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劍橋雅思閱讀5原文翻譯及答案(test1)

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       劍橋雅思閱讀5原文(test1)

  劍橋雅思系列真題是劍橋大學(xué)考試委員會(huì)外語(yǔ)考試部出版各類(lèi)考試真題的唯一官方出版社出版的權(quán)威教材,書(shū)中包含最新的雅思全真試題資料,是各類(lèi)雅思考生備考過(guò)程中必不可少的參考書(shū)。非常適合學(xué)生自學(xué)的習(xí)題解答和聽(tīng)力錄音文本。

  READING PASSAGE 1

  You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

  Johnson’s Dictionary

  For the century before Johnson’s Dictionary was published in 1775, there had been concern about the state of the English language. There was no standard way of speaking or writing and no agreement as to the best way of bringing some order to the chaos of English spelling. Dr Johnson provided the solution.

  There had, of course, been dictionaries in the past, the first of these being a little book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdray, published in 1604 under the title A Table Alphabeticall ‘of hard usuall English wordes’. Like the various dictionaries that came after it during the seventeenth century, Cawdray’s tended to concentrate on ‘scholarly’ words; one function of the dictionary was to enable its student to convey an impression of fine learning.

  Beyond the practical need to make order out of chaos, the rise of dictionaries is associated with the rise of the English middle class, who were anxious to define and circumscribe the various worlds to conquer — lexical as well as social and commercial. it is highly appropriate that Dr Samuel Johnson, the very model of an eighteenth-century literary man, as famous in his own time as in ours, should have published his Dictionary at the very beginning of the heyday of the middle class.

  Johnson was a poet and critic who raised common sense to the heights of genius. His approach to the problems that had worried writers throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was intensely practical. Up until his time, the task of producing a dictionary on such a large scale had seemed impossible without the establishment of an academy to make decisions about right and wrong usage. Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself and he would do it single-handed. Johnson signed the contract for the Dictionary with the bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at the Golden Anchor Inn near Holbom Bar on 18 June 1764.He was to be paid £1.575 in instalments, and from this he took money to rent Gough Square, in which he set up his ‘dictionary workshop’.

  James Boswell, his biographer, described the garret where Johnson worked as ‘fitted up like a counting house’ with a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up. Johnson himself was stationed on a rickety chair at an ‘old crazy deal table’ surrounded by a chaos of borrowed books. He was also helped by six assistants, two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.

  The work was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand), Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words, and illustrated their many meanings with some 114,000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time. He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries, and to make his work one of heroic synthesis. In fact, it was very much more. Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning. He adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law — according to precedent. After its publication, his Dictionary was not seriously rivalled for over a century.

  After many vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It was instantly recognised as a landmark throughout Europe. ‘This very noble work,’ wrote the leading Italian lexicographer, ‘will be a perpetual monument of Fame to the Author, an Honour to his own Country in particular, and a general Benefit to the republic of Letters throughout Europe" The fact that Johnson had taken on the Academies of Europe and matched them (everyone knew that forty French academics had taken forty years to produce the first French national dictionary) was cause for much English celebration.

  Johnson had worked for nine years, ‘with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow’. For all its faults and eccentricities his two-volume work is a masterpiece and a landmark, in his own words, ‘setting the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the significations of English words’. It is the cornerstone of Standard English an achievement which, in James Boswell’s words ‘conferred stability on the language of his country.’

  The Dictionary, together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and so well esteemed that his friends were able to prevail upon King George Ⅲ to offer him a pension. From then on, he was to become the Johnson of folklore.

  Questions 1-3

  Choose THREE letters A-H.

  Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

  NB Your answers may be given in any order.

  Which THREE of the following statements are true of Johnson’s Dictionary?

  A It avoided all scholarly words.

  B It was the only English dictionary in general use for 200 years.

  C It was famous because of the large number of people involved.

  D It focused mainly on language from contemporary texts.

  E There was a time limit for its completion.

  F It ignored work done by previous dictionary writers.

  G It took into account subtleties of meaning.

  H Its definitions were famous for their originality.

  Questions 4-7

  Complete the summary.

  Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

  Write your answers in boxes 4-7 on your answer sheet.

