武汉大学研究生英语课文Unit1、3翻译

1.Unit OneA Question of Degree对学位的质疑Perhaps we should rethink an idea fast becoming an undisputed premise of American life that a college degree is necessary(and perhaps even a sufficient) precondition for success.I do not wish to quarrel with the assumptions made about the benefits of orthodox education.I want only to expose its false god:the four-year, all-purpose,degree-granting college,aimed at the so-called college-age population and by now almost universally accepted as the stepping-stone to“meaningful”and “better”jobs.What is wrong with the current college/work cycle can be seen in the following anomalies:we are selling college to the youth of American as a take-off pad for the material good life.College is literally advertised and packaged as a means for getting more money through“better”jobs at the same time that Harvard graduates are taking jobs as taxi drivers.This situation is perversion of the true spirit of a university，a perversion of a humane social ethic and，at bottom，a patent fraud.To take the last point first,the economy simply is not geared to guaranteeing these presumptive “better”jobs;the colleges are not geared to training for such jobs;and the ethical propriety of the entire enterprise is very questionable.We are by definition(rather than by analysis)establishing two kinds of work:work labeled“better”because it has a degree requirement tagged to it and nondegree work,which,through this logic, becomes automatically“low level”.This process is also destroying our universities.The“practical curriculum”must become paramount;the students must become servants of big business and big government.Under these conditions the university can no longer be an independent source of scientific and philosophic truth-seeking and moral criticism.Finally,and most important，we are destroying the spirit of youth by making college compulsory at adolescence,when it may be least congruent with emotional and physical needs;and we are denying college as an optional and continuing experience later in life,when it might be most congruent with intellectual and recreational needs.Let me propose an important step to reverse these trends and thus help restore freedom and dignity to both our colleges and our workplaces.We should outlaw employment discrimination based on college degrees.This would simply be another facet of our“equal-opportunity”policy and would add college degrees to sex,age, race,religion and ethnic group as inherently unfair bases for employment selection.People would，wherever possible，demonstrate their capacities on the job.Where that proved impractical，outside tests could still serve.The medical boards，bar exams，mechanical，mathematical and verbal aptitude tests might still be used by various enterprises.The burden of proof of their legitimacy，however，would remain with the using agencies.So too would the costs.Where the colleges were best equipped to impart a necessary skill they would do so，but only where it would be natural to the main thrust of a university endeavor.The need for this rethinking and for this type of legislation may best be illustrated by a case study.Joe V.is a typical liberal-arts graduate，fired by imagination art and literature.He took a job with a large New York City Bank，where he had the opportunity to enter the“assistant manager training program”.The trainees rotated among different bank departments to gain technical know-how and experience and also received classroom instruction，including some sessions on“how to write a business letter.”The program was virtually restricted to college graduates. At the end of the line，the trainees became assistant bank managers：a position consisting largely of giving simple advice to bank customers and a modest amount of supervision of employees.Joe searched for some connection between the job and the training program，on the one hand，and his college-whetted appetites and skills on the other.He found nothing.In giving Joe preference for the training program,the bank had bypassed a few enthusiastic aspirants already dedicated to a banking career and daily demonstrating their competence in closely related jobs.After questioning his superiors about the system,Joe could only conclude that the“top brass”had some very diffuse and not-too-well–researched or even well-thought-out conceptions about college men. The executives admitted that a college degree did not of itself ensure the motivation or the verbal or social skills needed.Nor were they about what skills were most desirable for their increasing diverse branches.Yet they clung to the college prerequisite.Business allows the colleges to act as recruiting,screening and training agencies for them because it saves money and time.Why colleges allow themselves to act as servicing agents may not be as apparent.One reason may be that colleges are increasingly becoming conventional bureaucracies.It is inevitable,therefore,that they should respond to the first and unchallenged law of bureaucracy:expand!The more that college’s can persuade outside institutions to restrict employment in favor of theirclientele,the stronger is the college’s hold and attraction.This rational becomes even clearer when we understand that the budgets of public universities hang on the number of students“serviced”.Seen from this perspective,then,it is perhaps easier to understand why such matters as“university independence”or“the propriety”of using the public bankroll to support enterprises that are expected to make private profits, can be dismissed.Conflict of interest is difficult to discern when the interests involved are your own.What is equally questionable is whether a college degree,as such,is proper evidence that new skills that are truly needed will be delivered.A friend who works for Manpower Training Program feels that there is a clear divide between actual job needs and college-degree requirements.One of her chief frustration is the knowledge that many persons with ability to do paraprofessional mental-health work are lost to jobs they could hold with pleasure and profit because the training program also require a two-year associate art degree.Obviously,society can and does manipulate job status.I hope that we can manipulate it in favor of the greatest number of people.More energy should be spent in trying to upgrade the dignity of all socially useful work