of the species Chusquea abietifolia on the island of Jamaica flowered,set seed and died during 1884.The next generation of bamboo flowered and died between 1916 and 1918,which suggests a vegetative cycle of about 31 years.The climatic trigger for this flowering cycle is not yet known,but the adaptive significance is clear.The simultaneous production of masses of bamboo seeds(in some cases lying 12 to 15 centimetres deep on the ground)is more than all the seed-eating animals can cope with at the time,so that some seeds escape being eaten and grow up to form the next generation(Evans 1976).
有些植物的繁殖期可能会延迟很长的时间。竹子是多年生草本植物,会处于生长状态许多年,然后突然开花,结实和枯死(Evans 1976)。1884年,牙买加岛上的每一种Chusquea abietifolia竹子都开花,结实并死亡。下一代竹子在1916年至1918年之间开花并死亡,这表明其营养循环约为31年。尚不清楚该开花周期的气候触发因素,但适应性意义很明显。大量同时存在的竹子种子(在某些情况下位于地面12至15厘米深处)超出了吃种子动物的处理能力,因此一些种子逃脱了被食用的命运并成长为下一代(Evans 1976)。
第6自然段
The second reason light is important to organisms is that it is essential for photosynthesis.This is the process by which plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon from soil or water into organic material for growth.The rate of photosynthesis in a plant can be measured by calculating the rate of its uptake of carbon.There is a wide range of photosynthetic responses of plants to variations in light intensity.Some plants reach maximal photosynthesis at one-quarter full sunlight,and others,like sugarcane,never reach a maximum,but continue to increase photosynthesis rate as light intensity rises.
光对生物很重要的第二个原因是它对光合作用至关重要。这是植物利用太阳的能量将土壤或水中的碳转化成有机物质进行生长的过程。植物中的光合作用速率可以通过计算其碳吸收速率来测量。植物对光强度变化的光合作用响应范围很广。一些植物在四分之一的日光下达到最 大的光合作用,而其他植物(如甘蔗)从未达到过最 大值,而是随着光强度的提高,不断提升光合作用速率。
第7自然段
Plants in general can be divided into two groups:shade-tolerant species and shade-intolerant species.This classification is commonly used in forestry and horticulture.Shade-tolerant plants have lower photosynthetic rates and hence have lower growth rates than those of shade-intolerant species.Plant species become adapted to living in.a certain kind of habitat,and in the process evolve a series of characteristics that prevent them from occupying other habitats.Grime(1966)suggests that light may be one of the major components directing these adaptations.For example,eastern hemlock seedlings are shade-tolerant.They can survive in the forest understorey under very low light levels because they have a low photosynthetic rate.
一般而言,植物可分为两类:耐阴种和不耐阴种。这种分类通常用于林业和园艺业。耐阴植物的光合速率较低,因此其生长速度低于不耐阴植物的生长速率。植物物种适应了生活在某一特定的栖息地中,并在这个过程中进化出一系列防止其占用其他栖息地特征。Grime(1966)提出,光可能是指导这些适应过程的主要原因之一。例如,东部铁杉幼苗具有耐阴性。因为其光合作用速率较低,它们可以在非常低的光照水平下在森林伞盖之下生存。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4阅读Passage 2原文翻译Flawed Beauty:the problem with toughened glass钢化玻璃的问题
剑桥雅思5阅读第四套题目第二篇文章介绍了钢化玻璃破裂的问题。文章分为十段,从一次钢化玻璃破裂的事故说起,转到钢化玻璃的制作原理,然后分析其出现问题的原因,以及这一问题的解决难度。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4 Passage 2原文翻译
第1自然段
On 2nd August 1999,a particularly hot day in the town of Cirencester in the UK,a large pane of toughened glass in the roof of a shopping centre at Bishops Walk shattered without warning and fell from its frame.When fragments were analysed by experts at the giant glass manufacturer Pilkington,which had made the pane,they found that minute crystals of nickel sulphide trapped inside the glass had almost certainly caused the failure.
1999年8月2日,英国Cirencester镇正经历极其炎热的一天。在没有任何警示的情况下,一大块钢化玻璃突然破裂,并从位于主教大道的购物中心屋顶脱落。制作该窗户的大型玻璃制造商Pilkington的专家对碎片进行了分析后,发现几乎可以肯定的是,玻璃中截留的硫化镍微小晶体导致了这一故障。
第2自然段
‘The glass industry is aware of the issue,’says Brian Waldron,chairman of the standards committee at the Glass and Glazing Federation,a British trade association,and standards development officer at Pilkington.But he insists that cases are few and far between.‘It’s a very rare phenomenon,’he says.
英国贸易协会玻璃联合会标准委员会主席,同时也是Pikington标准制定官员的Brian Waldron说,玻璃行业已经意识到了这个问题。但是他坚持认为案件很少而且相差不大。他说,这是一种非常罕见的现象。
第3自然段
Others disagree.‘On average I see about one or two buildings a month suffering from nickel sulphide related failures,’says Barrie Josie,a consultant engineer involved in the Bishops Walk investigation.Other experts tell of similar experiences.Tony Wilmott of London-based consulting engineers Sandberg,and Simon Armstrong at CladTech Associates in Hampshire both say they know of hundreds of cases.‘What you hear is only the tip of the iceberg,’says Trevor Ford,a glass expert at Resolve Engineering in Brisbane,Queensland.He believes the reason is simple:‘No-one wants bad press.’
其他人不同意。参与主教大道调查的顾问工程师巴里·乔西(Barrie Josie)表示:“平均而言,我每个月都能看到大约一两个建筑物遭受与硫化镍有关的故障。”其他专家讲述了类似的经历。伦敦咨询工程师Sandberg的Tony Wilmott和汉普郡的CladTech Associates的Simon Armstrong都说他们知道数百起案件。“你听到的仅仅是冰山一角,”特雷弗·福特说。他是昆士兰州布里斯班Resolve Engineering公司的玻璃专家。他认为原因很简单:“没有人想要坏新闻。”
第4自然段
Toughened glass is found everywhere,from cars and bus shelters to the windows,walls and roofs of thousands of buildings around the world.It’s easy to see why.This glass has five times the strength of standard glass,and when it does break it shatters into tiny cubes rather than large,razor-sharp shards.Architects love it because large panels can be bolted together to make transparent walls,and turning it into ceilings and floors is almost as easy.
钢化玻璃随处可见,从轿车和公交车站到世界各地成千上万的建筑物的窗户,墙壁与屋顶。很容易明白为什么。这种玻璃的强度是标准玻璃的五倍。一旦破裂,它会碎成微小的立方体,而不是大而锋利的碎片。建筑师之所以喜欢它,是因为可以将大块的玻璃固定在一起以形成透明的墙,而将其变成天花板和地板几乎同样容易。
第5自然段
It is made by heating a sheet of ordinary glass to about 620℃to soften it slightly,allowing its structure to expand,and then cooling it rapidly with jets of cold air.This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior.When the interior finally solidifies and shrinks,it exerts a pull on the outer layer that leaves it in permanent compression and produces a tensile force inside the glass.As cracks propagate best in materials under tension,the compressive force on the surface must be overcome before the pane will break,making it more resistant to cracking.
它是通过将一片普通玻璃加热到620℃使其略微软化,结构膨胀,然后用冷空气迅速冷却而制成的。这导致窗格玻璃的外层在内部之前收缩和固化。当内部最终固化并收缩时,它会在外层上施加拉力,使它处于压缩状态,并在玻璃内部产生张力。由于裂纹在张力下在材料中传播最好,因此必须在玻璃破裂之前克服表面上的压缩力,以使其更抗破裂。、
第6自然段
The problem starts when glass contains nickel sulphide impurities.Trace amounts of nickel and sulphur are usually present in the raw materials used to make glass,and nickel can also be introduced by fragments of nickel alloys falling into the molten glass.As the glass is heated,these atoms react to form tiny crystals of nickel sulphide.Just a tenth of a gram of nickel in the furnace can create up to 50,000 crystals.
当玻璃中含有硫化镍杂质时,问题就开始了。微量的镍和硫通常存在于制造玻璃的原材料中,而且镍也可以通过落入熔融玻璃中的镍合金碎片进入其中。随着玻璃的加热,这些原子反应形成硫化镍的微小晶体。熔炉中仅十分之一克的镍就能产生多达50,000个晶体。
第7自然段
These crystals can exist in two forms:a dense form called the alpha phase,which is stable at high temperatures,and a less dense form called the beta phase,which is stable at room temperatures.The high temperatures used in the toughening process convert all the crystals to the dense,compact alpha form.But the subsequent cooling is so rapid that the crystals don’t have time to change back to the beta phase.This leaves unstable alpha crystals in the glass,primed like a coiled spring,ready to revert to the beta phase without warning.
这些晶体可以以两种形式存在:一种称为α相的致密形式,在高温下稳定;一种称为β相的致密性较低的形式,在室温下稳定。硬化过程中使用的高温将所有晶体转化为紧缩、致密的α形式。但是随后的冷却如此之快,以至于晶体没有时间变回β相。这会在玻璃中留下不稳定的α晶体,就像盘绕的弹簧一样随时会恢复到β相,而不会发出警告。
第8自然段
When this happens,the crystals expand by up to 4%.And if they are within the central,tensile region of the pane,the stresses this unleashes can shatter the whole sheet.The time that elapses before failure occurs is unpredictable.It could happen just months after manufacture,or decades later,although if the glass is heated–by sunlight,for example–the process is speeded up.Ironically,says Graham Dodd,of consulting engineers Arup in London,the oldest pane of toughened glass known to have failed due to nickel sulphide inclusions was in Pilkington’s glass research building in Lathom,Lancashire.The pane was 27 years old.