  In 1764 Dr Johnson accepted the contract to produce a dictionary. Having rented a garret, he took on a number of 4…………, who stood at a long central desk. Johnson did not have a 5………… available to him, but eventually produced definitions of in excess of 40,000 words written down in 80 large notebooks. On publications, the Dictionary was immediately hailed in many European countries as a landmark. According to his biographer, James Boswell, Johnson’s principal achievement was to bring 6……… to the English language. As a reward for his hard work, he was granted a 7………by the king.

  Questions 8-13

  Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

  In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write

  TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

  FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

  NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

  8 The growing importance of the middle classes led to an increased demand for dictionaries.

  9 Johnson has become more well known since his death.

  10 Johnson had been planning to write a dictionary for several years.

  11 Johnson set up an academy to help with the writing of his Dictionary.

  12 Johnson only received payment for his Dictionary on its completion.

  13 Not all of the assistants survived to see the publication of the Dictionary.

  READING PASSAGE 2

  You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

  Nature or Nurture?

  A A few years ago, in one of the most fascinating and disturbing experiments in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their willingness to obey instructions given by a ‘leader’ in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically Milgram told each volunteer ‘teacher-subject’ that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils’ ability to learn.

  B Milgram’s experimental set-up involved placing the teacher-subject before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from ‘15 volts of electricity (slight shock)’ to ‘450 volts (danger — severe shock)’ in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered, beginning at the lowest level and increasing in severity with each successive wrong answer. The supposed ‘pupil’ was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to simulate receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum of groans, screams and writings together with an assortment of statements and expletives denouncing both the experiment and the experimenter. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for, as per the rule governing the experimental situation of the moment.

  C As the experiment unfolded, the pupil would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks and/or complaints about continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupil’s cries for mercy and carry on with the experiment. If the subject was still reluctant to proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was ‘you have no other choice. You must go on’. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion against the rules and conditions of the experiment.

  D Prior to carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people in an ordinary population who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was that virtually all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that ‘most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts’ and they further anticipated that only four per cent would go up to 300 volts. Furthermore, they thought that only a lunatic fringe of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts.

  E What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit in repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage of obedient teacher-subjects was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for this vast discrepancy between what calm, rational, knowledgeable people predict in the comfort of their study and what pressured, flustered, but cooperative ‘teachers’ actually do in the laboratory of real life?

  F One’s first inclination might be to argue that there must be some sort of built-in animal aggression instinct that was activated by the experiment, and that Milgram’s teache-subjects were just following a genetic need to discharge this pent-up primal urge onto the pupil by administering the electrical shock. A modern hard-core sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant of our ancient animal ways.

  G An alternative to this notion of genetic programming is to see the teacher-subjects’ actions as a result of the social environment under which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, ‘Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is benevolent and useful to society — the pursuit of scientific truth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy and evokes trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting.’

  H Thus, in this explanation the subject merges his unique personality and personal and moral code with that of larger institutional structures, surrendering individual properties like loyalty, self-sacrifice and discipline to the service of malevolent systems of authority.

  I Here we have two radically different explanations for why so many teacher-subjects were willing to forgo their sense of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure. The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is the problem of modern sociobiology — to discover the degree to which hard-wired genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with elucidating the biological basis of all behaviour.

  Questions 14-19

  Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I.

  Which paragraph contains the following information?

  Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

  14 a biological explanation of the teacher-subjects’ behaviour

  15 the explanation Milgram gave the teacher-subjects for the experiment

  16 the identity of the pupils

  17 the expected statistical outcome

  18 the general aim of sociobiological study

  19 the way Milgram persuaded the teacher-subjects to continue

  Questions 20-22

  Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  Write your answers in boxes 20-22 on your answer sheet.

  20 The teacher-subjects were told that were testing whether

  A a 450-volt shock was dangerous.

  B punishment helps learning.

  C the pupils were honest.

  D they were suited to teaching.

  21 The teacher-subjects were instructed to

  A stop when a pupil asked them to.

  B denounce pupils who made mistakes.

  C reduce the shock level after a correct answer.

  D give punishment according to a rule.