and to eliminate the use of human beings for any work that proves to be truly destructive of the human spirit. Outlawing the use of degrees as prerequisites for virtually every job that our media portray as“better”should carry us a long step toward a healthier society.Among other things,there is far more evidence that work can make college meaningful than that college can make work meaningful.My concern about this degree/work cycle might be far less acute;however,if everyone caught up in the system were having a good time.But we seem to be generating a college population that oscillates between apathy and hostility.One of the major reasons for this joylessness in our university life is that the students see themselves as prisoners of economic necessity.They have bought the media message about better jobs,and so they do their time.But the promised land of“better”job is, on the one hand,not materializing,and on the other hand the students is by now socialized to find such“better”jobs distasteful even if they were to materialize.One of the major improvements that could result from the proposed legislation against degree requirements for employments would be a new stocktaking on the part of all our educational pulsory schools,for example,would understand that the basic skills for work and family life in our society would have to be compressed into those years of schooling.Colleges and universities,on the other hand,might be encouraged to be unrestricted,as continuous and as open as possible.They would be released from the pressures of ensuring economic survival through a practical curriculum.They might best be modeled after museums.Hours would be extensive，fees minimal，and services available to anyone ready to comply with course-by-course demands.College under these circumstances would have a clearly understood focus，which might well be the traditional one of serving as gathering place for those persons who want to search for philosophic and scientific“truths”.This proposal should help our universities rid themselves of some strange and gratuitous practices.For example，the university would no longer have to organize itself into hierarchical levels：B.A.,M.A.,PH.D.There would simply be courses of greater and lesser complexity in each of the disciplines.In this way graduate education might be more rationally understood and accepted for what it is——more education.The new freedom might also relieve colleges of the growing practice of instituting extensive“work programs,”“internships”and“independence study”programs.The very names of these enterprises are tacit admissions that the campus itself is not necessary for many genuinely educational experiences.But,along with “external degree”programs,they seem to pronounce that whatever one has learned in life by whatever diverse and interesting routes cannot be recognized as increasing one’s dignity,worth,usefulness or self-enjoyment until it is converted into degree credits.The legislation I propose would offer a more rational order of priorities.It would help recapture the genuine and variegated dignity of workplace along with the genuine and more specialized dignity of the university.It would help restore to people of all ages and inclinations a sense of their own basic worth and offer them as many roads as possible to reach Rome.Vocabulary1.What look like generous hire-purchase terms are fundamentally just encouragement to the customer to spend his very last penny.【at bottom】2.A lot of viewers complain that there is too much crime and needless sex and violence on TV.【gratuitous无端的】3.I read a brief extract of Erving Goffman's new detective novel on the train and it has rather aroused my appetite for mysteries.【whetted引起】4.The article simply records the political changes of the last year,but it doesn't offer an honest appraisal of the government's achievements.【stocktaking评价估量】st week the city government warned that it would consider legislation to forbid smoking in public places.【outlaw不合法】6.Is it not something of an oddity to have a President of one political persuasion and a Prime Minister of another.【anomaly异常】7.These bigger companies have the money,but they don't always have the expertise to get the job done right.【know-how技能】8.As a member of the club,you must abide by its rules and regulations,otherwise you'll be punished severely.【comply with遵照，遵守】9.Asked whether she would like to work with Jack in my office，Mary replied"No" with obvious distaste.【patent显然的】10.There are many priorities,but reducing the budget deficit as soon as possible is more important than anything else.【paramount最高的】1.What monstrous perversion扭曲of the human spirit leads a sniper to open fire on a bus carrying children2.His writing is so diffuse冗长，obscure and overwrought that it is difficult to make out what it is he is trying to say3.We were in a hurry so we decided to bypass忽略Canterbury because we knew there'd be a lot of traffic there.4.The office director insisted that there was no question as to the propriety合适ofhow the benevolent funds were raised.5.Hector has been trying to get his job upgraded升级for years,but management won't because they'd have to pay him more.6.As a moody young adolescent,Mandy oscillates波动between joyous enthusiasm and melodramatic despair,most especially when it comes to boys.7·How successful they were would hang on坚持下去the speed with which the product could be distributed to the shops.8.Judging by the books sold，this young writer seems to have a strong hold over the reading public.9.If I were you,I would never allow my daughter to attend a such apathy冷漠exists among both the students and teachers.10.She rose,came up to me and said:“Could you provide me with a clear rationale 解释for taking this course of action"2.Unit Two The Middle Class中产阶级The middle class is distinguishable more by its earnestness and psychic insecurity than by its middle income.I have known some very rich people who remain stubbornly middle-class,which is to say they remain terrified at what others think of them,and to avoid criticism are obsessed with doing everything right.The middle class is the place where table manners assume an awful importance...The middle class,always anxious about offending,is the main market for"mouthwashes," and if it disappeared the whole"deodorant"business would fall to the ground.中产阶级有另别于其他阶级的特征是他们一本正经的生活态度和缺乏安全感的精神状态，而不是他们的中等收入。