发生这种情况时,晶体最多会膨胀4%。如果它们在玻璃板的中央张力区域内,释放出来的应力会破坏整块玻璃板。故障发生之前的时间长短是无法预测的。它可能在制造后的几个月内发生,也可能在几十年后发生,尽管玻璃被加热的话,过程会加快(比如在阳光照射下升温)。具有讽刺意味的是,伦敦咨询公司Arup的格雷厄姆·多德(Graham Dodd)表示,最古老的因硫化镍夹杂而失效的钢化玻璃窗格,位于Lancashire,Lathom,Pikington的玻璃研究中心。当时它已经有27年的历史
第9自然段
Data showing the scale of the nickel sulphide problem is almost impossible to find.The picture is made more complicated by the fact that these crystals occur in batches.So even if,on average,there is only one inclusion in 7 tonnes of glass,if you experience one nickel sulphide failure in your building,that probably means you’ve got a problem in more than one pane.Josie says that in the last decade he has worked on over 15 buildings with the number of failures into double figures.
几乎不可能找到硫化镍问题规模的相关数据。这些晶体成批出现,使情况变得更加复杂。因此,即使平均而言,在7吨玻璃中只有一块包含一杂质,如果你在建筑物中遇到一次硫化镍失效的情况,那可能意味着在不止一块玻璃存在问题。乔西说,在过去的十年中,他对超过15座建筑进行研究,失败的数量达到了两位数。
第10自然段
One of the worst examples of this is Waterfront Place,which was completed in 1990.Over the following decade the 40-storey Brisbane block suffered a rash of failures.Eighty panes of its toughened glass shattered due to inclusions before experts were finally called in.John Barry,an expert in nickel sulphide contamination at the University of Queensland,analysed every glass pane in the building.Using a studio camera,a photographer went up in a cradle to take photos of every pane.These were scanned under a modified microfiche reader for signs of nickel sulphide crystals.‘We discovered at least another 120 panes with potentially dangerous inclusions which were then replaced,’says Barry.‘It was a very expensive and time-consuming process that took around six months to complete.’Though the project cost A$1.6 million(nearly£700,000),the alternative–re-cladding the entire building–would have cost ten times as much.
最糟糕的例子之一是1990年建成的海滨广场(Waterfront Place)。在随后的十年中,布里斯班40层高的大楼遭受了多次事故。在专家最终被召集过来之前,其八十块玻璃钢化玻璃都因为杂质而破裂了。约翰·巴里,昆士兰硫化物污染专家,分析了建筑的每个玻璃面板。摄影师在围栏里用摄影棚的照相机为每块窗格拍照。这些在改进的微缩胶片阅读器上进行扫描以寻找硫化镍晶体迹象。巴里说:“我们至少发现了120块带有潜在危险杂质的玻璃,然后将其更换。这是一个非常昂贵而且耗时的过程,大约需要六个月才能完成。”虽然工程高达160万澳元(约合700,000英镑),其替代方案-重新覆盖整个建筑物-成本将是这的十倍。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4阅读Passage 1原文翻译The Impact of wilderness tourism荒野旅游的影响
剑桥雅思5第四套题目阅读第 一篇文章的主题为荒野旅游的影响。文章分为三大部分,每个部分又细分成几个自然段,分别讲述了荒野旅游兴起的原因,它对当地社区的影响,以及荒野旅游地区的居民如何在自身需求和旅游业需求之间找到平衡。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 4 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
A部分第1段
The market for tourism in remote areas is booming as never before.Countries all across the world are actively promoting their‘wilderness’regions–such as mountains,Arctic lands,deserts,small islands and wetlands–to high-spending tourists.The attraction of these areas is obvious:by definition,wilderness tourism requires little or no initial investment.But that does not mean that there is no cost.As the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development recognized,these regions are fragile(i.e.highly vulnerable to abnormal pressures)not just in terms of their ecology,but also in terms of the culture of their inhabitants.The three most significant types of fragile environment in these respects,and also in terms of the proportion of the Earth’s surface they cover,are deserts,mountains and Arctic areas.An important characteristic is their marked seasonality,with harsh conditions prevailing for many months each year.Consequently,most human activities,including tourism,are limited to quite clearly defined parts of the year.
偏远地区的旅游市场正变的空前繁荣。世界各地的国家都在积极向高消费游客推广其“荒野”地区,例如山脉,北极地区,沙漠,小岛和湿地。这些地区的吸引力是显而易见的:按照定义,荒野旅游几乎或完全不需要初期投资。但这并不意味着没有成本。正如1992年联合国环境与发展会议意识到的,这些地区在他们的生态环境和居民文化方面都十分脆弱(非常容易受到外界压力的影响)。在这些方面以及就它们所覆盖的地球表面的比例而言,三种最重要的脆弱环境类型是沙漠,山脉和北极地区。一个重要的特征是其明显的季节性,每年都有数月处在极其恶劣的条件下。因此,大多数人类活动,包括旅游业,都局限于一年中特定的部分。
A部分第2段
Tourists are drawn to these regions by their natural landscape beauty and the unique cultures of their indigenous people.And poor governments in these isolated areas have welcomed the new breed of‘adventure tourist’,grateful for the hard currency they bring.This article is from Laokaoya website.For several years now,tourism has been the prime source of foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan.Tourism is also a key element in the economies of Arctic zones such as Lapland and Alaska and in desert areas such as Ayers Rock in Australia and Arizona’s Monument Valley.
游客因其自然景观的优美和土著人民独特的文化而被这些地区吸引。这些偏远地区的贫穷政府欢迎新型的“冒险旅行者”,为他们带来的硬通货而充满感激。几年来,旅游业一直是尼泊尔和不丹外汇的主要来源。旅游业在拉普兰和阿拉斯加等北极地区以及澳大利亚艾尔斯岩和亚利桑那州的纪念碑谷等沙漠地区的经济中也很重要。
B部分第1段
Once a location is established as a main tourist destination,the effects on the local community are profound.When hill-farmers,for example,can make more money in a few weeks working as porters for foreign trekkers than they can in a year working in their fields,it is not surprising that many of them give up their farm-work,which is thus left to other members of the family.In some hill-regions,this has led to a serious decline in farm output and a change in the local diet,because there is insufficient labour to maintain terraces and irrigation systems and tend to crops.The result has been that many people in these regions have turned to outside supplies of rice and other foods.
一旦一个地点被确立为主要的旅游目的地,它对当地社区的影响将是深远的。例如,当山区农民在担任外国徒步旅行者的搬运工几个星期就能赚到比在田间工作一年更多的钱时,他们中的许多人放弃农业劳动,将其留给其他家庭成员就不足为奇了。在一些丘陵地区,由于没有足够的劳动力维持梯田和灌溉系统并照顾农作物,农业产量严重下降,并导致当地饮食的变化。结果是这些地区的许多人需要外部供应大米和其他食物。
B部分第2段
In Arctic and desert societies,year-round survival has traditionally depended on hunting animals and fish and collecting fruit over a relatively short season.However,as some inhabitants become involved in tourism,they no longer have time to collect wild food;this has led to increasing dependence on bought food and stores.Tourism is not always the culprit behind such changes.All kinds of wage labour,or government handouts,tend to undermine traditional survival systems.Whatever the cause,the dilemma is always the same:what happens if these new,external sources of income dry up?
在北极和沙漠地区,一整年的生存传统上依赖于在相对较短的季节里猎杀动物和鱼类并收集果实。但是,随着一些居民开始涉足旅游业,他们不再有时间收集野生食物。这导致他们对购买食品和商店的依赖性越来越大。旅游业并不总是这种变化背后的罪魁祸首。各种各样的工资劳动或政府补助,往往会破坏传统的生存制度。无论原因是什么,困境始终是相同的:如果这些新的外部收入来源枯竭,会发生什么?
B部分第3段
The physical impact of visitors is another serious problem associated with the growth in adventure tourism.Much attention has focused on erosion along major trails,but perhaps more important are the deforestation and impacts on water supplies arising from the need to provide tourists with cooked food and hot showers.In both mountains and deserts,slow-growing trees are often the main sources of fuel and water supplies may be limited or vulnerable to degradation through heavy use.
游客自身的影响是另一个与冒险旅游的发展相关的严重问题。大多数注意力都集中在主要步道的侵蚀上,但也许更重要的是由于需要为游客提供熟食和热水淋浴而造成的森林砍伐和对水供应的影响。在山区和沙漠中,生长缓慢的树木通常是燃料的主要来源,并且供水可能受到限制,或者容易因大量使用而退化。
C部分第1段
Stories about the problems of tourism have become legion in the last few years.Yet it does not have to be a problem.Although tourism inevitably affects the region in which it takes place,the costs to these fragile environments and their local cultures can be minimized.Indeed,it can even be a vehicle for reinvigorating local cultures,as has happened with the Sherpas of Nepal’s Khumbu Valley and in some Alpine villages.And a growing number of adventure tourism operators are trying to ensure that their activities benefit the local population and environment over the long term.
最近几年里,有关旅游业问题的故事层出不穷。但这并不一定是问题。尽管旅游业不可避免地会影响其发生的地区,但可以将对这些脆弱环境及其当地文化的影响降到最 低。确实,它甚至可以成为振兴当地文化的工具,就像尼泊尔昆布山谷的Sherpas和某些Alpine村庄那样。越来越多的冒险旅游经营者试图确保他们的活动从长远来看会使当地人口和环境受益。
C部分第2段
In the Swiss Alps,communities have decided that their future depends on integrating tourism more effectively with the local economy.Local concern about the rising number of second home developments in the Swiss Pays d’Enhaut resulted in limits being imposed on their growth.There has also been a renaissance in communal cheese production in the area,providing the locals with a reliable source of income that does not depend on outside visitors.
