英语本科段自学考试英汉翻译教程Unit 8 Popular Science

1、Unit 8 Popular ScienceLesson 22(EC) Oil(1)By G. C. ThornleyThere are three main groups of oil:animal, vegetable and mineral. Great quantities of animal oil come from whales, those enormous creatures of the sea which are the largest remaininganimals in the world. To protect the whale from the cold of

2、 the Arctic seas, nature has provided it with a tick covering of fat called blubber. When the whale is killed, the blubber is stripped off andboiled down, either on board ship or on shore.It produces a great quantity of oil which can be made into food for human consumption. A few other creatures yie

3、ld oil, but none so much as the whale. The livers of the cod and the halibut, two kinds of fish, yield nourishing oil. Both cod liver oil and halibut liver oil are given to sick children and other invalids who need certain vitamins.These oils may be bought at any chemists.Vegetable oil has been know

4、n from antiquity. No household can get on without it, for it is used in cooking. Perfumes may be made from the oils of certain flowers. Socpa are made from vegetable and animal oils.To the ordinary man, one kind of oil may be as important as another. But when the politician or the engineer refers to

5、 oil, he almost always means mineral oil, the oil that drives tanks,aeroplanes and warships, motor-cars and diesel locomotivs, the oil that is used to lubricate allkinds of machinery. This is the oil that is used to lubricate all knids of machinery. This is the oil that has changed the life of the c

6、ommon man. When it is refined into petrol it is used to drive the internal combustion engine. To it we owe the existence of the motor-car, which has replaced the private carriage drawn by the horse. To it we owe the possibility of flying. It has changed thehorse. To it we owe the possiblility of fly

7、ing. It has changed the methods of warfare on land and sea. This knid of oil comes out of the earth. Because it burns well, it is used as fuel and in some ways it is superior to coal in this repect. Many big ships now burn oil instead of coal. Because it burns brightly, it is used for illumination;

8、countless homes are still illuminated with oil-burning lamps. Because it is very slippery, it is used for lubrication. Two metal surfaces rubbing together cause friction and heat; but if they are separated by a thin film of oil, the friction and heat arereduced. No machine would work for long if it

9、were not properly lubricated. The oil used for this purpose must be of the correct thickness; if it is too thin it will not give sufficient lubrication, and if it is too thick it will not reach all parts that must e lubricated.(from English Through Reading)参考译文：油可以分为三大类：动物油、植物油、矿物油。大量的动物油是从鲸鱼身上得来的。

10、致在北冰洋受冻，便让它长了厚厚的一层脂肪，叫做鲸脂。鲸鱼杀死之后 油，这项工作有的是在船上进展的，有的是在岸上进展的。这样，就能生产出大量的油，供人们食用。有些动物也出油，但都没有鲸鱼出得多。鳕鱼和比目鱼，这两种鱼的肝脏出的油养分丰富。从这两种鱼得来的鱼肝油可以给缺少某种维生素的患儿或其他病人服用。 这两种鱼肝油在任何一家药房里都可以买到。植物油自古以来就为人们所生疏。任何家庭都离不开它，由于做饭的时候就要用它。有些花儿产生的油可以用来制造香水。植物油和动物油还可以用来制作肥皂。对一般人来说，这种油或那种油可能都是重要的。但是当政治家或工程师谈到油的时 候，他所指的几乎总是矿物油。这种油可以用

11、来开坦克，开飞机，开军舰，开汽车，开柴油 以后，可以用来开动内燃机。就是由于有了这种油，我们才有可能飞行。它还转变了陆战和海战的方法。这种油来源于地下。由于它易于燃烧，可以用作燃料，而且在这方面比煤还有 润滑作用，太稠那么流不到全部需要润滑的零件。Lesson 23(EC) The Other Road(1)By Rachel CarsonWe stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frosts familiar poem,they are not equally fair. The road we

12、have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smoothsuperhigh-way on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the roadthe one “less traveled by”offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination thatassures the preservation of our earth.The choice, a

13、fter all, is ours to make. If, having endured much, we have at last asserted our “right to know”, and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless andfrightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us we must fill ourworld with poisonous c

14、hemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us.A truly extraordinary varity of alternatives to the chemical control of insects is available.Some are already in use and have achieved brilliant success. Others are in the stage of laboratory testing. Still others are little more

15、 than ideas in the minds of imaginative scientists, waiting for theopportunity to put them to the test. All have this in common: they are biological solutions, based on under standing of the living organisms they seek to control, and of the whole fabric of life to which these orgainisms belong. Spec

16、ialists representing various areas of the vast field of biology arecontributingentomologists,pathologists,geneticists,physiologists,biochemists,ecologistsall pouring their knowledge and their creative inspirations into the formation of a newscience of biotic controls.“Any science may be likened to a

17、 river, ” says a Johns Hopkins biologist, Professor Carl P. Swanson. “It has its obscure and unpretentious beginning; its quiet stretches as well as its rapids; its periods of drought as well as of fullness. It gathers momentum with the work of manyinvestinagators and as it is fed by other streams o

