2017年catti英语笔译初级模拟题：环境危机
【英译汉】
The Threatened Environment
In recent years we have come to realize that several threats to the environment are fundamental. One is acid rain, which is created by the millions of tones of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed out of North American smokestacks and automobile exhaust pipes 1. The oxides mix with water vapor in the air to form weak sulphuric and nitric acid, which later falls as acid rain. The result is increased acidity in lakes, which has curtailed the ability of many fish to reproduce, and in the soil, which has slowed the growth of trees and increased their vulnerability to disease. 2 With every news report, the externality dimension of environmental problems 3 seems to become clearer. For instance, it was recently reported that 4 Lapp villagers in northern Sweden and Norway were forbidden to eat local reindeer meat after their herds became contaminated by fallout from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl 5 in far-off Ukraine. Similarly, Canadian wildlife scientists have found high levels of PCBs 6 and other contaminants in polar-bear livers.
But some pollution problems involve such dramatic externalities that the whole world is affected. One example is the greenhouse effect. The steadily rising and essentially irreversible concentration 7 of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere causes it to trap increasing amounts of the heat radiated by the planet. The general warming trend is expected to 8 have disastrous effects, including mass starvation in some less developed countries, flooding of entire coastal areas, and severe droughts on the Canadian Prairies, perhaps within the next fifty years.
Another worldwide threat is in the upper atmosphere - the thinning of the layer of ozone, a bluish gas that shields the earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays. 9 Synthetic chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are depleting the ozone layer. One estimated result is that the chance of getting skin cancer is now 8 to 16 percent greater than it was in 1950. Hazardous wastes (such as those from nuclear plants, industrial manufacturing, laboratories, and medical institutions) represent 10 yet another critical environmental problem improperly disposed, they can threaten all forms of organic life. Unfortunately, little has been done so far to solve this problem. Indeed there are many instances in which industrialized countries have literally just shipped the problem off toll the poorest of the less developed countries - countries unequipped with the necessary storage and treatment facilities, and certainly too poor to deal with the serious environmental problems that will follow. 12 For example, in 1988 the government of Guinea Bissau 13 signed a contract with two British firms to receive 15 million tonnes of pharmaceutical wastes over a five-year period. While this arrangement was very inexpensive from the firms' point of view, the payments to Guinea-Bissau totaled more than four times that county's national product. It makes it difficult to solve the problem when parts of the world are so poor that they are forced to regard such transactions as "good deals". 14 The users of the world's resources simply must be made to take the external costs of their actions into consideration when making their decisions. The people who are hacking down the world's rain forests at the rate of 1200 hectares an hour are literally cutting away the lungs of the earth, since rain forests contribute a large percentage of the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere. 15 But these individuals are not necessarily evil: in many cases, they are forced to overuse the environment for their own or their country's immediate survival. For example, some developing countries' needs for foreign exchange to pay for imports compel them to cut timber faster than it can be regenerated. They simply cannot afford to worry about the future.