  22 Before the experiment took place the psychiatrists

  A believed that a shock of 150 volts was too dangerous.

  B failed to agree on how the teacher-subjects would respond to instructions.

  C underestimated the teacher-subjects’ willingness to comply with experimental procedure.

  D thought that many of the teacher-subjects would administer a shock of 450 volts.

  Questions 23-26

  Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

  In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write

  TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

  FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

  NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

  23 Several of the subjects were psychology students at Yale University.

  24 Some people may believe that the teacher-subjects’ behaviour could be explained as a positive survival mechanism.

  25 In a sociological explanation, personal values are more powerful than authority.

  26 Milgram’s experiment solves an important question in sociobiology.

  READING PASSAGE 3

  You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

  The Truth about the Environment

  For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

  But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have become more abundant, not less so, since the book ‘The Limits to Growth’ was published in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per head of the world’s population than at any time in history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50 years, not 25-50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are transient — associated with the early phases of industrialisation and therefore best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form of pollution — the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming — does appear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future, but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it.

  Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standards are declining and four factors seem to cause this disjunction between perception and reality.

  One is the lopsidedness built into scientific research. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that many more potential problems exist than is the case.

  Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: ‘Two thirds of the world’s forests lost forever.’ The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.

  Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organisation arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.

  A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant distortions of perception. An example was America’s encounter with El Nino in 1997 and 1998. This climatic phenomenon was accused of wrecking tourism, causing allergies, melting the ski-slopes and causing 22 deaths. However, according to an article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the damage it did was estimated at US$4 billion but the benefits amounted to some US$19 billion. These came from higher winter temperatures (which saved an estimated 850 lives, reduced heating costs and diminished spring floods caused by meltwaters).

  The fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise in the amount of stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of places to dispose of waste. Yet, even if America’s trash output continues to rise as it has done in the past, and even if the American population doubles by 2100, all the rubbish America produces through the entire 21st century will still take up only one-12,000th of the area of the entire United States.

  So what of global warming? As we know, carbon dioxide emissions are causing the planet to warm. The best estimates are that the temperatures will rise by 2-3℃ in this century, causing considerable problems, at a total cost of US$5,000 billion.

  Despite the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly problem, economic analyses clearly show it will be far more expensive to cut carbon dioxide emissions radically than to pay the costs of adaptation to the increased temperatures. A model by one of the main authors of the United Nations Climate Change Panel shows how an expected temperature increase of 2.1 degrees in 2100 would only be diminished to an increase of 1.9 degrees. Or to put it another way, the temperature increase that the planet would have experienced in 2094 would be postponed to 2100.

  So this does not prevent global warming, but merely buys the world six years. Yet the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for the United States alone, will be higher than the cost of solving the world’s single, most pressing health problem: providing universal access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Such measures would avoid 2 million deaths every year, and prevent half a billion people from becoming seriously ill.

  It is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible decisions for the future. It may be costly to be overly optimistic — but more costly still to be too pessimistic.

  Questions 27-32

  Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

  In boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet, write

  YES if the statement agrees with the writer’s claims

  NO if the statement contradicts the writer’s clams

  NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

  27 Environmentalists take a pessimistic view of the world for a number of reasons

  28 Data on the Earth’s natural resources has only been collected since 1972.

  29 The number of starving people in the world has increased in recent years.

  30 Extinct species are being replaced by new species.

  31 Some pollution problems have been correctly linked to industrialisation.

  32 It would be best to attempt to slow down economic growth.

  Questions 33-37

  Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  Write your answers in boxes 33-37 on your answer sheet.

  33 What aspect of scientific research does the writer express concern about in paragraph 4?

  A the need to produce results

  B the lack of financial support

  C the selection of areas to research

  D the desire to solve every research problem

  34 The writer quotes from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to illustrate how

  A influential the mass media can be.

  B effective environmental groups can be.

  C the mass media can help groups raise funds.

  D environmental groups can exaggerate their claims.

  34 What is the writer’s main point about lobby groups in paragraph 6?

  A Some are more active than others.

  B Some are better organised than others.

  C Some receive more criticism than others.

  D Some support more important issues than others.

  35 The writer suggests that newspapers print items that are intended to

  A educate readers.

