学位考试课文翻译

Passage 1

Trees are useful to man in three very important ways: they provide him wood and other products; they give him shade; and they help to prevent drought (干旱) and floods. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, man has not realized that the third of these services is the most important. In his eagerness to draw quick profit from the trees, he has cut them down in large numbers.

Two thousand years ago, a rich and powerful country cut down its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire. It gained the empire but, without its trees, its soil became bare and poor. When the empire fell to pieces, the country found itself faced by floods and starvation.

Even where a government realizes the importance of a plentiful supply of trees, it is difficult sometimes to make the people realize this. They cut down the trees but are too careless to plant and look after new trees. So, unless the government has a good system of control, or can educate the people, the forests slowly disappear.

This does not only mean that there will be fewer trees. The results are even more serious: for where there are trees, their roots break the soil up, allowing the rain to sink in, and also bind the soil. This prevents the soil from being washed away. But where there are no trees, the rain falls on hard ground and flows away on the surface, and this causes floods and the rain carries away the rich topsoil in which crops grow. When all the topsoil is gone, nothing remains but worthless desert.

树有三种非常重要的作用：一，树木能给人类提供木材；二，树木能为人们提供阴凉之处；三，树木能防旱防洪。令人遗憾的是，世界上很多地方的人们没有意识到树木的重要性，特别是它防旱防洪的功能。人们为了眼前的利益，大面积地砍伐森林。

两千年前，一个富有且强大的国家为了建造他们心中的帝国，砍伐树木建造船舰。虽然他们建造了帝国，但是没了树，这个国家的土地变得贫瘠和光秃。当这些船舰毁于一旦时，他们的国家也面临着洪水和饥荒的灾难。

即使政府已经意识到树木充足的重要性，但是有时候要让人们认识到这一点却并不容易。他们砍伐了树木，却忽略了去种植树木。所以，除非政府建立一个体系去有效地控制或者去教育人民，森林才不会消失。

这样做不仅仅是因为树越来越少了，而是因为如果我们再一味砍伐树木的话，其后果会越来越严重。有树的地方，树根会切随泥土，让雨水渗入，从而保持了土壤，防止其流失。但是，没有树的地方，雨水会直接落在地面上，随之冲走，这样会引起洪水。另一方面，雨水冲走了庄稼上的富饶的土壤。当这些土壤都冲光了，那么这个地方除了沙漠什么都没了。

Passage 2

What do we mean by a satisfactory standard of living? Obviously, it must include the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. To get these necessities on regular basis, a person must have a reliable income. But we have other needs which would probably also be included as basic, such as health and education facilities.

We may think of all of these as our needs. Yet most of us would be far from satisfied if we had nothing more than these which are supplied for us. We all enjoy extra income to spend on things like books, sports or hobbies. Sometimes we save some of this extra income to pay for future expense of this type on holidays. So we must add our wants to our basic need. Our standard of living is the degree, to which these needs and wants are satisfied.

But as time goes on, what we think of as our basic needs changes. Twenty years ago a television would have been a luxury, and still is in many countries now. Even now we cannot say it is a need in the same sense as food, clothing and shelter. Yet if most of the people of a country have one, it comes to be accepted as a need. It is possible therefore to have food, clothing and shelter and still be poor by the standards of our own society.

我们说的一个令人满意的生活标准?很明显,它必须包括基本的生活必需品,如食物、衣服和住所。得到这些必需品定期,一个人必须有一个可靠的收入。但我们有其他需要,也可能会被列入基本,如医疗和教育设施。

我们可能认为所有这些为我们的需要。然而我们大多数人会远离满意如果没有比这些为我们供应。我们都喜欢额外的收入花在诸如书、体育或业余爱好。有时我们拯救这些额外的收入来支付未来的费用这一类型的度假。所以我们必须添加我们想要我们的基本需要。我们的生活标准的程度,这些需求和希望都满意。

但随着时间的推移,我们所认为的我们的基本需求的变化。二十年前一个电视会是一种奢侈,并且在许多国家仍然是现在。即使现在我们不能说这是一个需要在同样意义上作为食物、衣服和住所。然而如果大多数人的一个国家有一个,涉及到被接受的需要。它是可能因此有食物、衣服和住所,仍然是贫穷的标准来衡量我们自己的社会。