Obviously, many of these problems cannot be solved without political decisions to redistribute income to the less developed countries, and to define property rights. 16 But the right kinds of political and institutional changes will be forthcoming only if they are rooted in an understanding of the externality dimension of environmental issues.
Countries in the developed world must therefore learn to cooperate in order to devise a sufficiently comprehensive program of income redistribution to the less developed countries.
Without help from the developed world, these poorer countries cannot possibly make the sacrifices that the human race must make collectively 17 to reverse the deterioration of the environment. 18
词汇
1.acid rain酸雨
2.sulphur dioxide二氧化硫
3.Smokestacks烟囱
4.nitric acid氮酸
5.vulnerability脆弱性
6.contaminate污染
7.polar-bear北极熊
8.irreversible不可逆转的
9.starvation饥饿
10.ozone layer臭氧层
11.hazardous危险的
12.pharmaceutical制药的
13.hack down砍伐
14.redistribute重新分配
15.forthcoming即将到来的
16.sufficiently充足的
17.deterioration恶化
注释
1.本句包含一个定语从句，句子较长，宜拆开再译。重复关系代词所代表的先行词。再如：Day light comes from the sun，which is a mass of hot glowing gas.日光来自太阳，太阳是一团炽热发光的气体。The lion eats the zebra that eats the grass.狮子吃斑马，斑马吃草。
此外，本句中spewed为过去分词充当后置定语，相当于定语从句，也可根据汉语行文习惯，应分开来译。
2.另外，increased their vulnerability to disease如直译为“增加了他们致病的可能性”过于拗口，应“正话反说”，译为“降低了对疾病的抵抗力”，参考译文中根据语境，处理为“对疾病抵抗能力明显下降”。
3.环境问题的外延性，即环境问题造成的间接后果。
4.it was recently reported that...:此句为以“It”作形式主语的被动句，可译成主动句，加上主语“有人”、“大家”、“人们”等，也可以译成无主句，或在动词前加“据”字。例如：It was thought that...(有人以为……);It is hoped that...c希望……);It was estimated that...(据估计…一)。
5.Chernobyl Accident:切尔诺贝利核泄漏事故，发生在1986年4月26日，苏联乌克兰共和国内，在该次事件中，放射性物质飘浮到苏联西部，东欧以及斯堪地那维亚半岛。
6.这是一种叫做“聚氯联二苯”的剧毒化学物质。
7.concentration:原意为“集中，集合”，此处转译为“积聚”。
8.be expected to:通常译为“有望、预期”，此处由于具体语境可译作“会造成……不良后果”。
9.本句前部分是一个同位语成分，不必重复相关名词，后部分为一个并列谓语，第二个谓语动词与第一个相同，故省去，这一点符合英语表达简洁性的要求。
10.represent:原意为“表现;描绘”，根据其具体语境可引申为“带来”。
11.ship... off:原意为“送走”，这里可引申为“转嫁”。
12.本句是一个长句，其中包括两个定语从句...instances in which…，problems that will follow.和一个同位语成分...countries - countries unequipped with....根据汉语的行文习惯及本句的语境，第一个定语从句中的先行词可略去不译，第二个定语从句较短，可压缩作前置修饰成分，同位语成分需重复相关名词。
13.Guinea-Bissau:几内亚(比绍)，位于西北非洲，北邻塞内加尔，东、北邻几内亚，西邻大西洋。
14.本句中第一个it为形式主语，真正的主语是to solve the problem...第二个it是宾语，其后的difficult -词是宾语补足语。
15.本句中前一分句是一个定语从句，结构较长，宜拆开来译，而不能叠加成前置修饰语，这样不符合汉语的行文习惯。后一分句是一个原因状语从句，是对前一分句所述结果的原因的追述。
16.此处是两个不定式短语的并列结构，根据上下文可理解为“在落后国家和发达国家之间进行所得重新分配，并且重新界定环境所有权”。
17.collectively:意为“全人类同心协力，共同奋斗”。
18.此处可理解为“逆转环境恶化的局面”。
【参考译文】
环境危机
近年来我们逐渐认识到，有几种对环境构成的威胁是根本性的，其中之一便是酸雨。酸雨现象是由大量二氧化硫和氧化氮造成的。在北美洲，大烟囱和汽车尾气管每天都排放出大量的二氧化硫和氧化氮。这些氧化物在空气中和水蒸汽结合，转化为弱硫酸和弱氮酸，降落到地面便形成酸雨。酸雨现象不但导致湖泊酸性提高，使鱼类繁殖能力下降;而且随着土壤里酸性物质的激增，树木的生长速度开始放慢，对疾病的抵抗力明显下降。
新闻曝光使污染问题的外延性更加清晰。比如最近有报道称：居住在瑞典和挪威北部的拉普兰人被禁止食用当地鹿肉，因为远在乌克兰的切尔诺贝利城发生核事故，污染波及到了拉普兰人的鹿群。无独有偶，加拿大野生动物学家发现，北极熊肝内合有大量聚氯联二苯和其他污染物。
另外，有些污染问题的外延性很大，全世界都无法幸免。温室效应便是一例。由于大气中的二氧化碳分子日益聚集，浓度越来越高，而且很难分解，它使地球热量滞留，无法散发，导致全球气候变暖。据估计，人类在未来五十年内也许将面临巨大灾难：部分经济落后国家将爆发大面积饥荒，整个沿海地区将被淹没，加拿大平原地区则可能遭受严重的旱灾。
对全球气候的另一威胁来自大气层上端越来越稀薄的臭氧层。臭氧层是由一团微蓝色的气体构成，该气团能遮挡来自太阳的紫外线。现在它正被一种叫氯氟甲烷的合成化学物质所吞噬。臭氧层变薄，人类患皮肤癌的机率比1950年增长了8% -16%。
另外，大量由核电厂、工厂、实验室和制药厂排放的有毒废弃物未得到妥善处理，它们可能对所有的有机体构成威胁。不幸的是，迄今为止，该问题很少有人理会。不少工业发达的国家干脆把问题转嫁给极度贫困的国家，这些落后国家没有废物堆积和处理设备，更没有能力应对此后的隐患。1988年几内亚(比绍)政府与英国两个公司签订合同，同意在其后五年中接收1500万吨制药废物。作为交换的费用对英国公司是区区小数，但却是几内亚(比绍)国民产值的四倍多。世界上有些国家极度贫穷，这种交易对于他们来说还非常“划得来”。因此，解决这个问题绝非易事。
我们提醒那些利用世界上的资源的人们，在做出决定时必须三思，想想外部世界会为他们的行为付出什么样的代价。有人正以每小时1200公顷的速度砍伐雨林，他们砍的其实是地球的肺脏，因为雨林是地球大气层中氧气的主要供给者之一。但这些人并不郝是邪恶之徒。他们为了国家和自己眼前的生计，过度利用环境，实属无奈。例如，有些发展中国家不得不超速砍伐树木，以换取必需的外汇以进口物品。他们实在无力顾及将来。
显然，如果不采用政治手段在落后国家和发达国家之间重新分配所得，并且重新界定环境所有权的话，很多环境问题便得不到解决。只有在人们充分理解污染的外延性的基础上，才能使政治和制度朝正确的方向转变。
发达国家必须积极合作，制订出把收入向欠发达国家重新分配的全面有效的方案。阻止环境恶化是需要全人类同心协力，共同奋斗的大事，没有发达国家的参与，落后国家孤军奋战，是不可能阻止环境继续恶化的。