  B meet their readers’ expectations.

  C encourage feedback from readers.

  D mislead readers.

  36 What does the writer say about America’s waste problem?

  A It will increase in line with population growth.

  B It is not as important as we have been led to believe.

  C It has been reduced through public awareness of the issues.

  D It is only significant in certain areas of the country.

  Questions 38-40

  Complete the summary with the list of words A-I below.

  Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

  GLOBAL WARMING

  The writer admits that global warming is a 38…………….challenge, but says that it will not have a catastrophic impact on our future, if we deal with it in the 39…………… way. If we try to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases, he believes that it would only have a minimal impact on rising temperatures. He feels it would be better to spend money on the more 40………… health problem of providing the world’s population with clean drinking water.

  A unrealistic B agreed C expensive D right

  E long-term F usual G surprising H personal

  I urgent

  劍橋雅思閱讀5原文參考譯文(test1)

  TEST 1 PASSAGE 1參考譯文:

  Johnson’s Dictionary

  約翰遜博士的字典

  For the century before Johnson’s Dictionary was published in 1775, there had been concern about the state of the English language. There was no standard way of speaking or writing and no agreement as to the best way of bringing some order to the chaos of English spelling. Dr Johnson provided the solution.

  約翰遜博士的《字典》于1775年出版,在此之前的一個(gè)世紀(jì),人們一直對(duì)英語(yǔ)的發(fā)展?fàn)顩r擔(dān)憂(yōu)??谡Z(yǔ)和書(shū)面語(yǔ)沒(méi)有統(tǒng)一的標(biāo)準(zhǔn),對(duì)于如何整頓英語(yǔ)拼寫(xiě)混亂的局面也沒(méi)有統(tǒng)一的看法。正是約翰遜博士為這一問(wèn)題提供了解決方案。

  There had, of course, been dictionaries in the past, the first of these being a little book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdray, published in 1604 under the title A Table Alphabeticall ‘of hard usuall English wordes’. Like the various dictionaries that came after it during the seventeenth century, Cawdray’s tended to concentrate on ‘scholarly’ words; one function of the dictionary was to enable its student to convey an impression of fine learning.

  當(dāng)然,在此之前也有過(guò)一些字典《其中最早的是一本約120頁(yè)的小冊(cè)子,由一個(gè)叫Robert Cawdray的人編輯,于1604年出版,名為《按字母排序的罕見(jiàn)英語(yǔ)詞匯表》。正如后來(lái)17世紀(jì)出版的許多字典一樣,Cawdray傾向于著重收錄學(xué)術(shù)詞匯。這本字典的功能之一就是使字典的使用者能體現(xiàn)出良好的學(xué)術(shù)修養(yǎng)。

  Beyond the practical need to make order out of chaos, the rise of dictionaries is associated with the rise of the English middle class, who were anxious to define and circumscribe the various worlds to conquer — lexical as well as social and commercial. it is highly appropriate that Dr Samuel Johnson, the very model of an eighteenth-century literary man, as famous in his own time as in ours, should have published his Dictionary at the very beginning of the heyday of the middle class.

  除了規(guī)范英語(yǔ)混亂狀態(tài)的實(shí)際需要外,英語(yǔ)字典的興盛也與英國(guó)中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的興起有關(guān)。這些中產(chǎn)階級(jí)渴望對(duì)各種要征服的環(huán)境進(jìn)行定義和約束,包括詞匯環(huán)境、社會(huì)環(huán)境和商業(yè)環(huán)境。塞繆爾?約翰遜博士作為18世紀(jì)文學(xué)家的典型代表,在當(dāng)時(shí)和現(xiàn)在都享有盛譽(yù),他在中產(chǎn)階級(jí)正如日中天之時(shí)出版他的《字典》真是再合“時(shí)”不過(guò)了。

  Johnson was a poet and critic who raised common sense to the heights of genius. His approach to the problems that had worried writers throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was intensely practical. Up until his time, the task of producing a dictionary on such a large scale had seemed impossible without the establishment of an academy to make decisions about right and wrong usage. Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself and he would do it single-handed. Johnson signed the contract for the Dictionary with the bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at the Golden Anchor Inn near Holbom Bar on 18 June 1764.He was to be paid £1.575 in instalments, and from this he took money to rent Gough Square, in which he set up his ‘dictionary workshop’.