Final Version of TranslationUnit two1．为什么我们与来自其它文化的人们的交流总是充满了误会、让人感到沮丧呢？令很多人奇怪的是，即使怀着良好的愿望、使用自己认为是友好的方式，甚至有互利的可能性，也似乎都不足以保证交流的成功。

有时候，出现排斥现象正是因为一方所属的文化群体团体是“不同”的。

在这个国际舞台发生重大变化的时刻，探讨为什么尝试交流的结果却令人失望的原因是必要的，这些原因实际上是跨文化交流中的绊脚石。

2．相似性的假设为什么误解或反对会产生呢？这个问题的一个回答就是，大部分的人天真地认为世界上的人有足够的相似之处，可以让我们成功地交流信息或感受，解决共同关注的一些问题，加强商业关系，或者只是产生我们所希望产生的印象。

所有的人都会生儿育女，组成家庭或社会，发展一种语言以及适应他们周围环境的这种倾向特别具有欺骗性，因为它带来了一种期望，这种期望就是这些行为的形式以及围绕这些行动的态度与价值观念将是相似的。

相信“人就是人”和“我们内在本质是相似的，”这让人感到心安理得，但是下定决心去寻找证据却只会令人失望。

3．力求证明达尔文关于面部表情是共同的这一理论的跨文化研究给人极大的希望，研究者发现脸部的某些看得见的形状，即因愤怒、恐惧、惊讶、悲伤、厌恶、幸福而紧缩的肌肉组合,我们人类各成员都是一样的。