在瑞士阿尔卑斯山,社区认为他们的未来取决于更有效地将旅游业与当地经济相结合。当地人对瑞士Pays d’Enhaut第二套住房开发数量的增加感到担忧,导致其发展受到限制。该地区的集体奶酪生产也正在复兴,这为当地人提供了可靠的收入来源,而这些收入不依赖外部访客。
C部分第3段
Many of the Arctic tourist destinations have been exploited by outside companies,who employ transient workers and repatriate most of the profits to their home base.But some Arctic communities are now operating tour businesses themselves,thereby ensuring that the benefits accrue locally.For instance,a native corporation in Alaska,employing local people,is running an air tour from Anchorage to Kotzebue,where tourists eat Arctic food,walk on the tundra and watch local musicians and dancers.
许多北极旅游胜地已被外部公司开发,这些公司雇用临时工并将大部分利润汇回本国。但是,一些北极社区现在自己经营旅游业务,从而确保了收益在当地积累。例如,阿拉斯加的一家本地公司雇用当地人,正在运营一条从安克雷奇(Anchorage)到科泽布(Kotzebue)的空中旅行线路,游客在这里吃北极食物,在冻原上行走并观看当地音乐家和舞者的表演。
C部分第4段
Native people in the desert regions of the American Southwest have followed similar strategies,encouraging tourists to visit their pueblos and reservations to purchase high-quality handicrafts and artwork.The Acoma and San Ildefonso pueblos have established highly profitable pottery businesses,while the Navajo and Hopi groups have been similarly successful with jewelry.
美国西南部沙漠地区的原住民也采取了类似的策略,鼓励游客参观他们的普韦布洛村落和保留区,并购买高品质的手工艺品和艺术品。Acoma和San Ildefonso村庄建立了利润很高的陶器企业,而纳瓦霍和霍皮基团已经在珠宝方面取得类似的成功。
C部分第5段
Too many people living in fragile environments have lost control over their economies,their culture and their environment when tourism has penetrated their homelands.Merely restricting tourism cannot be the solution to the imbalance,because people’s desire to see new places will not just disappear.Instead,communities in fragile environments must achieve greater control over tourism ventures in their regions,in order to balance their needs and aspirations with the demands of tourism.A growing number of communities are demonstrating that,with firm communal decision-making,this is possible.The critical question now is whether this can become the norm,rather than the exception.
当旅游业渗透到他们的家园时,太多生活在脆弱环境中的人失去了其对经济,文化和环境的控制。仅仅限制旅游业并不能解决不平衡的问题,因为人们对新地方的渴望并不会消失。取而代之的是,处于脆弱环境中的社区必须更好地控制其所在地的旅游企业,以平衡他们与旅游业的需求。越来越多的社区表明,通过坚定的社区决策,这是可能的。现在的关键问题是,这是否可以成为常态,而不是例外。
剑桥雅思5 Test 3阅读Passage 3原文翻译The return of Artificial Intelligence人工智能的回归
剑桥雅思5阅读第三套题目第三篇文章的主题为人工智能的回归。文章分为7段,分别介绍了人工智能的历史起源,曾经的鼎盛时期,后来遇到的挫折,现在发展的新阶段,促进其发展的积极因素,以及对未来的预测等。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 3 Passage 3阅读原文翻译
自然段A
After years in the wilderness,the term‘artificial intelligence’(AI)seems poised to make a comeback.AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s.It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI,a movie about a robot boy.This has ignited public debate about AI,but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry.Researchers,executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas.And it is not always hype.The term is being applied,with some justification,to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers.Admittedly,the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go,and some firms still prefer to avoid using it.But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.
在荒废多年之后,“人工智能”(AI)一词似乎势必卷土重来。AI在20世纪80年代十分流行,但在20世纪90年代消失了。一部关于机器人男孩的电影《AI》的发布重新唤起了公众的意识。这点燃了关于AI的公开辩论,但该术语也再次被计算机行业使用。研究人员,管理人员和市场营销人员现在正在使用该表述,而不会产生讽刺或带有引号。而且它并不总是炒作。该术语被合理地用于描述一些产品。它们建立在最初由AI研究者所开发的技术之上。诚然,该术语的恢复还有很长的路要走,并且一些公司仍然希望避免使用它。但是,其他人再次开始使用它的事实表明,AI已从被视为过于雄心勃勃且成绩欠佳的研究领域大步向前发展。
自然段B
The field was launched,and the term‘artificial intelligence’coined,at a conference in 1956 by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky,John McCarthy,Herbert Simon and Alan Newell,all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field.The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research,cybernetics,logic and computer science.The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines.That said,different groups of researchers attacked different problems,from speech recognition to chess playing,in different ways;AI unified the field in name only.But it was a term that captured the public imagination.
在1956年的一次会议上,由马文·明斯基,约翰·麦卡锡,赫伯特·西蒙和艾伦·纽厄尔等人组成的研究小组提出了这一研究领域,并创造了“人工智能”一词。他们后来全都成为该领域的佼佼者。该表达为研究计划提供了一个引人入胜但具有参考价值的名称。该研究计划涵盖了诸如运筹学,控制论,逻辑学和计算机科学等先前分散的领域。他们的共同目标是尝试使用机器捕捉或模仿人类的能力。也就是说,不同的研究人员群体以不同的方式攻克不同的问题,从语音识别到下棋。AI只是在名字上将这一领域整合起来。但这个词激发了公众的想象。
自然段C
Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985.A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations.For years,AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner.Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating‘artificial intelligence’would be substantially solved.Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress.It proved to be a false dawn.Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise,and a backlash ensued.‘There was undue optimism in the early 1980s,’says David Leake,a researcher at Indiana University.‘Then when people realised these were hard problems,there was retrenchment.By the late 1980s,the term AI was being avoided by many researchers,who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks,agent technology,case-based reasoning,and so on.’
大多数研究人员都同意A I在1985年左右达到顶峰。对科幻电影感兴趣,并对计算机日益强大的功能感到兴奋的公众对此寄予厚望。多年来,AI研究人员一直暗示突破指日可待。马文·明斯基(Marvin Minsky)在1967年表示,创造“人工智能”的问题将在一代人以内得到实质性解决。医学诊断程序和语音识别软件的原型似乎正在取得进展。事实证明那是虚假的曙光。会思考的计算机和家用机器人未能实现,反弹随之而来。印第安纳大学的研究人员戴维·莱克(David Leake)说:“在20世纪80年代初,人们过分乐观。然后,当人们意识到这些是十分困难的问题时,紧缩就发生了。到20世纪80年代后期,许多研究人员都不再使用‘AI’一词。他们选择将自己与特定的子学科联系在一起,例如神经网络,代理技术,基于案例的推理等等。”
自然段D
Ironically,in some ways AI was a victim of its own success.Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved,such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended,the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first place.‘If it works,it can’t be AI,’as Dr Leake characterises it.The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI came to refer to‘blue-sky’research that was still years away from commercialisation.Researchers joked that AI stood for‘almost implemented’.Meanwhile,the technologies that made it onto the market,such as speech recognition,language translation and decision-support software,were no longer regarded as AI.Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.
具有讽刺意味的是,从某种方式上说,AI是自己成功的受害者。每当一个平凡的问题得到解决,如构建无人操作的飞机降落系统,该问题就会立刻被视为不是AI。正如Leake博士概括的那样,“如果它行的通,它就不是AI。”。这种反复移动目标方式造成了如下影响:AI指的是距商业化还差几年的“blue-sky”研究。研究人员开玩笑说AI代表“几乎已实现”。同时,已经进入市场的技术,如语音识别,语言翻译和决策辅助软件等,不再被当作AI来看待。然而,这三者曾一度处于AI研究的范围之内。
自然段E
But the tide may now be turning,according to Dr Leake.HNC Software of San Diego,backed by a government agency,reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered.HNC claim that their system,based on a cluster of 30 processors,could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background–tasks humans can do well,but computers cannot.‘Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it,the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development,’says Dr Leake.
但是据Leake博士说,现在这一潮流可能正在扭转。由政府机构支持的圣地亚哥HNC软件公司认为,他们研究人工智能的新方法是迄今为止最强大,最有前途的方法。HNC声称,他们的系统基于30个处理器的集群,可用于在战场上发现伪装的车辆或从嘈杂的背景中提取语音信号-这些都是人类可以做的很好,但计算机无法完成的任务。Leake博士说:“无论他们的技术是否达到自己宣称的标准,HNC对使用AI的强调本身就是一个有趣的发展。”
自然段F
Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology,rather than just a clever business model,to differentiate themselves.In particular,the problem of information overload,exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages,means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information–classic AI problems.That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.
不久的将来可能提振AI前景的另一个因素是,投资者现在正在寻找使用聪明的技术而不是聪明的商业模式来使自己与众不同的公司。尤其是,电子邮件的增长和网页数量的激增加剧了信息过载的问题,这意味着有很多机会可以利用新技术来帮助对信息进行过滤和分类-经典的AI问题。这可能意味着将出现更多的人工智能公司以应对这一挑战。
自然段G
The 1969 film,2001:A Space Odyssey,featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000.As well as understanding and speaking English,HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread.HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001.But 2001 has been and gone,and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer.Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech,but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive.It may be,however,that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important,and AI can now be judged by what it can do,rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film.‘People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do,’says Dr Leake hopefully.