  約翰遜是詩(shī)人、批評(píng)家,他將常識(shí)提髙到了天賦的髙度。對(duì)于那些從17世紀(jì)晚期到18世紀(jì)早期一直困擾著作家的問(wèn)題,約翰遜的解決方法是非常實(shí)用的。在約翰遜之前,如果沒(méi)有專(zhuān)門(mén)的學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)判別正確與錯(cuò)誤的用法,要出版這樣一部大型字典幾乎是不可能的。約翰遜則認(rèn)為不需要學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)來(lái)解決語(yǔ)言上的爭(zhēng)端,他要自己編一本字典,而且要自己親手去編。1764年6月18日,約翰遜與書(shū)商Robert Dosley在Holbom酒店附近的Golden Anchor旅店吃早餐時(shí),簽訂了關(guān)于這本《字典》的合同。約翰遜因此獲得了總價(jià)值1575英鎊的分期付款,他從這些錢(qián)中拿出一些租下了17Gough廣場(chǎng),在這里建起了自己的“字典作坊”。

  James Boswell, his biographer, described the garret where Johnson worked as ‘fitted up like a counting house’ with a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up. Johnson himself was stationed on a rickety chair at an ‘old crazy deal table’ surrounded by a chaos of borrowed books. He was also helped by six assistants, two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.

  James Boswell曾為約翰遜作傳,他描述說(shuō)約翰遜工作的閣樓就像“一個(gè)賬房”,中間有一張長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的的桌子,負(fù)責(zé)抄寫(xiě)的工作人員站著工作。約翰遜坐在一把快要散架的椅子上,面前是一張老式的搖搖晃晃的文案桌,周?chē)鷣y七八糟堆放著一堆借來(lái)的書(shū)。同時(shí)旁邊有六個(gè)助手幫助,其中兩個(gè)在《字典》編纂的籌備階段就去世了。

  The work was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand), Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words, and illustrated their many meanings with some 114,000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time. He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries, and to make his work one of heroic synthesis. In fact, it was very much more. Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning. He adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law — according to precedent. After its publication, his Dictionary was not seriously rivalled for over a century.

  工作量是巨大的。當(dāng)時(shí),約翰遜在身邊還沒(méi)有圖書(shū)館可參閱的條件下,將80大本筆記進(jìn)行了分類(lèi)整理,撰寫(xiě)了4萬(wàn)多條詞的定義,并將這些詞的多個(gè)義項(xiàng)用約11.4萬(wàn)條從各個(gè)學(xué)科的英語(yǔ)書(shū)面材料中摘出的引例加以佐證上些引例來(lái)源極廣,從伊麗莎白時(shí)代到當(dāng)時(shí)作家的作品都被涵蓋在內(nèi)。約翰遜并沒(méi)有想進(jìn)行完全的自我創(chuàng)作。由于有最后期限,他不得不吸收先前所有字典的精華之處,這就使他的工作成了一項(xiàng)規(guī)模宏大的整合工作。事實(shí)上,約翰遜所做的工作絕不僅限于此。和以前的字典編基者不同的是,約翰遜對(duì)待英語(yǔ)的態(tài)度十分務(wù)實(shí)。他將英語(yǔ)看成是活的語(yǔ)言,意思上有許多細(xì)微的差別。他對(duì)詞的定義采取英語(yǔ)普通法則:遵照先例。因此,約翰遜的《字典》出版后,在長(zhǎng)達(dá)一個(gè)多世紀(jì)的時(shí)間里,都沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)一本真正能與其相媲美的字典。

  After many vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It was instantly recognised as a landmark throughout Europe. ‘This very noble work,’ wrote the leading Italian lexicographer, ‘will be a perpetual monument of Fame to the Author, an Honour to his own Country in particular, and a general Benefit to the republic of Letters throughout Europe" The fact that Johnson had taken on the Academies of Europe and matched them (everyone knew that forty French academics had taken forty years to produce the first French national dictionary) was cause for much English celebration.

