新视野第四册(第三版)unit4
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新视野大学英语第三版读写教程第四册:Unit4A 可持续性发展的环保主义Unit 4 Text A Achieving sustainable environmentalism 翻译, 原文Achieving sustainable environmentalism1 Environmental sensitivity is now as required an attitude in polite society as is sa y belief in democracy or disapproval of plastic surgery. But now that everyone from Ted Turner to George H. W. Bush has claimed love for Mother Earth how are we to choose among the dozens of conflicting proposals regulations and laws advanc ed by congressmen and constituents alike in the name of the environment? Clearly not everything with an environmental claim is worth doing. How do we segregate t he best options and consolidate our varying interests into a single sound policy?2 There is a simple way. First differentiate between environmental luxuries and env ironmental necessities. Luxuries are those things that would be nice to have if costl ess. Necessities are those things we must have regardless. Call this distinction the definitive rule of sane environmentalism which stipulates that combating ecological change that directly threatens the health and safety of people is an environmental necessity. All else is luxury.3 For example preserving the atmosphere stopping ozone depletion and the green house effect is an environmental necessity. Recently scientists reported that ozone damage is far worse than previously thought. Ozone depletion has a correlation n ot only with skin cancer and eye problems it also destroys the ocean's ecology the beginning of the food chain atop which we humans sit.4 The possible thermal consequences of the greenhouse effect are far deadlier: me lting ice caps flooded coastlines disrupted climate dry plains and ultimately empty b readbaskets. The American Midwest feeds people at all corners of the atlas. With t he planetary climate changes are we prepared to see Iowa take on New Mexico's desert climate or Siberia take on Iowa's moderate climate?5 Ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect are human disasters and they are ur gent because they directly threaten humanity and are not easily reversible. A sane environmentalism the only kind of environmentalism that will strike a chord with the general public begins by openly declaring that nature is here to serve human bein gs. A sane environmentalism is entirely a human focused regime: It calls upon hu manity to preserve nature but merely within the parameters of self-survival.6 Of course this human focus runs against the grain of a contemporary environme ntalism that indulges in overt earth worship. Some people even allege that the eart h is a living organism. This kind of environmentalism likes to consider itself spiritual. It is nothing more than sentimental. It takes for example a highly selective view of the kindness of nature one that is incompatible with the reality of natural disasters.My nature worship stops with the twister that came through Kansas or the dreadf ul rains in Bangladesh that eradicated whole villages and left millions homeless.7 A non-sentimental environmentalism is one founded on Protagoras's idea that "M an is the measure of all things." In establishing the sovereignty of man such a prin ciple helps us through the dense forest of environmental arguments. Take the curre nt debate raging over oil drilling in a corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Environmentalist coalitions mobilizing against a legislative action working it s way through the US Congress for the legalization of such exploration propagate t hat Americans should be preserving and economizing energy instead of drilling for i t. This is a false either-or proposition. The US does need a sizable energy tax to r educe consumption. But it needs more production too. Government estimates indica te a nearly fifty-fifty chance that under the ANWR rests one of the five largest oil f ields ever discovered in America. It seems illogical