1969年的电影《2001:太空漫游指南》以一部名为HAL 9000的智能计算机为特色。除了能理解和说英语外,HAL还能下象棋,甚至学会读唇语。HAL由此代表了20世纪60年代的乐观看法,即智能计算机将在2001年得到广泛应用。但是2001年已经过去了,现在仍然没有类似HAL的计算机的迹象。存在独立的系统可以下棋或转录语音,但是机器智能的一般理论仍然难以捉摸。但是,与HAL的比较似乎不再那么重要了,现在可以通过它能做什么来判断AI,而不是根据它与一部拥有30年历史的科幻电影的匹配程度来判断。Leake博士满怀希望地说:“人们开始意识到这些系统可以做些令人印象深刻的事情。”
剑桥雅思5 Test 3阅读Passage 2原文翻译Disappearing Delta消失的三角洲
剑桥雅思5阅读第三套题目第二篇文章的主题为日益消失的尼罗河三角洲。文章分为六段,一开始介绍三角洲被侵蚀的现状,然后分析造成这一情况的各种原因,最后提出解决问题的短期和长期方案,属于比较典型的提出问题,分析问题,解决问题的结构。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 3 Passage 2阅读原文翻译
A部分
The fertile land of the Nile delta is being eroded along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast at an astounding rate,in some parts estimated at 100 metres per year.In the past,land scoured away from the coastline by the currents of the Mediterranean Sea used to be replaced by sediment brought down to the delta by the River Nile,but this is no longer happening.
埃及地中海沿岸尼罗河三角洲的肥沃土地正以惊人的速度被侵蚀。在某些地方,估计达到100米/每年。过去,被地中海水洋流冲刷掉的海岸线的土地会被尼罗河(River Nile)带到三角洲的沉积物所代替,但是这种情况已经不再发生。
B部分
Up to now,people have blamed this loss of delta land on the two large dams at Aswan in the south of Egypt,which hold back virtually all of the sediment that used to flow down the river.Before the dams were built,the Nile flowed freely,carrying huge quantities of sediment north from Africa’s interior to be deposited on the Nile delta.This continued for 7,000 years,eventually covering a region of over 22,000 square kilometres with layers of fertile silt.Annual flooding brought in new,nutrient-rich soil to the delta region,replacing what had been washed away by the sea,and dispensing with the need for fertilizers in Egypt’s richest food-growing area.But when the Aswan dams were constructed in the 20th century to provide electricity and irrigation,and to protect the huge population centre of Cairo and its surrounding areas from annual flooding and drought,most of the sediment with its natural fertilizer accumulated up above the dam in the southern,upstream half of Lake Nasser,instead of passing down to the delta.
迄今为止,人们将三角洲土壤流失的责任归咎于埃及南部阿斯旺的两座大水坝。这些水坝实际上拦截了过去顺流而下的所有沉积物。在修建大坝之前,尼罗河自由流动,将非洲内陆大量的沉积物向北带到尼罗河三角洲。这种情况持续了7,000年,最终形成22,000平方公里的肥沃土壤。每年的洪水给三角洲地区带来了营养丰富的新土壤,代替被海水冲走的那些,并满足埃及最富有的粮食种植区对肥料的需求。但是,当阿斯旺大坝在20世纪被建造起来以提供电力和灌溉,并保护开罗及其周边地区的巨大人口中心免受年度洪水和干旱的侵袭时,大部分的沉积物及其天然肥料都堆积在大坝南部上方,纳赛尔湖上游的一半,而不是向下到三角洲。
C部分
Now,however,there turns out to be more to the story.It appears that the sediment-free water emerging from the Aswan dams picks up silt and sand as it erodes the river bed and banks on the 800-kilometre trip to Cairo.Daniel Jean Stanley of the Smithsonian Institute noticed that water samples taken in Cairo,just before the river enters the delta,indicated that the river sometimes carries more than 850 grams of sediment per cubic metre of water–almost half of what it carried before the dams were built.‘I’m ashamed to say that the significance of this didn’t strike me until after I had read 50 or 60 studies,’says Stanley in Marine Geology.‘There is still a lot of sediment coming into the delta,but virtually no sediment comes out into the Mediterranean to replenish the coastline.So this sediment must be trapped on the delta itself.’
但是,现在,事实证明故事还不止于此。从阿斯旺水坝涌出的不含沉积物水在前往开罗的800公里的行程中,冲走了淤泥和沙子,侵蚀了河床和河岸。史密森尼学会(Smithsonian Institute)的丹尼尔·让·斯坦利(Daniel Jean Stanley)注意到,在河流进入三角洲之前,在开罗采集的水样表明,河流每立方米水中有时携带850克以上的沉积物-几乎是大坝修建之前沉积量的一半。“我羞于承认,直到读了50或60篇研究之后才意识到这一发现的重要性”,斯坦利在Marin Geology上说,“仍有大量沉积物进入三角洲,但实际上没有沉积物进入地中海以补充海岸线。因此,这些沉积物一定被困在了三角洲自己身上”。
D部分
Once north of Cairo,most of the Nile water is diverted into more than 10,000 kilometres of irrigation canals and only a small proportion reaches the sea directly through the rivers in the delta.The water in the irrigation canals is still or very slow-moving and thus cannot carry sediment,Stanley explains.The sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals and then is added to fields by farmers or pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons that are located near the outer edges of the delta.So very little of it actually reaches the coastline to replace what is being washed away by the Mediterranean currents.
开罗以北,尼罗河的大部分水被引到10,000多公里的灌溉渠中,只有一小部分直接通过三角洲的河流到达大海。斯坦利解释说,灌溉渠中的水要么静止要么流动非常缓慢,因此无法携带沉积物。沉积物沉入运河底部,然后由农民加到田间,或与水一起泵入位于三角洲外缘的四个大型淡水泻湖中。因此实际上只有很少部分到达海岸线来代替被地中海洋流冲走的东西。
E部分
The farms on the delta plains and fishing and aquaculture in the lagoons account for much of Egypt’s food supply.But by the time the sediment has come to rest in the fields and lagoons it is laden with municipal,industrial and agricultural waste from the Cairo region,which is home to more than 40 million people.‘Pollutants are building up faster and faster,’says Stanley.
三角洲平原上的农场以及泻湖中的渔业和水产养殖业占埃及粮食供应的大部分。但是,当沉积物在田野和泻湖中沉淀下来时,它已经充满了来自开罗地区市政,工业和农业的废物。该地区居住着4000万人。斯坦利说:“污染物的积累越来越快。”
Based on his investigations of sediment from the delta lagoons,Frederic Siegel of George Washington University concurs.‘In Manzalah Lagoon,for example,the increase in mercury,lead,copper and zinc coincided with the building of the High Dam at Aswan,the availability of cheap electricity,and the development of major power-based industries,’he says.Since that time the concentration of mercury has increased significantly.Lead from engines that use leaded fuels and from other industrial sources has also increased dramatically.These poisons can easily enter the food chain,affecting the productivity of fishing and farming.Another problem is that agricultural wastes include fertilizers which stimulate increases in plant growth in the lagoons and upset the ecology of the area,with serious effects on the fishing industry.
根据他对三角洲泻湖沉积物的调查,乔治华盛顿大学的弗雷德里克·西格尔(Frederic Siegel)赞同上述观点。“例如,Manzalah泻湖中水银,铅,铜和锌增长的时间恰好与阿斯旺大坝的建造,廉价电力的提供,以及主要电力基础产业发展建设的时间相同,”他说。自那时以来,水印的浓度已大大增加。来自使用含铅燃料的发动机和其他工业来源的铅也急剧增加。这些有毒物质很容易进入食物链,影响渔业和农业的生产力。另一个问题是,农业废物中包含的肥料会刺激泻湖中植物的生长并破坏该地区的生态,对渔业产生严重影响。
F部分
According to Siegel,international environmental organisations are beginning to pay closer attention to the region,partly because of the problems of erosion and pollution of the Nile delta,but principally because they fear the impact this situation could have on the whole Mediterranean coastal ecosystem.But there are no easy solutions.In the immediate future,Stanley believes that one solution would be to make artificial floods to flush out the delta waterways,in the same way,that natural floods did before the construction of the dams.He says,however,that in the long term an alternative process such as desalination may have to be used to increase the amount of water available.‘In my view,Egypt must devise a way to have more water running through the river and the delta,’says Stanley.Easier said than done in a desert region with a rapidly growing population.
根据西格尔(Siegel)的说法,国际环境组织开始更加关注该地区。部分原因是尼罗河三角洲的侵蚀和污染问题,但主要是因为他们担心这种情况可能会对整个地中海沿岸生态系统产生影响。但是没有简单的解决方案。斯坦利认为,短期来看,一种解决方案将是制造人工洪水以冲刷三角洲水道,就像自然洪水在修建大坝之前做的一样。但他说,长远来看,可能必须使用诸如海水淡化等替代工艺来增加可用水量。斯坦利说:“我认为,埃及必须设计一种方法,使更多的水流经河道和三角洲。”这说起来比在人口迅速增长的沙漠地区做起来要容易。
剑桥雅思5 Test 3阅读Passage 1原文翻译Early Childhood Education早期儿童教育
剑桥雅思5阅读第三套题目第 一篇文章的主题为早期儿童教育。文章分为六部分,一上来先提出教育开始年龄的问题,然后介绍两个美国的早教项目以说明早教的重要性,最后指出其中一个项目对新西兰的借鉴意义。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思5 Test 3 Passage 1阅读原文翻译
A部分
‘Education To Be More’was published last August.It was the report of the New Zealand Government’s Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group.The report argued for enhanced equity of access and better funding for childcare and early childhood education institutions.Unquestionably,that’s a real need;but since parents don’t normally send children to pre-schools until the age of three,are we missing out on the most important years of all?