但是这似乎无济于事，只要我们意识到一个人生长的文化决定了这种情感是否会表露或压抑,决定了在何种场合和多大的程度上会表露或压抑。

带来这种情绪感受的情形也因文化而异，例如：由于崇拜的文化信仰不同，一个心爱的人死亡可能带来欢乐、悲哀或其他情感。

4．因为似乎没有普遍的人性可以作为自动理解的基础，所以我们必须把每交往当作个别案例来处理，寻求任何共同的认知和交流方法并以此作为出发点。

如果我们认识到我们受文化的约束，受文化的改变，那么我们就会受这一现实：因为各自不同，我们确实不太清楚其他人“是”什么样的。

研究生英语第一课课后翻译第一篇：研究生英语第一课课后翻译有时候，在工作中重要的倒是能否处理好人际关系而不是有多大的才能。

人际关系就是一种善于听取别人意见体察别人的需要虚心接受批评的能力。

善于处理人际关系的人敢于承认错误，敢于承担自己的责任，这是对待错误的一种成熟和负责任的态度。

这就是为什么许多平平庸庸的公司雇员在大调整中保住了位置，而有才能的人反而下岗。

因为他们很注意处理各方面的关系，所以八面玲珑，到处有缘。

而人际关系差的人往往不能处理好批评。

碰到错误，他们首先想到自己，拒不承认自己有错，或情绪低落或大发雷霆，成为有刺的人，难以相处。

Sometimes it is interpersonal skills rather than professional skills that really counts in your career.Interpersonal skills are nothing but the ability to be good listener, to be sensitive toward other‟s needs, to take criticism well.People with skill in social relations admit their mistakes, and take their share of blame, which is a mature and responsible way to handle an error.That‟s why many mediocre employees survive violent corporate upheavals while people of great talent are being laid off.Sensitive in their dealings with others, they are well liked everywhere.People with poor interpersonal skills have trouble taking criticism.When confronted with a mistake, they let their ego get in the way.They deny responsibility and became moody or angry.They mark themselves as “prickly”.Every so often, it is one’s interpersonal skills rather than his capabilities that matter in his work.Interpersonal skills are the ability to listen to others, observe others’needs, and be open to criticisms.An interpersonally skilful person never fails to admit his mistakes and shoulder his responsibilities, since he has a mature andresponsible attitude toward mistakes.That is why in a company’s personnel reshuffle many employees with mediocre capabilities are allowed to stay while some talented people get dismissed.The former are careful to deal with people all around them, so they are popular with everyone and favored everywhere.In contrast, those with poor interpersonal skills cannot cope well with criticisms from others.When they get things wrong, they tend to put themselves first and deny their mistakes, or they feel depressed or fly into a temper, as unapproachable as a hedgehog.第二篇：研究生英语课后翻译unit3The plane arcs softly into its final descent at Hong Kong International Airport.Below, Victoria Harbor, and the silent rhythms of countless ships.Beyond, sloping mountains fence in a breathtaking city view that seems to stretch forever.This is no ordinary airport.This is no ordinary city.An elderly man passes by wearing pajamas, bearing a brightly feathered bird singing merrily in its cage.Professional gather at a roadside kitchen for noodles, congee and shrimp.Incense from s tiny Taoist temple drifts into the pounding beat of rock music pouring out of a discotheque.A ferry travels on the nearby water regularly, taking passengers to an isolated island 40 minutes away, where Buddhist temples and tiny fishing villages dot the landscape, Hong Kong.Here, 161 km south of the Tropic of Cancer, beats the pulse of Southeast Asia’s heart.Where East greets We st, and past colors present.飞机轻轻地进入香港国际机场做最后的下降。

Unit 1 跨文化交流中的绊脚石1.为什么我们与来自其他文化的人们的交流总是充满了误会，让人感到沮丧呢？令很多人奇怪的是，即使怀着良好的愿望、使用自己认为是友好的方式，甚至有互利的可能性，也似乎都不足以保证交流的成功.有时候，出现排斥现象正是因为一方所属的文化群体团体是“不同"的。

在这个国际舞台发生重大变化的时刻，探讨为什么尝试交流的结果却令人失望的原因是必要的，这些原因实际上是跨文化交流中的绊脚石。

2.相似性的假设为什么误解或反对会产生呢？这个问题的一个回答就是，大部分的人天真地认为世界上的人有足够的相似之处,可以让我们成功地交流信息或感受，解决共同关注的一些问题，加强商业关系，或者只是产生我们所希望产生的印象。

所有的人都会生儿育女，组成家庭或社会，发展一种语言以及适应他们周围环境的这种倾向特别具有欺骗性,因为它带来了一种期望，这种期望就是这些行为的形式以及围绕这些行为的态度与价值观念将是相似的。

相信“人就是人"和“我们内在本质是相似的"，这让人感到心安理得，但是下定决心去寻找证据却只会令人失望.3.力求证明达尔文关于面部表情是共同的这一理论的跨文化研究给人极大的希望，研究者发现脸部的某些看得见的形状，即因愤怒、恐惧、惊讶、悲伤、厌恶、幸福而紧缩的肌肉组合，我们人类各成员都是一样的。

但是这似乎无济于事,只要我们意识到一个人生长的文化决定了这种情感是否会表露或压抑，决定了在何种场合和多大的程度上会表露或压抑。

带来这种情绪感受的情形也因文化而异，例如:由于崇拜的文化信仰不同，一个心爱的人死亡可能带来欢乐、悲哀或其他情感。

4.因为似乎没有普遍的人性可以作为自动理解的基础，所以我们必须把每次交往当作个别案例来处理,寻求任何共同的认知和交流方法并以此作为出发点.如果我们认识到我们受文化的约束，受文化的改变,那么我们就会接受这一现实：因为各自不同，我们确实不太清楚其他人“是”什么样的。