  幾經(jīng)周折后,約翰遜的這本《字典》終于在1775年4月15日出版了。一經(jīng)出版,這本字典就在整個(gè)歐洲獲得了一致認(rèn)可,被譽(yù)為里程碑式的著作?一位意大利著名的辭書(shū)編築者寫(xiě)道:“這項(xiàng)崇高的作品將成為其著者永恒的榮譽(yù)豐碑,也是其祖國(guó)的一項(xiàng)特別榮耀,這部作品惠及了整個(gè)歐洲大陸文學(xué)界?!北娝苤?,40個(gè)法國(guó)學(xué)者花了40年的時(shí)間才出版了第一部法語(yǔ)字典。而約翰遜一個(gè)人就承擔(dān)了一項(xiàng)歐洲學(xué)術(shù)界所做的工作并毫不遜色地把它完成,這一切都讓英國(guó)人引以為傲。

  Johnson had worked for nine years, ‘with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow’. For all its faults and eccentricities his two-volume work is a masterpiece and a landmark, in his own words, ‘setting the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the significations of English words’. It is the cornerstone of Standard English an achievement which, in James Boswell’s words ‘conferred stability on the language of his country.’

  約翰遜幾乎沒(méi)有得到學(xué)者的幫助或偉人的贊助,也沒(méi)有退休后的舒適條件,更不是在涼爽的書(shū)房中完成工作。他是在種.種不便與干擾中、在疾病折磨和憂(yōu)傷中一直工作了九年。盡管存在瑕疵和怪異之處,他的這部?jī)删肀镜闹魅匀环Q(chēng)得上是一部杰作,一座里程碑。用他自己的話(huà)說(shuō),這本字典“規(guī)范了拼寫(xiě),進(jìn)行了詞匯比較,規(guī)范了結(jié)構(gòu),明確了英文字詞的含義”。這部字典為后來(lái)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)英語(yǔ)奠定了基礎(chǔ),這一成就,用James Boswell的話(huà)說(shuō),就是“為英語(yǔ)的穩(wěn)定做出了貢獻(xiàn)”。

  The Dictionary, together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and so well esteemed that his friends were able to prevail upon King George Ⅲ to offer him a pension. From then on, he was to become the Johnson of folklore.

  約翰遜因?yàn)檫@部《字典》和其他一些作品而聞名于世并備受尊重,這使得他的朋友能夠說(shuō)服國(guó)王喬治三世賞賜給他養(yǎng)老金。從那時(shí)起,他就成了家喻戶(hù)曉的約翰遜。

  TEST 1 PASSAGE 2 參考譯文:

  Nature or Nurture?

  是先天本性還是后天控制?

  A A few years ago, in one of the most fascinating and disturbing experiments in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their willingness to obey instructions given by a ‘leader’ in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically Milgram told each volunteer ‘teacher-subject’ that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils’ ability to learn.

  A 幾年前,耶魯大學(xué)的Stanley Milgram進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)行為心理學(xué)試驗(yàn),這項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)十分有趣但又令試驗(yàn)對(duì)象深感不安。40名試驗(yàn)對(duì)象分別來(lái)自社會(huì)各界。試驗(yàn)要測(cè)試在對(duì)某領(lǐng)導(dǎo)命令做的事情可能產(chǎn)生反感的情況下,這些試驗(yàn)對(duì)象是否愿意執(zhí)行命令。Milgram向每位在試驗(yàn)中扮演教師角色的志愿者明確地解釋?zhuān)囼?yàn)是為了崇高的教育事業(yè)而進(jìn)行的,是要測(cè)試體罰犯錯(cuò)誤的學(xué)生是否會(huì)對(duì)學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)能力產(chǎn)生積極的影響。

  B Milgram’s experimental set-up involved placing the teacher-subject before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from ‘15 volts of electricity (slight shock)’ to ‘450 volts (danger — severe shock)’ in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered, beginning at the lowest level and increasing in severity with each successive wrong answer. The supposed ‘pupil’ was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to simulate receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum of groans, screams and writings together with an assortment of statements and expletives denouncing both the experiment and the experimenter. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for, as per the rule governing the experimental situation of the moment.