去年八月出版了《Education to be more》。这是新西兰政府儿童早期照顾与教育工作组的报告。该报告主张加强机会公平,为托儿和幼儿教育机构提供更好的资金。毫无疑问,这是真正的需求。但由于父母通常要到三岁才会送孩子上学前班,我们错过了最重要的几年吗?
B部分
A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that,by the age of three,most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words–most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.
一项持续13年的哈佛大学对儿童早期发育的研究表明,到三岁的时候,大多数孩子都拥有认识1000个字左右的潜力-这些构成了他们在此后生活的日常交流中所使用的大部分语言。
Furthermore,research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity,it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life.Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life,and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school.Once over the age of three,children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world.
此外,研究表明,虽然每个孩子天生就有好奇心,但它在第二年和第三年却可能被强烈的抑制。研究人员声称,人的性格是在生命的前两年中形成的。在前三年中,孩子们将学习以后在家和学校里学习所使用的基本技能。一旦超过三岁,孩子将在现有的关于世界知识的基础上进行扩展。
C部分
It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system.That’s observed not just in New Zealand,but also in Australia,Britain and America.In an attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement,a nationwide programme called‘Headstart’was launched in the United States in 1965.A lot of money was poured into it.It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school.
人们普遍认识到,社会经济背景较差的年轻人在我们的教育体系中表现不好。不仅在新西兰,而且在澳大利亚,英国和美国都有这种现象。为了克服教育上的不足,1965年在美国启动了一项名为“Headstart”的全国性计划。大量的钱被投入其中。它在孩子三岁时将其送入学前教育机构。这本来是为了帮助贫穷家庭的孩子在学校取得成功。
Despite substantial funding,results have been disappointing.It is thought that there are two explanations for this.First,the programme began too late.Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence.Second,the parents were not involved.At the end of each day,‘Headstart’children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment.
尽管有大量的资金,但结果却令人失望。对此有两种解释。首先,该项目开始太晚了。许多在三岁时入学的孩子在语言和智力方面已经落后于同龄人。其次,父母没有参与。每天结束时,“Headstart”项目的儿童回到了同样处境不利的家庭环境中。
D部分
As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a child’s life and the disappointing results from‘Headstart’,a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the child’s first teachers.The‘Missouri’programme was predicated on research showing that working with the family,rather than bypassing the parents,is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life.The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status,age and family configurations.They included single-parent and two-parent families,families in which both parents worked,and families with either the mother or father at home.
由于越来越多的研究证据表明了孩子生命头三年的重要性,再加上“Headstart”令人失望的结果,美国密苏里州启动了一项试点计划。该计划将重点放在作为孩子第 一任老师的家长身上。密苏里计划建立在这样的研究预测之上,即与家庭合作,而不是绕过父母,是帮助孩子开启人生可能的最有效方式。这项为期四年的试点研究包括380个即将生育第 一个孩子的家庭。这些家庭代表了不同的社会经济地位,年龄和家庭结构。他们包括单亲家庭和双亲家庭,双职工家庭和单职工家庭等。
The programme involved trained parent-educators visiting the parents’home and working with the parent,or parents,and the child.Information on child development,and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided,plus guidance in fostering the child’s intellectual,language,social and motor-skill development.Periodic check-ups of the child’s educational and sensory development(hearing and vision)were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development.Medical problems were referred to professionals.
该计划中受过训练的父母教育者会拜访父母的家,并与父母和孩子一起学习。他们提供有关儿童发展的信息,有关儿童成长过程中寻找和所期望的事物的指南,以及有关促进儿童智力,语言,社交和运动技能发展的导引。定期检查孩子的教育和感官发展(听力和视力),以发现可能妨碍成长和发展的障碍。医疗问题被转诊给专业人士。
Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with other new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest.Parent resource centres,located in school buildings,offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care.
家长教育者亲自拜访,并与其他新父母每月举行小组会议,以交流经验并讨论感兴趣的话题。位于教学楼的家长资源中心会提供为家庭和教育者提供照顾孩子所需要的学习材料。
E部分
At the age of three,the children who had been involved in the‘Missouri’programme were evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and family situations,and also a random sample of children that age.The results were phenomenal.By the age of three,the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers,had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills,and were further along in social development.In fact,the average child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension,verbal ability and language ability.
三岁时,参与“密苏里”计划的孩子接受了评估。一起接受评估的还有其他来自各种各样社会经济背景和家庭情况的孩子,以及一些随机选取的相同年龄的孩子。结果是惊人的。到三岁时,项目中的孩子在语言发展方面比他们的同龄人明显更加优 秀,在解决问题和其他智力技能上迈出更大的步伐,在社交能力发展上同样领先。实际上,该项目的孩子在听觉理解,文字能力和语言能力等方面的平均表现相当于同龄人中排名前15%至20%的表现。
Most important of all,the traditional measures of‘risk’,such as parents’age and education,or whether they were a single parent,bore little or no relationship to the measures of achievement and language development.Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of socio-economic disadvantages.Child abuse was virtually eliminated.The one factor that was found to affect the child s development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction.That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.
最重要的是,传统的“风险”衡量指标,例如父母的年龄和受教育程度,或者他们是否是单亲父母,与所取得成就和语言发展的衡量标准几乎没有关系。不论社会经济状况如何,参加该计划的儿童都表现良好。虐待儿童的行为几乎完全消除。另一个被发现的影响儿童发展的因素是家庭压力所导致的亲子互动质量低下。在较贫穷的家庭中这种互动不一定很糟糕。
F部分
These research findings are exciting.There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage.The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of disadvantage.The concept of working with parents in their homes,or at their place of work,contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group.Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised early childhood education.Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital,but without a similar focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years,some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.
这些研究发现令人兴奋。在新西兰,越来越多的证据表明,社会经济背景较差的儿童到学校学习时基础不好,而我们的学校系统往往会使这种劣势永 久化。上面描述的提议可以打破这种不利的循环。与父母在家中或工作地点一起工作的概念与儿童早期照顾与教育工作组的报告形成了鲜明的对比。他们的重点是使儿童和母亲获得育儿和制度化的儿童早期教育。毫无疑问,三至五岁的教育至关重要。但一些证据表明,如果没有将重点放在父母的教育和头三年的重要性上的话,这并不足以克服教育不平等现象。
剑桥雅思12Test6Passage1雅思阅读原文翻译The risks agriculture faces in developing countries发展中国家农业面临的风险
剑桥雅思12阅读第6套题目第1篇文章的主题为发展中国家农业所面临的风险。文章一共9段,大体可以分为3部分,分别介绍了具体的风险类型,可以采取的措施,以及这些措施存在的缺陷。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思12 Test6 Passage1阅读原文翻译
段落A
Two things distinguish food production from all other productive activities:first,every single person needs food each day and has a right to it;and second,it is hugely dependent on nature.These two unique aspects,one political,the other natural,make food production highly vulnerable and different from any other business.At the same time,cultural values are highly entrenched in food and agricultural systems worldwide.
两件事情将食物生产与其他所有类型的生产活动区分开来:首先,每个人每天都需要食物,并且有权利获取它。其次,它很大程度上依赖于自然条件。这两个独特的因素,一个政治层面,一个自然层面,使得食物生产十分脆弱,并与其他行业都截然不同。与此同时,文化价值已深深地渗透进世界范围的食物与农业系统。
段落B
Farmers everywhere face major risks,including extreme weather,long-term climate change,and price volatility in input and product markets.However,smallholder farmers in developing countries must in addition deal with adverse environments,both natural,in terms of soil quality,rainfall,etc.,and human,in terms of infrastructure,financial systems,markets,knowledge and technology.Counter-intuitively,hunger is prevalent among many smallholder farmers in the developing world.
世界各地的农民都面临着巨大风险,包括极端天气,长期的气候变化,以及原材料与产品市场的价格波动。然而,发展中国家的小农户还要面临其他不利的环境条件,既有自然层面的,比如土壤质量、降水等;也有人文层面的,比如基础设施,金融体系,市场,知识和技术。与直观感受相反,饥饿在发展中国家许多小农户中十分普遍。
段落C
Participants in the online debate argued that our biggest challenge is to address the underlying causes of the agricultural system’s inability to ensure sufficient food for all,and they identified as drivers of this problem our dependency on fossil fuels and unsupportive government policies.
网上辩论的参与者认为,我们的挑战是找到农业体系无法为所有人提供充足食物的根本原因。他们将这一问题归结于我们对化石燃料的依赖,以及政府支持政策的缺失。
段落D
On the question of mitigating the risks farmers face,most essayists called for greater state intervention.In his essay,Kanayo F.Nwanze,President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development,argued that governments can significantly reduce risks for farmers by providing basic services like roads to get produce more efficiently to markets,or water and food storage facilities to reduce losses.Sophia Murphy,senior advisor to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy,suggested that the procurement and holding of stocks by governments can also help mitigate wild swings in food prices by alleviating uncertainties about market supply.