18、f thought; it is deepened and broadened by the concepts and generalizaations that are gradually evolved.”So it is with the science of biological control in its modern sense. In america it had itsobscure beginnings a century ago with the first attempts to introduce natural enemies of insects that wer

19、e proving troublesome to farmers, an effort that sometimes moved slowly or not at all, butnow and again gathered speed and momentum under the impetus of an outstanding success. It hadits period of drought when workers in applied entomology, dazzled by the spectacular newinsecticides of the 1970s, tu

20、rned their backs on all biological methods and set foot on “thetreadmill of chemical control.” But the goal of an insect-free world continued to recede. Now at last, as it has become apparent that the heedless and unrestrained use of chemicals is a greatermenace to ourselves than to the targets, the

21、 river which is the science of biotic control flow again, fed by new streams of thought.Some of the most fascinating of the new methods are those that seek to turn the strength of a species against itselfto use the drive of an insects life forces to destroy it. The most spectacularof these approache

22、s if the “male sterilization” technique developed by the chief of the United States Departmet of Agricultures Entomology Research Brance, Dr. Edward Knipling, and his associates.(from Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)参考译文： 路1雷切尔卡森我们正处于两条道路分岔的地方。但是并不像我们所熟习的罗伯特弗罗斯特诗中所 我们可以高速前进，但是走到终点地要遇到灾难。另外一条路，是一条“走得不多”

23、的路， 实得到保护。走哪一条路，最终还是要由我们来选择。假设我们在忍受了很长时间之后，最终提出 看一看还有没有什么别的路。除了用化学方法把握昆虫以外，还有其他各种格外奇异的方法可以利用。这些方法， 学家头脑里的一些想法，等到有时机的时候才能加以试验。全部这些方法都有一个共同点： 个生活状况的了解。广博的生物学各个领域的学家，包括昆虫学家、病理学家、遗传学家、生理学家、生物人学家、生态学家，都在做出奉献，他们把自己的学问和制造性会聚起来， 形成了一门的科学生物把握学。霍普金斯大学生物学家卡尔P源头，隐模糊约，并不引人注目；其流势，时而平缓，时而湍急；其水情，有汛期，也有枯 和结论间续产生，又使它

24、得以加深和展宽现代的生物把握学就是如此。一百年前，这门科学在美国开头创立时也是隐模糊约的。当时有些昆虫给农夫找麻烦 花缭乱，便对生物方法冷眼相看，重走上“化学把握的老路注入其中。在这些方法中，有一些最为令人神往，就是设法利用一种昆虫本身的力气来应付这 尼普林博士和他的同事们制造的。Lesson 24(CE)海洋可持续进展战略中国有 12 亿多人口，陆地自然资源人均占有量低于世界平均水平。依据中国有关方面960 0.008 平方公里，远低于世界人均0.3 平方公里的水平；全国近年来平均淡水资源总量为28000 亿 要持续进展，必需把海洋的开发和保护作为一项长期的战略任务。18000 500 50

25、00 多个，岛屿14000 中国海疆海洋生物物种繁多，已鉴定的达 20278 种。中国海疆已经开发的渔场面积达 81.81333 万公顷，按现在的科学水平，可进展人工养260 万公顷，已经开发利用的有93.8 万公顷。中国海疆有30 多个沉积盆地，面70 250 8.4 万亿立方米。中国沿海共有 160 区共有 1500 多处旅游消遣景观资源，适合进展海洋旅游业。中国海疆还有丰富的海水资源和海洋可再生能源。摘自中国海洋事业的进展第一局部译文：Sustainable Marine DevelopmentStrategyChina has a population of more than 1.2

26、 billion, and its land natural resources per capita are lower than the worlds average. Official statistics show that China has a land area of 9.6 million sqkm, making it the third-biggest country inthe world. However, the land area percapita is only0.008 sp km, much lower than the worlds average of

27、0.3 sq km per capita. In recent years Chinasaverage annual amount of freshwater resources has been 2,800 billion cum, ranking sixth in the world; but the amount of freshwater resources per capita is only one-fourth the world average.China is rich in land mineral resoures, but the amount per capita i

28、s less than half the figure per capita worldwide. As a major developing country with a long coastline, China, therefore, musttake exploitation and protection of the ocean as a long-term strategic task before it can achieve thesustainable development of its national economy.China boasts a mainland co

29、astline of more than 18,000 km. There are more than 5,000islands in Chinas territorial waters, each with an area of more than 500 sq m, and the islandscoastlines total more than 14,000 km. China also exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction over the vast continental shelves and exclusive economic zone

30、s(EEZs), as defined by the UN Convention onthe Law oftheSea. Located inmedium andlow latitudes, Chinasseaareas havecomparatively advantageous natural environmental and resource conditins. Some 20,278 species of sea creatures have been verified there. The finshing grounds that have been developed inChinas sea a