漢譯英
我們污染了空氣
清潔的空氣對于健康是至關(guān)重要�？諝庵泻须s質(zhì)，這些雜質(zhì)會被我們的身體吸收，使人生病。我們需要清潔的空氣，但不幸的是，目前普遍存在著空氣污染，尤其是在城市里。
城市里有許多食品廠、服裝廠和制造其它東西的工廠。每天這些工廠把千百萬噸煙灰排入空氣中。燃煤的工廠也大大加重了空氣污染。
工廠產(chǎn)生的東西過一個時期就會損壞，然后就作為垃圾扔掉。我們燒掉許多垃圾，煙灰就增多了。還有工廠制造的汽車。汽車一旦出廠在街上行駛，將會吸進空氣，排出有毒的氣體，并增加空氣中的煙塵。
世界上還沒有一個徹底擺脫了空氣污染的地區(qū)。我們必須采取些措施來控制空氣污染。
現(xiàn)在越來越多的人認識到清潔的空氣的重要性。學校正在把有關(guān)污染的問題納入教學內(nèi)容。企業(yè)界在幫著凈化空氣，他們安裝了特別的設備來清除煙霧�？茖W家和發(fā)明家們正在努力開發(fā)更加清潔的汽車和火車引擎，終有一天我們會駕駛著電力汽車，會有一種新型的紙，在水里溶化而不需要燃燒。一些國家正在開發(fā)研制一種新型的、會在陽光下溶化和消失的玻璃瓶。
或許，人們在城市里能呼吸新鮮空氣的日子將會到來。
參考譯文
We Have Polluted the Air
Clean air is important to good health. If the air contains impurities, they may be absorbed by our bodies and make us ill. We need clean air, but unfortunately, air pollution is generally present, especially in cities.
Our cities have many factories, which we need to make food products, clothing and many other things. Every day these factories pour millions upon millions of tons of smoke and soot into the air. Power plants that burn coal add greatly to air pollution.
Things made in factories wear out after a while and are thrown away as trash. We burn a lot of trash which produces more smoke and soot. And then there are the cars made in factories. Once they are out on the street, the car will take in air and replace it with poisonous gases which again produce more smoke and soot.
No area in the world is completely free of air pollution. We must take measures to control it.
Now, more and more people are realizing the importance of clean air. Schools are now teaching about the pollution problem. Industries are beginning to help to clean up, by installing equipment to clean up their smoke. Scientists and inventors are trying to develop cleaner engines for cars and trains; someday we will drive cars with electricity. A new kind of paper that will dissolve in water, and does not need to be burned. A new kind of glass bottle that will melt in sunlight and disappear is being developed in some countries.
英譯漢
The Environment in Perspective: Is Everything Getting Steadily Worse?
Much of the discussion of environmental problems in the popular press leaves the reader with the impression that matters have been growing steadily worse, and that pollution is largely a product of the profit system and modern industrialization. There are environmental problems today that are both enormous and pressing, but in fact pollution is nothing new. Medieval cities were pestholes - the streets and rivers were littered with garbage and the air stank of rotting wastes. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a German traveler reported that to get a view of London from the tower of St. Paul's, one had to get there very early in the morning "before the air was full of coal smoke." Since 1960 there has been progress in solving some pollution problems, much of it the result of concerted efforts to protect the environment. The quality of the air in most Canadian cities has improved. In Toronto, for example, the concentration of suspended particulates, or soot, in the air has fallen dramatically since 1962.To put this figure in perspective, it should be noted that the current health advisory level for the index is 32.At a level of 58, people with chronic respiratory diseases may be affected. At 100, even healthy people may be affected by prolonged conditions, and those with cardiac and respiratory diseases could suffer severe effects Recently in Toronto, the index has exceeded 32 on fewer than half a dozen days annually.
Similar improvements have occurred elsewhere in Canada and in other industrialized countries.
Even the famous, or rather infamous, "fogs" of London are almost a thing of the past. There have been two high readings of particular note in the British capital in 1959 (when the index rose to 275 and there was a 10 percent increase over the normal number of deaths) and in 1962 (when the index rose to 575 and there was a 20 percent increase in mortality). But more recently, London's, cleaner air has resulted in an astounding 50 percent increase in the number of hours of winter sunshine. In short, pollution problems are not a uniquely modern phenomenon, nor is every part of the environment deteriorating relentlessly.
