2015年 河海大学研究生英语一Unit 9 pollution is a dirty word

Unit 9 pollution is a dirty word

The earth is our home. We must take care of it, for ourselves and for the next generation. This means preserving the quality of our environment.

The importance of this task is stressed by scientists who study the relation of man to nature. These scientists are called ecologists, from the Greek word oikos, which means home. Ecologists are responsible for keeping the land, air, and water clean. "How are we doing?" an ecologist was asked recently. "Lousy" the scientist said, sniffing the fume-laden air. "We've got to do a better job - and soon - or it will be too late."

地球是我们的家园。为了我们自己和下一代，必须照顾好它。这意味着保护我们的环境质量。

这项任务的重要性是研究人与自然关系的科学家强调的。这些科学家称为生态学家，来自希腊字Oikos，这意味着家园。生态学家们负责保持土地，空气，和水的清洁。”我们该怎么做？”最近生态学家被问到。“糟糕。”科学家闻着油烟的空气说。“我们必须做得更好，不久，或者很快就太晚了。”

Consume, consume, consume! Our society is consumer oriented-dangerously so. To keep the wheels of industry turning, we manufacture consumer goods in endless quantities, and, in the process, are rapidly exhausting our natural resources. But this is only half the problem. What do we do with manufactured products when they are worn out? They must be disposed of, but how and where? Unsightly junkyards full of rusting automobiles already surround every city in the nation. Americans throw away 80 billion bottles and cans each year, enough to build more than ten stacks to the moon. There isn’t room for much more waste, and yet the factories grind on. They cannot stop because everyone wants a job. Our standard of living, one of the highest in the world, requires the consumption of manufactured products in ever-increasing amounts. Man, about to be buried in his own waste, is caught in a vicious cycle. “Stop the world, I want to get off,” is the way a popular song put man’s dilemma.

消费、消费、消费！我们的社会以消费者为中心－这是很危险的。为了让工业的车轮保持转动，我们大量地生产消费品，而且在此过程中迅速地消耗我们的自然资源。但这只是问题的一半。当这些工业产品被用过之后我们拿它们怎么办呢？它们　必须被处理掉，但是如何处理或在哪里处理呢？堆满生锈汽车的难看的垃圾场已经包围了这个国家的每一座城市。每年美国人扔掉800亿个瓶罐，足够堆到月球十几堆了。再也没有空间放更多的废物了，但是工厂还在继续生产着。工厂不

能停下来，因为每个人都需要工作。我们的生活水平是世界上最高的之一，需要不断增加生产产品的消费。马上就要被自己制造的垃圾淹没的人类处于一种恶性循环之中。“让世界停下来，我要走开。”一首流行歌曲就是这样描述人类的困境。

It wasn’t always like this. Only 100 years ago man lived in harmony with nature. There weren’t so many people then and their wants were fewer. Whatever wastes were produced could be absorbed by nature and were soon covered over. Today this harmonious relationship is threatened by man’s lack of foresight (n. ability to see into the future预见力) and planning, and by his carelessness and greed. For man is slowly poisoning his environment.

事情并非一直如此。仅在100年前，人与自然仍在和谐相处。那时没有这么多的人口，人们的需求也比现在少得多。制造出的任何垃圾都能被自然界吸收，并很快被掩盖起来。由于人们缺乏远见和计划以及冷漠贪婪，现在这种和谐关系正在面临威胁。人类正在慢慢慢地毒害他的生存环境。

Pollution is a “dirty” word. To pollute means to contaminate —— to spoil something by introducing impurities, which make it unfit or unclean to use. Pollution comes in many forms. We see it, smell it, taste it, drink it, and stumble through it. We literally live in and breathe pollution, and, not surprisingly, it is beginning to threaten our health, our happiness, and our very civilization.

污染是个脏词，污染意味着玷污－即用不洁之物弄污某物，使之不净或不宜使用。污染来自很多组成。我们可以看见的，闻到的，尝到的，喝到的，还有碰到的。我们几乎就生活在污染中，呼吸着它。并且，毫不奇怪的是，它已在危害我们的健康、幸福和文明。

Once we thought of pollution as meaning simply smog---the choking, stinging, dirty air that hovers over cities. But air pollution, while it is still the most dangerous, is only one type of contamination among several which attack the most basic life functions.

曾经我们认为污染仅指烟雾－即悬浮在城市上空那令人窒息、气味刺鼻的肮脏空气。空气污染仍是最危险的一种污染，但它只是危害人类最基本生活活动的几种污染之一。

Through the uncontrolled use of insecticides, man has polluted the land, killing the wildlife.By dumping sewage and chemicals into rivers lakes, we have contaminated our drinking water. We are polluting the oceans, too, killing the fish and thereby depriving ourselves of an invaluable food supply.

由于不加控制地使用杀虫剂，杀死野生动物，人类污染了大地；由