You need to help them indentify you as a prospective “key player〞.你需要帮助他们认定你有潜力成为一名核心员工。

Trait 1: The selfless collaborator特征1：无私的合作者John Fetzer, career consultant and chemist, first suggested this trait,职业参谋和化学家约翰·费策尔最早提出了这个特征。

which has already been written about a great deal.It deserves repeating because it is the single most public difference between academia and industry.它之所以值得被反复谈及，是因为这一特征是学术界和企业间最明显的差异。

“It's teamwork,〞says Fetzer.“这里需要合作，〞费策尔说，“The business environment is less lone-wolf and competitive.“企业的环境并不需要单打独斗，争强好胜，so signs of being collaborative and selfless stand out.所以表现出合作和无私精神的员工就脱颖而出了。

You just can't succeed in an industry environment without this mindset.〞在企业环境中，没有这样的思维方式就不可能成功。

〞Many postdocs and grad students have a tough time showing that they can make this transition许多博士后和研究生在进行这种过渡的过程中表现得相当费力。

武⼤研究⽣英语教材课后翻译汉译英1.中国和欧洲是两⼤战略⼒量，肩负推动全球经济发展、促进⼈类⽂明进步、维护世界和平的崇⾼使命，双⽅正在形成不断放⼤的战略交集。

中国是最⼤的新兴市场国家，欧盟是最⼤的发达经济体，"最⼤"与"最⼤"交融,⼀切都有可能，"新兴"与"发达"携⼿，优势就会倍增，中欧在新兴和发达经济体合作中可以成为典范。

China and Europe are two major strategic forces. We both undertake the lofty mission of promoting global economy, advancing human civilization and progress and safeguarding world peace. The two sides are expanding their converging strategic interests. China is the largest emerging market and the EU the largest developed economy. Nothing is impossible when the two "largests" converge.And strength will be multiplied if the "emerging" meets the "developed".China-EU cooperation may serve as a fine example of that between the emerging and developed economies.2.近40年的中欧关系，已由⼀棵⼩苗长成枝繁叶茂的⼤树，这棵树上挂满了累累果实。

Unit One stumbling blocks in interculturalcommunication跨文化交流中的绊脚石1．为什么我们与来自其它文化的人们的交流总是充满了误会、让人感到沮丧呢？令很多人奇怪的是，即使怀着良好的愿望、使用自己认为是友好的方式，甚至有互利的可能性，也似乎都不足以保证交流的成功。

有时候，出现排斥现象正是因为一方所属的文化群体团体是“不同” 的。

在这个国际舞台发生重大变化的时刻，探讨为什么尝试交流的结果却令人失望的原因是必要的，这些原因实际上是跨文化交流中的绊脚石。

2．相似性的假设为什么误解或反对会产生呢？这个问题的一个回答就是，大部分的人天真地认为世界上的人有足够的相似之处，可以让我们成功地交流信息或感受，解决共同关注的一些问题，加强商业关系，或者只是产生我们所希望产生的印象。

所有的人都会生儿育女，组成家庭或社会，发展一种语言以及适应他们周围环境的这种倾向特别具有欺骗性，因为它带来了一种期望，这种期望就是这些行为的形式以及围绕这些行动的态度与价值观念将是相似的。

相信“人就是人”和“我们在本质是相似的，”这让人感到心安理得，但是下定决心去寻找证据却只会令人失望。

3．力求证明达尔文关于面部表情是共同的这一理论的跨文化研究给人极大的希望，研究者发现脸部的某些看得见的形状，即因愤怒、恐惧、惊讶、悲伤、厌恶、幸福而紧缩的肌肉组合 ,我们人类各成员都是一样的。