  B Milgram的試驗(yàn)方案是讓這些扮演教師角色的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象到一個(gè)有30個(gè)切換開(kāi)關(guān)的控電板前,開(kāi)關(guān)上面分別貼著電壓標(biāo)簽,從15伏(輕度電擊)開(kāi)始,每個(gè)開(kāi)關(guān)依次增大15伏,一直增大到450伏(危險(xiǎn)的嚴(yán)重電擊)。然后告訴這些試驗(yàn)對(duì)象,學(xué)生每回答錯(cuò)一個(gè)問(wèn)題,就施加一次電擊, 從最低電壓開(kāi)始,隨著錯(cuò)誤題數(shù)的增加,電擊強(qiáng)度也依次增加。試驗(yàn)中的學(xué)生實(shí)際上是Mifgram雇傭的演員,他發(fā)出各種呻吟、叫喊聲并痛苦地扭動(dòng)身體甚至用污言移語(yǔ)謾罵試驗(yàn)者和試驗(yàn)本身,來(lái)模擬出學(xué)生遭受電擊后的反應(yīng)Milgram讓這些扮演教師角色的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象不要理會(huì)學(xué)生的反應(yīng),按照控制試驗(yàn)條件的規(guī)則,不管電壓多髙都要直接施加。

  C As the experiment unfolded, the pupil would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks and/or complaints about continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupil’s cries for mercy and carry on with the experiment. If the subject was still reluctant to proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was ‘you have no other choice. You must go on’. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion against the rules and conditions of the experiment.

  C 隨著試驗(yàn)的展開(kāi),這個(gè)學(xué)生要故意答錯(cuò)老師提出的問(wèn)題,從而受到各種級(jí)別電擊的懲罰,甚至是高達(dá)300伏的危險(xiǎn)電壓或更高電壓的電擊懲罰。許多扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象在實(shí)施高電壓懲罰時(shí)猶豫不決,面帶疑惑地看著Milgram或者對(duì)繼續(xù)試驗(yàn)頗有微詞。一旦遇到這種情況,Milgram就會(huì)冷靜地向扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象解釋說(shuō),不要理會(huì)學(xué)生請(qǐng)求憐憫的呼喊,繼續(xù)試驗(yàn)。如果試驗(yàn)對(duì)象仍不肯繼續(xù)試驗(yàn),Milgram就告訴他們,為了完成試驗(yàn)將試驗(yàn)步驟進(jìn)行到底是很重要的。如果這樣仍不奏效的話(huà), Milgram就會(huì)說(shuō):“你別無(wú)選擇,必須繼續(xù)試驗(yàn)?!盡ilgram想要找出的是,面對(duì)人性和道德對(duì)試驗(yàn)規(guī)則和條件強(qiáng)烈的反感,有多少扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象會(huì)愿意施加最高電壓的電擊懲罰。

  D Prior to carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people in an ordinary population who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was that virtually all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that ‘most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts’ and they further anticipated that only four per cent would go up to 300 volts. Furthermore, they thought that only a lunatic fringe of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts.

  D 在進(jìn)行試驗(yàn)之前, Milgram向39名精神科醫(yī)生解釋了他的想法,讓他們預(yù)測(cè)一下普通人群中平均會(huì)有多大比例的人愿意施加最高達(dá)450伏的電擊。這些醫(yī)生幾乎一致認(rèn)為差不多所有扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象都會(huì)拒絕遵從試驗(yàn)人的命令。這些精神科醫(yī)生感到大多數(shù)扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象不會(huì)施加超過(guò)150伏電壓的電擊,并進(jìn)一步預(yù)測(cè)說(shuō),只有4%的人會(huì)施力P300伏以上電壓的電擊。而且,他們認(rèn)為只有約千分之一的像瘋子一樣的人才會(huì)施加450伏的電壓。

  E What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit in repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage of obedient teacher-subjects was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for this vast discrepancy between what calm, rational, knowledgeable people predict in the comfort of their study and what pressured, flustered, but cooperative ‘teachers’ actually do in the laboratory of real life?