that we are not finding safe wa ys to drill for oil in the ANWR.8 The US has just come through a war fought in part over oil. Energy dependence costs Americans not just dollars but lives. It is a bizarre sentimentalism that would deny oil that is peacefully attainable because it risks disrupting the birthing ground s of Arctic caribou.9 I like the caribou as much as the next person. And I would be rather sorry if th eir mating patterns were disturbed. But you can't have your cake and eat it too. A nd in the standoff of the welfare of caribou versus reducing an oil reliance that get s people killed in wars I choose people over caribou every time.10 I feel similarly about the spotted owl in Oregon. I am no enemy of the owl. If it could be preserved at a negligible cost I would agree that it should be biodiversi ty is after all necessary to the ecosystem. But we must remember that not every s pecies is needed to keep that diversity. Sometimes aesthetic aspects of life have t o be sacrificed to more fundamental ones. If the cost of preserving the spotted owl is the loss of livelihood for 30000 logging families I choose the families (with their saws and chopped timber) over the owl.11 The important distinction is between those environmental goods that are fundam ental and those that are not. Nature is our ward not our master. It is to be respec ted and even cultivated. But when humans have to choose between their own well-being and that of nature nature will have to accommodate.12 Humanity should accommodate only when its fate and that of nature are insepa rably bound up. The most urgent maneuver must be undertaken when the very int egrity of humanity's habitat e.g. the atmosphere or the essential geology that sustai ns the core of the earth is threatened. When the threat to humanity is lower in the hierarchy of necessity a more modest accommodation that balances economic against health concerns is in order. But in either case the principle is the same: prote ct the environment because it is humanity's environment.13 The sentimental environmentalists will call this saving nature with a totally wrong frame of mind. Exactly. A sane and intelligible environmentalism does it not for n ature's sake but for our own.实现可持续性发展的环保主义,1,在上流社会,对环境的敏感就如同信仰民主、反对整容一样,是一种不可或缺的态度。
新视野大学英语(第三版)Unit4_单词解释+例句Unit 4TEXT ANew wordseran.[C] a period of time in history that is known for a particular event, or for particular qualities 时代;年代We are living in the information era. 我们生活在信息时代。
The invention of television and space rockets has opened a new era for mankind. 电视和航空火箭的发明为人类开启了一个新时代。
victimn.[C] sb. who has been attacked, robbed, or murdered 受害者;牺牲者The local government is raising money to help the victims of the earthquake. 当地政府正在筹资帮助地震受害者。
survivorn.[C] sb. who continues to live after an accident, war, or illness 生还者;幸存者The police are searching for survivors of the plane crash. 警方正在搜寻飞机失事的幸存者。
tragedyn.1 [C, U] a very sad event that shocks people because it involves death 悲剧性事件;惨剧;惨案Life tragedies can drive people into great grief and sometimes even lead to depression. 生活中的悲剧会使人极度悲痛,有时甚至会导致抑郁。
新视野大学英语第四册Unit4课文翻译新视野大学英语第四册Unit 4课文翻译新视野大学英语第四册第四单元的课文跟电信网络有关,下面是店铺分享的课文翻译,欢迎大家阅读!新视野大学英语第四册Unit 4课文翻译一个将会大大提高发展中国家生活水准的转变正方兴未艾。
一些不久前还是信息闭塞的地方正在迅速获得最新的通信技术,这将促进他们吸纳国内外投资。
亚洲、拉丁美洲和东欧的许多国家也许需要10年时间来改善其交通、电力供应和其他公用设施。
但是只一根直径小于半毫米的光纤电缆就可以比由铜丝制成的粗电缆承载更多的信息。
由于安装了光纤电缆、数字转换器和最新的无线传输系统,从北京到布达佩斯的一系列城区和工业区正在直接步入信息时代。
一个蛛网般的数字和无线通信网络已经发展到亚洲的大部分地区和东欧的部分地区。
所有这些发展中地区都把先进的通信技术看作一种跨越经济发展诸阶段的途径。
例如,信息技术的广泛应用有望缩短劳动密集型的组装工业转向涉及工程、营销和设计的那些产业所需的时间。
现代通信技术“将使中国、越南这样的国家比那些困于旧技术的国家拥有巨大的优势”。
这些国家应以多快的速度向前发展是人们争论的一个问题。
许多专家认为,越南在目前急需电话的情况下,却要求所有的移动电话都必须是昂贵的数字型电话,这种做法太超前了。
一位专家说:“这些国家缺乏成本估算和选择技术的经验。
”然而毋庸争辩,通信技术将是区分输赢的关键因素。
看一看俄罗斯的情况吧。
由于其坚实的数学和科学教育基础,它应该在信息时代有繁荣的发展。
问题是,它的国内电话系统是一堆生锈的20世纪30年代的老古董。
为了解决这一问题,俄罗斯已经开始铺设光纤电缆,并制定了投入400亿美元建设多项通信工程的战略计划。
但是由于其经济陷于低迷,几乎没有资金来着手解决最基本的问题。
与俄罗斯相比,在未来10年中,中国大陆计划对通信设备投入1,000亿美元。
从某种意义上说,中国的落后成了一种有利因素,因为这一发展正好发生在新技术比铜线电缆系统更便宜的时候。