在降低农民所面临风险这一问题上,大多数分析者都呼吁更多的国家介入。国际农业发展基金会主席Kanayo F.Nwanze在文章中提到,政府可以通过提供基础服务(如修建道路以便产品可以更加高效地到达市场,或者修建水利和食物储藏设施来减少损失)降低农民的风险。农业与贸易政策机构的资 深顾问Sophia Murphy认为,政府采购和贮藏也能够帮助通过降低市场供给的不确定性来减少食物价格的剧烈波动。
段落E
Shenggen Fan,Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute,held up social safety nets and public welfare programmes in Ethiopia,Brazil and Mexico as valuable ways to address poverty among farming families and reduce their vulnerability to agriculture shocks.However,some commentators responded that cash transfers to poor families do not necessarily translate into increased food security,as these programmes do not always strengthen food production or raise incomes.Regarding state subsidies for agriculture,Rokeya Kabir,Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha,commented in her essay that these‘have not compensated for the stranglehold exercised by private traders.In fact,studies show that sixty percent of beneficiaries of subsidies are not poor,but rich landowners and non-farmer traders.’
国际粮食政策研究所所长Shenggen Fan认为埃塞俄比亚、巴西和墨西哥开展的社会保障和公共福利项目是一种解决农民家庭贫困问题并降低他们面对农业冲击时脆弱性的宝贵手段。然而,一些评论家回应,拨付给贫困家庭的资金不一定转化成更高的食物安全,因为这些项目并不总是能够加强农业生产或者提高收入。至于国家农业补贴,BNPS的执行理事Rokeya Kabir在她的文章中说到,“这些补贴并没有弥补个体商人所施加的束缚。事实上,研究表明60%的社会补贴受益者并不是贫困人口,而是富裕的地主以及非农民的中间商”。
段落F
Nwanze,Murphy and Fan argued that private risk management tools,like private insurance,commodity futures markets,and rural finance can help small-scale producers mitigate risk and allow for investment in improvements.Kabir warned that financial support schemes often encourage the adoption of high-input agricultural practices,which in the medium term may raise production costs beyond the value of their harvests.Murphy noted that when futures markets become excessively financialised they can contribute to short-term price volatility,which increases farmers’food insecurity.Many participants and commentators emphasised that greater transparency in markets is needed to mitigate the impact of volatility,and make evident whether adequate stocks and supplies are available.Others contended that agribusiness companies should be held responsible for paying for negative side effects.
Nwanze,Murphy和Fan认为个人风险管理工具,比如私人保险,商品期货市场,以及乡村农业金融可以帮助小型生产者降低风险,并通过投资改善条件。Kabir警告,金融支持计划通常会鼓励采取高投入的农业实践。这在中期可能会使生产成本超过收获的价值。Murphy注意到,当期货市场高度金融化时,它们可能会加剧短期的价格波动,从而增加农民的粮食风险。许多参与者和评论家强调,需要更大的市场透明度来减弱价格波动的影响,并且要让是否有充足的库存和供应量变得显而易见。其他人认为,农业综合公司应该为副作用承担责任。
段落G
Many essayists mentioned climate change and its consequences for small-scale agriculture.Fan explained that‘in addition to reducing crop yields,climate change increases the magnitude and the frequency of extreme weather events,which increase smallholder vulnerability.’The growing unpredictability of weather patterns increases farmers’difficulty in managing weather-related risks.According to this author,one solution would be to develop crop varieties that are more resilient to new climate trends and extreme weather patterns.Accordingly,Pat Mooney,co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group,suggested that‘if we are to survive climate change,we must adopt policies that let peasants diversify the plant and animal species and varieties/breeds that make up our menus.’
许多分析家提到气候变化以及它对小规模农业的影响。Fan解释到,“除了降低粮食产量之外,气候变化还增加了极端天气的程度和频率,从而让小农户变得更加脆弱”。天气模式的日益不可预测性增加了农民在管理天气相关风险时的难度。根据这位作者的观点,一种解决方案是提升粮食多样性,以适应新的气候趋势和极端天气模式。相应的,ETC集团的联合创始人兼执行理事Pat Mooney认为,“如果我们想在气候变化中生存,我们必须采取相应政策,让农民丰富出现在我们菜单上的农作物和牲畜的种类。
段落H
Some participating authors and commentators argued in favour of community-based and autonomous risk management strategies through collective action groups,co-operatives or producers’groups.Such groups enhance market opportunities for small-scale producers,reduce marketing costs and synchronise buying and selling with seasonal price conditions.According to Murphy,‘collective action offers an important way for farmers to strengthen their political and economic bargaining power,and to reduce their business risks.’One commentator,Giel Ton,warned that collective action does not come as a free good.It takes time,effort and money to organise,build trust and to experiment.Others,like Marcel Vernooij and Marcel Beukeboom,suggested that in order to‘apply what we already know’,all stakeholders,including business,government,scientists and civil society,must work together,starting at the beginning of the value chain.
一些参与作者和评论家青睐基于社区并自主运行的风险管理策略。这种策略通过集体行动小组、合作社以及生产者团体实现。这些团体可以提升小规模生产者的市场机会,降低营销成本,并使买卖与季节性的价格条件相同步。根据Murphy的观点,“集体行动为农民提供了一种重要的方式来加强他们政治与经济的议价能力,并降低他们的商业风险。一名评论者,Giel Ton警告,集体行动并不是唾手可得。它需要时间、精力和金钱来组织、建立信任并进行实验。其他人,比如Marcel Vernooij和Marcel Beukeboom认为,为了应用我们已经知道的方法,包括企业、政府、科学家和市民社会在内的所有利益相关方必须从价值链的起点开始,一起努力。
段落I
Some participants explained that market price volatility is often worsened by the presence of intermediary purchasers who,taking advantage of farmers’vulnerability,dictate prices.One commentator suggested farmers can gain greater control over prices and minimise price volatility by selling directly to consumers.Similarly,Sonali Bisht,founder and advisor to the Institute of Himalayan Environmental Research and Education(INHERE),India,wrote that community-supported agriculture,where consumers invest in local farmers by subscription and guarantee producers a fair price,is a risk-sharing model worth more attention.Direct food distribution systems not only encourage small-scale agriculture but also give consumers more control over the food they consume,she wrote.
一些参与者解释到,中间商的存在往往会加剧市场价格波动。他们利用农民的脆弱性操纵价格。一名评论者认为,农民可以通过直接向消费者出售商品来获得更大的价格控制权,并使价格波动最小化。相似的,印度喜马拉雅环境研究与教育机构的创始人和顾问Sonali Bisht写到,社区互助农业是一种值得关注的风险分摊模式。在这种模式中,消费者通过订购和承诺生产者一个公平的价格来投资当地农民。她写道,食物直销系统不仅会鼓励小规模农业,而且还能让消费者对他们所消费的食物有更多的控制。
剑桥雅思12Test5Passage3阅读原文翻译What’s the purpose of gaining knowledge获取知识的目的是什么
剑桥雅思12阅读第五套题目第三篇文章的主题为获取知识的目的。文章分为6段,分别介绍了某一学校开设的纵火课程,该课程的影响,作者在市场营销课上的提问,作者观点的来源,结果和工具同样重要,需要根据不同结果进行区分等内容。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思12 Test5 Passage3阅读原文翻译
段落A
‘I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any subject.’That was the founder’s motto for Cornell University,and it seems an apt characterization of the different university,also in the USA,where I currently teach philosophy.A student can prepare for a career in resort management,engineering,interior design,accounting,music,law enforcement,you name it.But what would the founders of these two institutions have thought of a course called‘Arson for Profit’?I kid you not:we have it on the books.Any undergraduates who have met the academic requirements can sign up for the course in our program in‘fire science’.
“我将成立一所任何人都可以学到任何学科的机构”。这是康奈尔大学创建者的座右铭。这似乎十分恰当地描述了另一所大学的特征。它也位于美国,而我正在那里教授哲学。学生在这里可以为将来各种各样的职业做好准备,包括度假村管理,工程学,室内设计,会计,音乐,法律实施等。但这两所学校的创办者会怎么看待一门叫做“纵火谋利”的课程呢?我并没有跟你开玩笑。这门课程是有案可查的。任何满足学术要求的本科生都可以在我们“火灾科学”这一项目中选择该课程。
段落B
Naturally,the course is intended for prospective arson investigators,who can learn all the tricks of the trade for detecting whether a fire was deliberately set,discovering who did it,and establishing a chain of evidence for effective prosecution in a court of law.But wouldn’t this also be the perfect course for prospective arsonists to sign up for?My point is not to criticize academic programs in fire science:they are highly welcome as part of the increasing professionalization of this and many other occupations.However,it’s not unknown for a firefighter to torch a building.This example suggests how dishonest and illegal behavior,with the help of higher education,can creep into every aspect of public and business life.
当然,这一课程是为那些未来的纵火调查员设计的。他们可以学习该领域的各种窍门,判断一场火灾是否是蓄意而为,找出纵火者,并建立证据链以在法庭上可以进行有效的诉讼。但这难道不也是一门未来纵火犯可以报名的完美课程吗?我的重点不是批评纵火科学领域的学术项目:它们作为该行业以及许多其他行业日益专业化的一部分,受到高度欢迎。然而,对于消防员来说,烧毁一栋建筑并不陌生。这一例子表明,在高等教育的帮助下,欺诈和不法行为是如何悄悄潜入公众和商业生活的方方面面的。
段落C
I realized this anew when I was invited to speak before a class in marketing,which is another of our degree programs.The regular instructor is a colleague who appreciates the kind of ethical perspective I can bring as a philosopher.There are endless ways I could have approached this assignment,but I took my cue from the title of the course:‘Principles of Marketing’.It made me think to ask the students,‘Is marketing principled?’After all,a subject matter can have principles in the sense of being codified,having rules,as with football or chess,without being principled in the sense of being ethical.Many of the students immediately assumed that the answer to my question about marketing principles was obvious:no.Just look at the ways in which everything under the sun has been marketed;obviously it need not be done in a principled(=ethical)fashion.