但是这似乎无济于事，只要我们意识到一个人生长的文化决定了这种情感是否会表露或压抑,决定了在何种场合和多大的程度上会表露或压抑。

带来这种情绪感受的情形也因文化而异，例如：由于崇拜的文化信仰不同，一个心爱的人死亡可能带来欢乐、悲哀或其他情感。

4．因为似乎没有普遍的人性可以作为自动理解的基础，所以我们必须把每交往当作个别案例来处理，寻求任何共同的认知和交流方法并以此作为出发点。

如果我们认识到我们受文化的约束，受文化的改变，那么我们就会受这一现实：因为各自不同，我们确实不太清楚其他人“是”什么样的。

TRAITS OF THE KEY PLAYERS核心员工的特征What exactly is a key play？核心员工究竟是什么样子的?A “Key Player” is a phrase that I've heard about from employers during just about every search I've conducted.几乎每次进行调查时，我都会从雇主们那里听到“核心员工”这个名词。

I asked a client — a hiring manager involved in recent search — to define it for me.我请一位客户——一位正参与研究的人事部经理，给我解释一下。

“Every company has a handful of staff in a given area of expertise that you can count on to get the job done.“每家公司都有少数几个这样的员工，在某个专业领域，你可以指望他们把活儿干好。

On my team of seven process engineers and biologists, I've got two or three whom I just couldn't live without,” he said.在我的小组中，有七名化工流程工程师和生物学家，其中有那么两三个人是我赖以生存的，”他说，“Key players are essential to my organization.“他们对我的公司而言不可或缺。

And when we hire your company to recruit for us, we expect that you'll be going into other companies and finding just:当请你们公司替我们招募新人的时候，我们期待你们会去其他公司找这样的人：the staff that another manager will not want to see leave.其他公司经理不想失去的员工。