Environmental problems do not occur exclusively in capitalist economies. For example, in the People's Republic of China, coal soot from factory smokestacks in Beijing envelops the city in a thick black haze. Similarly, smoke from brown-coal furnaces pollutes the air almost everywhere in Eastern Europe. It has been estimated that a third of Poland's citizens live in areas of "ecological disaster". The citizens of Leipzig, a major industrial city in what was formerly East Germany, have a life expectancy a full six years shorter than the national average.
However, we do not mean to suggest that all is well with the environment in market-oriented economies or that there is nothing more to do. While there have been some improvements, serious problems remain. Our world is now subject to a number of new pollutants, most of which are far more dangerous than those we have reduced, even though they may be less visible and less malodorous. While environmental problems are neither new nor confined only to capitalist, industrialized economics, these facts are not legitimate grounds for complacency. The potential damage that we are inflicting on ourselves and on our surroundings is very real and very substantial.
參考譯文
環(huán)境透 視：我們的生存環(huán)境真的每況愈下么?
大眾媒體對環(huán)境問題的諸多討論，常常給讀者留下這樣一種印象：問題還在日益惡化，污染在很大程度上是利益驅(qū)動和現(xiàn)代工業(yè)化的產(chǎn)物。當今環(huán)境問題確實非常嚴重，但是污染問題并非始自今日。中世紀的城市就是疾病的溫床——街道、河面上丟棄著垃圾，空氣中散發(fā)著陣陣腐臭。18世紀初，曾有一名德國游客報道說，若想在圣保羅大教堂的塔樓上一覽倫敦風光，就必須一大清早乘煤煙還沒在空氣里散漫開來時趕到那兒。
自1960年起，污染問題一直在改善。這是人們同心協(xié)力保護環(huán)境的結(jié)果。加拿大大部分城市的空氣質(zhì)量都得到了明顯改善。比如多倫多，這座城市的空氣懸浮粒和煙塵的密度自1962年后便大幅度降低。為了更好地看這一問題，需要先說明一點：目前，空氣健康指數(shù)為32;該指數(shù)為58時，患有慢性呼吸道疾病的人易受感染;空氣指數(shù)在100，時間一長，正常人也會受到感染，患有心臟病和呼吸道疾病的人則會嚴重發(fā)病。
近年來，多倫多一年中空氣指數(shù)超過32的天數(shù)總計少于6天。加拿大其他地區(qū)，和其他工業(yè)化國家的環(huán)境狀況也同樣得到了改善。就連的，或日“臭名昭著”的“霧都”
倫敦也成了陳年舊事。這個英國首都城市曾有過兩次超高指數(shù)記錄：一次是1959年，當時空氣質(zhì)量指數(shù)超過275，死亡率比正常高出10%;另一次發(fā)生在1962年，指數(shù)直逼575，死亡人數(shù)猛增了20%。近年來，倫敦的空氣清新了很多，冬季的日照時間驚人地延長了50%。
簡言之，空氣污染并非現(xiàn)代社會獨有的問題，而且也不是所有的環(huán)境問題都在惡性發(fā)展。
環(huán)境問題并不僅僅眷顧資本主義國家，中國也不例外。北京的煙囪排出的大量煤灰使整座城市籠罩在厚厚的黑霧之中。同樣，在東歐，黑煤爐排出來的煙灰，到處污染著空氣。據(jù)有關(guān)方面估計，三分之一波蘭民眾居住在“災難性”的生態(tài)環(huán)境。東德工業(yè)重鎮(zhèn)萊比錫居民的人均壽命比全國平均壽命整整短了六年。
然而，這并不意味著市場經(jīng)濟國家的環(huán)境沒有問題，無須進一步改善了。盡管環(huán)境的確在一定程度上得到了改善，但形勢依然嚴峻�，F(xiàn)在我們正受到許多新的污染物的侵害，其危險性遠遠超過我們治理過的污染物，盡管它們不易為肉眼察覺，氣味也小得多。
盡管環(huán)境問題不是什么新問題，也不局限于資本主義工業(yè)化國家，但是我們沒有理由心安理得，高枕無憂。我們還在對自身和我們的環(huán)境造成潛在的損害，這一點是真真切切，確確實實的。
