5第五单元 自然探秘.doc

第五单元 自然探秘自然探秘包括从日月星辰、自然地理、矿物资源、物种生态到气候等方方面面的内容，属于通俗科技文体的范畴，主要是一些普及性的科技读物在英语中这类科技文章统称为科学散文（scientific prose）通俗科技文体既有正式的书面语特点，又有通俗易懂的修辞风格，使科学与艺术交融，并且尽量使用浅显易懂的语言向读者阐明事理，而不使用术语、符号或公式等通俗科技文章追求语言的形象性，常常运用比喻、比拟、反问或设问等修辞手法，力求把科学道理讲得明白透彻 自然探秘资料的翻译跟其他科技资料有着许多共性，要求译者不仅具备扎实的双语语言功底，又要具有良好的自然知识或常识第9课 英语自然探秘资料汉译英汉对比赏析一、英语原文Our Summer of Extremes (Excerpt)By Stefan Rahmstorf1] This summer has seen one of the weather-related extremes in Russia, Pakistan, China, Europe, the Arctic—you name it. But does this have anything to do with global warming, and are human emissions to blame?2] While it cannot be scientifically proven (or disproved, for that matter) that global warming caused any particular extreme event, we can say that global warming very likely makes many kinds of extreme weather both more frequent and more severe.3] For week, central Russia has been in the grips of its worst-ever heat wave, which has caused probably thousands of fatalities. As a result of drought and heat, more than 500 wildfires have raged out of control, smothering Moscow in smoke and threatening several nuclear facilities. Russia’s government has banned wheat exports, sending world grain prices soaring.4] Meanwhile, Pakistan is struggling with unprecedented flooding that has killed more than a thousand people and affected millions more. In China, flash floods have so far killed more than a thousand people and destroyed more than a million homes. On a smaller scale, European countries like Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic have also suffered serious flooding.5] Meanwhile, global temperatures in recent months have been at their highest levels in records that go back 130 years. Arctic sea-ice cover reached its lowest recorded average level for the month of June ever. In Greenland two huge chunks of ice broke off in July and August.6] Are these events connected?7] Looking only at individual extreme events will not reveal their cause, just like watching a few scenes from a movie does not reveal the plot. But, viewed in a broader context, and using the logic of physics, important parts of the plot can be understood.......8] All weather is driven by energy, and the sun ultimately provides this energy. But the biggest change in Earth’s energy budget by far over the past hundred years is due to the accumulation in our atmosphere of greenhouse gases, which limit the exit of heat into space. Owing to fossil-fuel emissions, there is now one-third more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in at least a million years, as the latest ice drilling in Antarctica has revealed.9] The changes in the planet’s energy budget caused by solar variations are at least ten times smaller in comparison. And they go in the wrong direction: in recent years, the sun has been at its dimmest since satellite measurements began in the 1970’s. So, when unprecedented extreme weather events occur, the prime suspect is naturally the biggest atmospheric change that has happened over the past hundred years—one that has been caused by human emissions.10] The fact that heat waves like the one in Russia become more frequent and extreme in a warmer world is easy to understand. Extreme rainfall events will also become more frequent and intense in a warmer climate, owing to another simple fact of physics: warm air can hold more moisture. For each degree Celsius of warming, 7% more water is available to rain down from saturated air masses. Drought risk also increases with warming: even where rainfall does not decline, increased evaporation dries out the soils.11] The carbon-dioxide effect can also change the preferred patterns of atmospheric circulation, which can exacerbate extremes of heat, drought, or rainfall in some regions, while reducing them in others. The problem is that a reduction in those extremes to which we are already well-adapted provides only modest benefits, whereas the new extremes to which we are not adapted can be devastating, as recent events in Pakistan show. (from Project Syndicate Aug. 16,2010)注释：1. Stefan Rahmstorf : 斯特凡.拉姆斯多夫，波茨坦大学的海洋物理学教授，德国全球变化顾问委员会成员。

他与代维.阿彻合著了《气候危机》一书2. you name it：（口）无奇不有，凡是你想到的就说好了3. for that matter：同样如此（指前面说的情况对后面说的同样适用）4. in the grips of：陷入......之中，受制于5. rage：（疾病、火焰等）迅速蔓延，快速扩散6. smother：厚厚地覆盖7. flash flood 骤发的洪水，暴洪8. Arctic sea-ice cover 北极海冰覆盖面积9. chunk 厚块，大块10. greenhouse gas 温室气体11. owing to 因为，由于12. fossil-fuel emission 石化燃料的排放13. solar variation 太阳的变化14. saturated 湿透的，浸透的15. air mass 气团（水平方向恒温、湿度差异微小的大空气团）16. evaporation 蒸发（过程），挥发（过程），蒸发（或挥发）状态17. carbon-dioxide effect 二氧化碳效应18. exacerbate 使加深，使加剧，使恶化二、汉语译文极端天气肆虐的夏天（节选） 斯特凡.拉已经禁止小麦出口，导致姆斯多夫 1】在俄罗斯、巴基斯坦、中国、欧洲和北极，凡是能想到的地方，这个夏天极端天气都在肆虐。

但这与全球气候变暖有关吗？人类的碳排放是肇事之因吗？ 2】尽管在科学上还无法证明（或否定）是全球变暖导致了某些特定的极端天气，我们还是可以说全球变暖很可能使多种极端天气发生得更频繁、更恶劣 3】几周以来，俄罗斯中部地区深陷于历史上最严重的热浪之中，由此而造成的死亡人数可能高达数千由于干旱和高温，500余处野火迅速蔓延，失去控制，把莫斯科笼罩在令人窒息的烟雾中，并威胁到几处核设施俄政府已经禁止小麦出口，导致全球。