Gender, Poverty and EnvironmentGender is rarely considered as a mainstream issue in environmental policies and programmers. However, a better understanding of the different priorities and perceptions of men and women can be used to maximize policy effectiveness.1.In many parts of the world, women tend to be the poorest of the poor in avery literal sense. In addition to being the majority among the poor, they are often denied the most basic rights and access to critical resources such as land, inheritance or credit. Their labour and knowledge are undervalued.Their needs are often overlooked. They are more vulnerable to disease and disasters and the situation is made worse by their poverty. Cultural and social norms sometimes complicate matters further by placing additional expectations, restrictions and limitations on women. Gender gaps are widespread, and in no region of the world are women equal to men in legal, social and economic rights.2.The synergies between the goals of gender equity, poverty alleviation andenvironmental sustainability are explored below in terms of addressing poverty among women--including energy and water poverty, health, climate change, natural disasters and creating sustainable livelihoods by empowering women in the realms of agriculture, forest and biodiversity management.3.Energy, environment and genderThe synergies between gender, environment and the energy sector were first recognized in relation to biomass energy. Women were recognized as users and collectors of fuel wood, and as victims of environmental deterioration that caused energy scarcity.4.The surveys have shown that women spend long hours in fuel collection.The burden increases as deforestation worsens, and this affects the timeavailable to women for other activities including income-generating activities, education and participation in decision making. In Sudan, for instance, deforestation in the last decade led to a quadrupling of the time women spent gathering fuel wood. This stimulated efforts to promote afforestation and design more fuel-efficient stoves. Funding petered out, however, when the improved stoves and forestry projects were not as successful as anticipated.5.Attention to biomass energy and its impact on women's lives has recentlyrevived. Indoor air pollution, mainly from wood fuel smoke, ranked as the fourth largest health problem in developing countries. It is estimated to kill2 million women and children in developing countries every year and alsocauses respiratory and eye diseases. There are differences in exposure according to age and economic status, and in some cultures women tend to undervalue their own health, leading to under-reporting of problems.6.In many developing countries, communal lands remain a crucial source ofbiomass energy, yet privatization of these lands continues apace--reducing free access to fuel wood, and removing yet another where cooperative decisions could be made on sustainable management of fuel wood sources.7.In developed countries, the links between gender, environment and energyhave been explored mainly in the areas of equal opportunity in the energy professions, decision making in energy policy, pollution and health, preferences for energy production systems, access to scientific and technological education and the division of labour in the home.8.Climate change and genderClimate change is predicted to cause displacement of populations due to sea level rise. In many parts of the developing world it is expected to increase water scarcity, to increase the disease burden, to negatively impact agriculture, and to cause more frequent extreme weather events. The effects of climate change and adaptive capacity are very likely to differ by gender, because of the strong relationship between poverty and vulnerability, andthe fact that women as a group are poorer and less powerful than men.9.The potential value of gender as a factor in deciding on policies andprogrammes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has received even less attention. For example, as users of household energy, women can play a key role in energy conservation, as well as in promoting renewable energy technologies.10.Both sexes make decisions about the forms of transport they use and howfrequently they travel, and there are gender differences in the choices they make. In developed countries, for example, women tend to use public transport more than men.nd tenure and agricultureDespite women's key role in agriculture, most of the world’s women do not equally own, inherit or control land and other property.Discriminatory inheritance and property ownership laws restrict women's ability to ensure long-term food security for the family, and to get loans using land as collateral. They also have important consequences for soil and land management --it is widely acknowledged that owners of land take more care to ensure soil conservation. Improved access to agricultural support systems, including credit, technology, education, transport, extension and marketing services, is essential to improving agricultural productivity and promoting environmentally sustainable practices--yet often women have no access to these services.12.The division of labour between men and women in agricultural productionvaries considerably between cultures. However, as a broad generalization, It is usually men who are responsible for large-scale cash cropping, especially when it is highly mechanized, while women take care of household food production and some small-scale, low technology cultivation of cash crops. This has important implications for biodiversity.Gender-differentiated local knowledge systems play a decisive role in conserving, managing and improving genetic resources for food andagriculture, In Kenya, men's knowledge of traditional crops and practices is actually declining as a result of formal schooling and migration to urban areas. By contrast, women retain a widely shared level of general knowledge in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity about wild foods, craft and medicinal plants, and acquire new knowledge about natural resources as their roles and duties change.13.WaterLack of access to clean potable water has been recognized as a factor increasing women's work burdens in those parts of the world where they are responsible for collecting water for basic needs like cooking, cleaning and hygiene. In some cases water collection can take up to 60 percent of their working time.14.In rural Africa, women and girls spend as much as three hours a dayfetching water, using up more than one-third of their daily caloric energy intake. This limits the time available for them to engage in wage-earning economic and social activities and development projects. Lack of clean water is also responsible for waterborne diseases among children--one of the major causes of child disease and mortality. This further adds to women's childcare responsibilities.15.The lack of easily accessible water has health implications for women aswell. Carrying heavy water jars over long distances during pregnancy can result in premature births, prolapsed uterus or back injuries. Constant exposure to water while collecting, washing clothes, cleaning and cooking puts women at greater risk of contracting water-related diseases. For instance, in eastern Tanzania, urinary schistosomiasis, a water-related disease, was most common among boys, and also among girls and women between the ages of 10 and 40. The incidence among boys was associated with swimming. Among women and girls, it was associated