当我受邀在市场营销课程(我们学校的另一门专业)上演讲时,我重新认识了这一点。这门课的日常老师是我的同事。他很欣赏我作为一名哲学家所带来的伦理视角。我有无数种方式可以切入这一任务,但我受到课程名称-市场营销原理-的启发。这让我想要询问学生,市场营销是有原则可循的吗?毕竟,一门课程从被编纂、设置规则的意义上讲,是能够拥有原理的,正如足球和国际象棋那样。但从伦理意义而言,是没有原则可以遵循的。许多学生很快认为我关于市场营销原理的问题的答案是显而易见的。只需要研究一下世上万物被营销的方式即可。显然,它不需要以一种“有原则的”(即伦理的)方式进行。
段落D
Is that obvious?I made the suggestion,which may sound downright crazy in light of the evidence,that perhaps marketing is by definition principled.My inspiration for this judgement is the philosopher Immanuel Kant,who argued that any body of knowledge consists of an end(or purpose)and a means.
这不明显么?我认为,或许市场营销按定义而言就是有规则的。这在大量的证据之下可能听起来很疯狂。我这一判断的灵感来自于哲学家伊曼努尔·康德。他认为任何知识的本体既包含结果(或目的),也包含手段。
段落E
Let us apply both the terms‘means’and‘end’to marketing.The students have signed up for a course in order to learn how to market effectively.But to what end?There seem to be two main attitudes toward that question.One is that the answer is obvious:the purpose of marketing is to sell things and to make money.The other attitude is that the purpose of marketing is irrelevant:each person comes to the program and course with his or her own plans,and these need not even concern the acquisition of marketing expertise as such.My proposal,which I believe would also be Kant’s,is that neither of these attitudes captures the significance of the end to the means for marketing.A field of knowledge or a professional endeavor is defined by both the means and the end;hence both deserve scrutiny.Students need to study both how to achieve X,and also what X is.
让我们将“手段”和“结果”这两个术语应用于市场营销。报名该课程的学生是为了学习如何有效营销。但为了实现什么结果呢?关于这个问题似乎有两种主要态度。一种认为答案显而易见:市场营销的目的是出售物品和赚钱。另一种则认为市场营销的目的无关紧要:每个学习这门课程的人都带着他们自己的计划。这些计划甚至不需要与市场营销技能的获取有关。我的想法是,这两种态度都没有抓住结果对于市场营销手段的重要性。我相信康德也会这么认为。一个知识领域或专业技能由手段和结果共同定义。因此,两者都需要仔细审视。学生既需要学习如何实现X,也需要研究X是什么。
段落F
It is at this point that‘Arson for Profit’becomes supremely relevant.That course is presumably all about means:how to detect and prosecute criminal activity.It is therefore assumed that the end is good in an ethical sense.When I ask fire science students to articulate the end,or purpose,of their field,they eventually generalize to something like,‘The safety and welfare of society,’which seems right.As we have seen,someone could use the very same knowledge of means to achieve a much less noble end,such as personal profit via destructive,dangerous,reckless activity.But we would not call that firefighting.We have a separate word for it:arson.Similarly,if you employed the‘principles of marketing’in an unprincipled way,you would not be doing marketing.We have another term for it:fraud.Kant gives the example of a doctor and a poisoner,who use the identical knowledge to achieve their divergent ends.We would say that one is practicing medicine,the other,murder.
正是在这一点上,纵火谋利变得十分相关起来。该课程的一切都与手段有关:如何侦测与起诉犯罪活动。人们因此假定,其目的在伦理意义上是好的。当我要求纵火科学的学生说清楚他们所学领域的结果或目的时,他们最终会总结出类似“社会安全与福祉”这样似乎正确的说法。正如我们所见,一个人可以使用完全相同的知识手段来实现不那么高尚的目标,比如通过破坏性的、危险的、鲁莽的行为来获取个人利益。但我们不会将其称为消防行为。我们对其有单独的说法:纵火。相似的,如果你以一种不遵守原则的方式利用市场营销原理,那么你所做的就不是市场营销。我们有另外的说法:欺诈。康德举了医生和投毒者的例子。他们利用完全相同的知识实现不同的结果。我们会说其中一人在进行医学实践,而另一个则是杀人犯。
剑桥雅思12Test5Passage2阅读原文翻译Collecting as a hobby作为爱好的收藏
剑桥雅思12阅读第五套题目第二篇文章的主题为作为爱好的收藏。文章分为十段,分别介绍了进行收藏的各种目的,常见的收藏对象,以及收藏的心理动机。下面是具体的每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思12 Test5 Passage2阅读原文翻译
第1段
Collecting must be one of the most varied of human activities,and it’s one that many of us psychologists find fascinating.Many forms of collecting have been dignified with a technical name:an archtophilist collects teddy bears,a philatelist collects postage stamps,and a deltiologist collects postcards.Amassing hundreds or even thousands of postcards,chocolate wrappers or whatever,takes time,energy and money that could surely be put to much more productive use.And yet there are millions of collectors around the world.Why do they do it?
收藏一定是最为多样化的人类活动之一。许多心理学家都觉得它十分迷人。不少收藏形式都被冠以专门的技术术语:archtophilist收藏泰迪熊;philatelist收藏邮票,而deltiologist则收藏明信片。收集成百上千张明信片,巧克力包装纸或者其他任何东西都需要时间,精力和金钱。而它们完全可以被用于更有成效的事情。但是,世界上有数百万的收藏者。他们为什么要从事这样活动呢?
第2段
There are the people who collect because they want to make money–this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting;that is,collecting as a means to an end.They’ll look for,say,antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit.But there may well be a psychological element,too–buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph.And as selling online is so easy,more and more people are joining in.
有人收藏是因为他们想要赚钱-这可以被称为收藏的工具性原因,即收藏作为实现目的的手段。比如,他们会寻找可以低价买入,希望高价卖出的古董。但这其中很有可能也存在心理因素。低买高卖可以赋予收藏者一种成就感。并且由于网上售卖十分简单,越来越多的人正加入这一行列。
第3段
Many collectors collect to develop their social life,attending meetings of a group of collectors and exchanging information on items.This is a variant on joining a bridge club or a gym,and similarly brings them into contact with like-minded people.
许多收藏者进行收藏是为了拓展自己的社交生活,参加收藏家的团体聚会并交换物品信息。这是一种加入桥牌俱乐部或者健身房的变体,同样使他们能够接触到志趣相投的人。
第4段
Another motive for collecting is the desire to find something special,or a particular example of the collected item,such as a rare early recording by a particular singer.Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this.Psychologically,this can give a purpose to a life that otherwise feels aimless.There is a danger,though,that if the individual is ever lucky enough to find what they’re looking for,rather than celebrating their success,they may feel empty,now that the goal that drove them on has gone.
另一种收藏的动机是渴望找到某种特别的东西,或者特定的藏品,比如某一歌手早期十分稀有的唱片。一些人可能会穷尽一生来追寻它。心理学上讲,这可以赋予人生某种意义,使它不至于感到漫无目的。然而,这也存在一定的危险。如果这个人足够幸运找到了他们所寻找的物品,与其庆祝自己的成功,他们反而可能感到空虚。曾经驱使他们前进的目标现在消失了。
第5段
If you think about collecting postage stamps,another potential reason for it–or,perhaps,a result of collecting–is its educational value.Stamp collecting opens a window to other countries,and to the plants,animals,or famous people shown on their stamps.Similarly,in the 19th century,many collectors amassed fossils,animals and plants from around the globe,and their collections provided a vast amount of information about the natural world.Without those collections,our understanding would be greatly inferior to what it is.
如果你考虑收藏邮票,那么其教育价值是另一个潜在的原因。邮票收集打开了一扇了解其他国家、植物、动物以及邮票上名人的窗户。类似的,在19世纪,许多收藏家从全球收集化石、动物和植物。他们的藏品提供了大量有关自然界的信息。没有这些收藏,我们的理解远远达不到现在的水平。
第6段
In the past–and nowadays,too,though to a lesser extent–a popular form of collecting,particularly among boys and men,was trainspotting.This might involve trying to see every locomotive of a particular type,using published data that identifies each one,and ticking off each engine as it is seen.Trainspotters exchange information,these days often by mobile phone,so they can work out where to go to,to see a particular engine.As a byproduct,many practitioners of the hobby become very knowledgeable about railway operations,or the technical specifications of different engine types.
过去–现在也一样,只不过程度较轻–男孩和成年男子之间十分流行的一种收藏是猜火车。这可能包括观赏每一种特定类型的火车头,利用公开发表的数据区分它们,并划掉已经见过的火车引擎。猜火车者互相交换信息,在今天这一般通过手机完成,以便他们可以知道要去那里才能看到特定的引擎。随之而来的结果是,许多这一爱好的实践者对铁路运营,或者不同引擎种类的技术细节知之甚深。
第7段
Similarly,people who collect dolls may go beyond simply enlarging their collection,and develop an interest in the way that dolls are made,or the materials that are used.These have changed over the centuries from the wood that was standard in 16th century Europe,through the wax and porcelain of later centuries,to the plastics of today’s dolls.Or collectors might be inspired to study how dolls reflect notions of what children like,or ought to like.