with the local practice of washing clothes while standing in schistosomiasis-infest ed water.16.HealthThe link between health and the environment has been widely recognized, if not fully acted upon, in recent years. Unclean water and untreated sewage are responsible for the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and intestinal parasites. Limited access to water may be responsible for the spread of germs. pollutants in the environment (including air pollutants from transport and industry, chemical toxins and heavy metals from industrial processes, and dioxins from waste incineration) pose a constant threat to the human body. Climate change is expected to increase the burden of disease considerably by allowing vectors to breed in latitudes or altitudes where current temperatures prevent them.Men and women are exposed differently to environmental risks, and their bodies may respond differently even to the same threats. For instance, the incidence of respiratory illnesses is considerably higher among women and young children, who are constantly exposed to indoor air pollution, than among men.17.Poor nutritional levels can make people particularly vulnerable toinfectious diseases, and age and gender may exacerbate this risk. Malaria, for example, is more likely to cause serious problems or death in young children or pregnant women. During pregnancy, it can cause severe anemia, and it can also harm the fetus, increasing the chances of abortion, premature birth,still-birth, intrauterine growth retardation and low infant birth weight.18.One of the newest threats to health and social welfare is the spread ofHIV/AIDS. Both sexes are affected, but to different extents in different parts of the world. Globally, men account for 52 percent of infected adults.Lack of information among women on how the disease is transmitted confounds the problem in many regions. In sub-Saharan Africa. 65 per cent of those infected are women. In this region, women grow most of the food, and women's agricultural labour often shows the first signs of widercommunity disruption by HIV/AIDS. For example, in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe where women are responsible for most food production, there has been a progressive shift from maize production to less labour-intensive, and less nutritious, cassava production to compensate for the labour lost through HIV/ADS.19.UrbanizationUntil recently, the link between gender, the environment and urbanization was mostly seen as rural women being left behind in rural areas to take care of agriculture, while men migrate to cities in search of a better income. This focus has slowly expanded to include the impact of urban environments on women. In many developing countries, people migrating as unskilled labourers to a city face a challenge in accessing even basic necessities such as food, water, and housing, and they are vulnerable to exploitation and economic abuse.20.Air and water pollution can be extreme in urban settings, and sanitationand waste treatment poor or non-existent in low-cost residential areas and slums, Housing tenure patterns in towns and cities ale sometimes gender distorted: it is often harder for women to have secure tenure of their housing or land. In addition, inequitable inheritance practices leave female-headed households extremely vulnerable, especially where land grabbing occurs. Many urban households have female heads, and typically these are poorer and more vulnerable than households with a couple.21.Environmental disastersDisasters do not strike evenly by social class or gender. However, it is well established that the poor are more exposed to environmental and other disasters, and also more vulnerable to them when they occur. They are more likely to live in disaster-prone areas, in vulnerable, badly built and badly sited housing, and with few resources to pay for rescue or rehabilitation.22.Anyone who is located (socially and / or spatially) "out of the loop" ofinformation supplied by early warning systems is likely to suffer more from disasters. In some countries, these individuals are more likely to be women than men. The 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh resulted in a disproportionate number of female deaths (71 per 1, 000 women as against 15 per 1, 000 men). This was partly because warnings of the cyclone were displayed in public places, less frequented by women. Researchers also found that women delayed leaving their houses for much longer, in order to avoid the impropriety of being alone in public. Women were also less likely to have been taught how to swim.23.On the other hand, men sometimes treat disaster warnings less seriously.More men than women died in Florida and the Caribbean during Hurricane Mitch in 1998, in part because they ventured into the storm. The earthquake in Kobe, Japan in 1995 demonstrated clear gender differentiated impacts both during and after the event.24.Challenges for the FutureThe full success of forward-looking strategies for bringing gender into environmental analysis--and vice versa--may hinge on three major areas of activity.25.First, improving and supporting women's capacity to participate and shapeenvironmental policy and action at all levels from grassroots to government. Worldwide, women are still very poorly represented in governments and other decision-making bodies. There has been an improvement in women's participation in development programmes, but their role still falls far short of men's. Part of the solution is to prepare women for greater participation by equalizing education and literacy rates for girls and women with those of boys and men.26.Second, adjusting government priorities so that awareness and promotionof gender equality are integrated into financial planning. In 20 countries so far, UNIFEM has supported the development of gender responsive budgets that examine how the allocation of public resources benefits women andmen, and addresses gender equality requirements. In Mexico, the government earmarked the equivalent of 0. 85 per cent of the total budget in 2003 for programmes promoting gender equity. Fourteen ministries are required to report quarterly on the status of these programmes.27.Third, improving institutional capacities to incorporate gender-relatedenvironmental analysis. Much of modem environmental analysis is framed by the technical / scientific paradigm and relies mostly on quantitative biophysical data. Much of the work on gender and environment, on the other hand, is framed by a social science approach relying more on qualitative material, case study narratives, and anecdotal evidence.Merging these two paradigms will be a challenge.28.It is difficult enough to mainstream social considerations withinenvironmental work; adding gender as a third dimension is even more challenging. Many people in the environmental field see issues such as climate change or loss of biodiversity as urgent, first-order global problems.Bringing a gender perspective into the discussion is often dismissed as trivial--or at least not essential to priority problem solving. It is not unusual for environmentalists to consider that attention to gender diverts energy and time away from pressing issues; it is"like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic,"one environmentalist was recently cited as saying. Part of this challenge is to convince technical experts that gender matters, and that analyses of gender balance and equity do not weaken or delay, but actually strengthen and sharpen environmental analyses, policies and programmes.。