类似的,收集玩偶的人可能不仅仅是扩大自己的藏品,而是会对玩偶的制作方式或者使用的材料产生兴趣。这些在过去几个世纪里发生了变化。从16世纪欧洲常见的木制品,到之后几个世纪所使用的蜡和陶瓷,再到今天的塑料质地。此外,收藏者也会受到鼓舞去研究玩偶如何反映孩子所喜欢或者应该喜欢的东西。
第8段
Not all collectors are interested in learning from their hobby,though,so what we might call a psychological reason for collecting is the need for a sense of control,perhaps as a way of dealing with insecurity.Stamp collectors,for instance,arrange their stamps in albums,usually very neatly,organising their collection according to certain commonplace principles–perhaps by country in alphabetical order,or grouping stamps by what they depict–people,birds,maps,and so on.
然而,不是所有的收藏者都对从他们的爱好中获取知识感兴趣。所以我们或许可以将收藏背后的一种心理因素称为对控制感的需求。这可能是一种应对不安全感的方式。例如,邮票收集者通常将他们的邮票整齐的摆放在相册里,根据特定的普遍原则进行排列。或者根据国家首字母顺序,或者根据它们所描绘的对象(人物,鸟类,地图等等)。
第9段
One reason,conscious or not,for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector’s individualism.Someone who decides to collect something as unexpected as dog collars,for instance,may be conveying their belief that they must be interesting themselves.And believe it or not,there is at least one dog collar museum in existence,and it grew out of a personal collection.
无论是否意识到,人们收藏某种特定物品的原因是为了展示收藏者的个性。一些人决定收集一些意料之外的东西,比如狗项圈。这可能是在传达一种信息:它们本身是很有趣的。无论你是否相信,世界上都至少有一个狗项圈博物馆存在,而且它来自于个人收藏。
第10段
Of course,all hobbies give pleasure,but the common factor in collecting is usually passion:pleasure is putting it far too mildly.More than most other hobbies,collecting can be totally engrossing,and can give a strong sense of personal fulfilment.To non-collectors it may appear an eccentric,if harmless,way of spending time,but potentially,collecting has a lot going for it.
当然,所有的爱好都能带来乐趣。但收藏的共同因素往往是热爱:乐趣一词形容的太过温和了。与其他大多数爱好相比,收藏可以使人全神贯注,并且赋予一种很强的个人成就感。对于非收藏者来说,它可能是一种奇怪但无害的打发时间方式。但收藏其实有着许多的潜在理由。
剑桥雅思12Test5Passage1阅读原文翻译cork木栓
剑桥雅思12阅读第五套题目第 一篇文章的主题为木栓。文章分为7段,分别介绍了木栓具有广泛的用途,其特殊的细胞结构,生长地区,收割方式,替代产品等内容,下面是具体每一段的翻译。
剑桥雅思12 Test5 Passage1阅读原文翻译
第1段
Cork–the thick bark of the cork oak tree(Quercus suber)–is a remarkable material.It is tough,elastic,buoyant,and fire-resistant,and suitable for a wide range of purposes.It has also been used for millennia:the ancient Egyptians sealed their sarcophagi(stone coffins)with cork,while the ancient Greeks and Romans used it for anything from beehives to sandals.
木栓,即栓皮橡树(栓皮槠)厚实的树皮,是一种非凡的材料。它坚韧,有弹性,能浮起来,而且还防火,适用于各种目的。它已经被人们使用了数千年:埃及人用木栓来密封他们的石棺,而希腊人和罗马人则用它制作从蜂箱到凉鞋等各种物品。
第2段
And the cork oak itself is an extraordinary tree.Its bark grows up to 20cm in thickness,insulating the tree like a coat wrapped around the trunk and branches and keeping the inside at a constant 20°C all year round.Developed most probably as a defence against forest fires,the bark of the cork oak has a particular cellular structure–with about 40 million cells per cubic centimetre–that technology has never succeeded in replicating.The cells are filled with air,which is why cork is so buoyant.It also has an elasticity that means you can squash it and watch it spring back to its original size and shape when you release the pressure.
栓皮橡树本身就是一种不同寻常的树木。它的树皮可以长到20厘米厚,像外衣一样将树干和枝杈包裹起来,保持内部温度全年恒定在20度。很有可能是为了对抗森林火灾才形成的特点,栓皮橡树的树皮有着一种独特的细胞结构-每立方厘米大约有4千万个细胞。这种结构从来都没有被技术成功的复制过。细胞中充满了空气,这也是为什么木栓浮力如此之大的原因。它同样富有弹性。这意味着你可以将它挤压变形。释放压力后,看着它恢复原来的形状和大小。
第3段
Cork oaks grow in a number of Mediterranean countries,including Portugal,Spain,Italy,Greece and Morocco.They flourish in warm,sunny climates where there is a minimum of 400 millimetres of rain per year,and not more than 800 millimetres.Like grape vines,the trees thrive in poor soil,putting down deep roots in search of moisture and nutrients.Southern Portugal’s Alentejo region meets all of these requirements,which explains why,by the early 20th century,this region had become the world’s largest producer of cork,and why today it accounts for roughly half of all cork production around the world.
栓皮橡树生长在许多地中海国家,包括葡萄牙、西班牙、意大利、希腊和摩洛哥。它们在温暖、阳光充沛的地区中茂盛生长。那里每年降水量不小于400厘米,但又不多于800厘米。像葡萄藤一样,这些树木在贫瘠的土地中茁壮生长。它们的根系深入土地以寻找水分和养料。葡萄牙南部的Alentejo地区符合所有这些要求。这也是该地区在20世纪初成为世界上最 大的木栓生产商的原因,以及为什么直到今天,它还占着全世界木栓产量的一半左右。
第4段
Most cork forests are family-owned.Many of these family businesses,and indeed many of the trees themselves,are around 200 years old.Cork production is,above all,an exercise in patience.From the planting of a cork sapling to the first harvest takes 25 years,and a gap of approximately a decade must separate harvests from an individual tree.And for top-quality cork,it’s necessary to wait a further 15 or 20 years.You even have to wait for the right kind of summer’s day to harvest cork.If the bark is stripped on a day when it’s too cold–or when the air is damp–the tree will be damaged.
大多数栓皮森林为家族所有。许多这些家族企业,以及树木自身,都有着200年左右的历史。木栓生产是一种十分需要耐心的操作。从种下栓皮幼树到第 一次收获需要25年,而且每棵树的收割要间隔大约10年。对于高品质的木栓来说,必须继续等待15或20年才可以。人们甚至还要等待合适的夏日天气才能收割木栓。如果剥离树皮的天气太过寒冷,或者空气太过潮湿,树木就会被损坏。
第5段
Cork harvesting is a very specialised profession.No mechanical means of stripping cork bark has been invented,so the job is done by teams of highly skilled workers.First,they make vertical cuts down the bark using small sharp axes,then lever it away in pieces as large as they can manage.The most skilful cork-strippers prise away a semi-circular husk that runs the length of the trunk from just above ground level to the first branches.It is then dried on the ground for about four months,before being taken to factories,where it is boiled to kill any insects that might remain in the cork.Over 60%of cork then goes on to be made into traditional bottle stoppers,with most of the remainder being used in the construction trade.Corkboard and cork tiles are ideal for thermal and acoustic insulation,while granules of cork are used in the manufacture of concrete.
木栓收割是一种高度专业化的职业。至今还没有发明机器剥离栓皮的方法,所以这些工作由技艺高超的工人完成。首先,他们用锋利的小型斧头在树皮上垂直切下,然后将它一点点的撬开。木片越大越好。技艺最纯熟的栓皮工人会撬出一片半圆形的树皮,其长度相当于地面到第 一节树枝的树干长度。被放在地面上干燥4个月左右之后,它会被送到工厂里去。在那里通过加热煮沸来杀死可能残留在栓皮中的各种昆虫。60%以上的栓皮随后被用于制作传统瓶塞,剩下的大部分会被用于建筑行业。软木板和软木砖是理想的隔热、隔音材料,而软木颗粒则被用于混凝土的制造。
第6段
Recent years have seen the end of the virtual monopoly of cork as the material for bottle stoppers,due to concerns about the effect it may have on the contents of the bottle.This is caused by a chemical compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole(TCA),which forms through the interaction of plant phenols,chlorine and mould.The tiniest concentrations–as little as three or four parts to a trillion–can spoil the taste of the product contained in the bottle.The result has been a gradual yet steady move first towards plastic stoppers and,more recently,to aluminium screw caps.These substitutes are cheaper to manufacture and,in the case of screw caps,more convenient for the user.
由于担心软木塞可能会影响瓶子中的液体,它作为瓶塞材料的实际垄断地位在最近几年迎来了终结。这是由一种叫做2,4,6-三聚苯甲醚的化合物引起的。这种化合物会在植物酚,氯和霉菌的相互作用中形成。哪怕是极其微小的浓度-低至每万亿三到四单位-也会破坏瓶中产品的口味。因此,人们先是逐渐却坚定的使用塑料瓶塞,最近又转向铝制螺旋盖。这些替代品不仅制造起来更为便宜,而且螺旋瓶盖对用户来说也更加方便。
第7段
The classic cork stopper does have several advantages,however.Firstly,its traditional image is more in keeping with that of the type of high quality goods with which it has long been associated.Secondly–and very importantly–cork is a sustainable product that can be recycled without difficulty.Moreover,cork forests are a resource which support local biodiversity,and prevent desertification in the regions where they are planted.So,given the current concerns about environmental issues,the future of this ancient material once again looks promising.
然而,经典的软木瓶塞确实有几项优势。首先,它的传统形象与高品质物品更为匹配。这些东西与它长期联系在一起。其次并且很重要的是,木栓是一种可以轻易回收的可持续产品。第三,栓木森林的资源可以支持当地的生物多样性,并阻止其所种植地区的沙漠化。所以,考虑到当前对环境问题的担忧,这一古老材料的未来看起来再一次充满了希望。