  E 實(shí)際結(jié)果如何呢? 60%以上的扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象一直遵從Milgram的命令,直到施加最高電壓450伏的電擊。在其他國(guó)家進(jìn)行的重復(fù)試驗(yàn)中,愿意遵從命令的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象的比例更髙, 在某個(gè)國(guó)家:甚至髙達(dá)85%。那些冷靜、理性、有學(xué)識(shí)的人們依靠他們的研究所得出的輕松的結(jié)論,與這些面臨壓力、緊張不安卻遵守命令的扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象在模擬真實(shí)生活的實(shí)驗(yàn)室中的所作所為竟然存在這么大的差異,我們?cè)鯓硬拍芙忉屵@種差異呢?

  F One’s first inclination might be to argue that there must be some sort of built-in animal aggression instinct that was activated by the experiment, and that Milgram’s teache-subjects were just following a genetic need to discharge this pent-up primal urge onto the pupil by administering the electrical shock. A modern hard-core sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant of our ancient animal ways.

  F人們第一反應(yīng)可能會(huì)說(shuō),一定是試驗(yàn)激發(fā)了人內(nèi)在的某種侵略性動(dòng)物本能。Milgram試驗(yàn)中那些扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象正是本能地靠施加電擊來(lái)向?qū)W生發(fā)泄他們這種受到壓抑的原始沖動(dòng)。典型的現(xiàn)代社會(huì)生物學(xué)家甚至?xí)Q(chēng)這種侵略性的本能是作為一種優(yōu)勢(shì)特征進(jìn)化而來(lái)的,當(dāng)我們的祖先在巖洞中和平原上與艱苦的生活作斗爭(zhēng)時(shí),這種本能對(duì)他們的生存起到了重要的作用。因此,這種本能最終作為遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)人類(lèi)動(dòng)物行為的遺留產(chǎn)物融人到我們的基因當(dāng)中。

  G An alternative to this notion of genetic programming is to see the teacher-subjects’ actions as a result of the social environment under which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, ‘Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is benevolent and useful to society — the pursuit of scientific truth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy and evokes trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting.’

  G 與這種基因說(shuō)不同的觀(guān)點(diǎn)是將那些扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象的行為看作是進(jìn)行試驗(yàn)的社會(huì)環(huán)境所造成的。正如Milgram自己所說(shuō):“大多數(shù)試驗(yàn)對(duì)象從大的背景出發(fā),認(rèn)為自己的行為是仁慈的,對(duì)社會(huì)有益的,是在追求科學(xué)真理。心理實(shí)驗(yàn)室又大力強(qiáng)調(diào)此舉的合法性,因此使試驗(yàn)參與人員對(duì)其產(chǎn)生了信任和信心。像對(duì)受害人施加電擊這件事,單獨(dú)看來(lái)似乎是惡行,但在這種情況下卻有了完全不同的意義?!?/p>

  H Thus, in this explanation the subject merges his unique personality and personal and moral code with that of larger institutional structures, surrendering individual properties like loyalty, self-sacrifice and discipline to the service of malevolent systems of authority.

  H因此,按這種解釋?zhuān)缪萁處煹脑囼?yàn)對(duì)象是將自己的個(gè)性、個(gè)人準(zhǔn)則和道德準(zhǔn)則與更廣泛的體制結(jié)構(gòu)結(jié)合了起來(lái),使個(gè)人的一些特性,如忠誠(chéng)、自我犧牲和遵守規(guī)定,為惡毒的權(quán)威體制服務(wù)。

  I Here we have two radically different explanations for why so many teacher-subjects were willing to forgo their sense of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure. The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is the problem of modern sociobiology — to discover the degree to which hard-wired genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with elucidating the biological basis of all behaviour.

  I對(duì)于眾多扮演教師的試驗(yàn)對(duì)象為了一個(gè)機(jī)構(gòu)權(quán)威人物而愿意放棄他們個(gè)人責(zé)任感的這種行為,我們有兩種完全不同的解釋。生物學(xué)家、心理學(xué)家和人類(lèi)學(xué)家所要解決的問(wèn)題就是找出這兩種截然對(duì)立的解釋哪種更合理。從本質(zhì)講,這是一個(gè)當(dāng)代社會(huì)生物學(xué)的問(wèn)題一探索人自身相關(guān)基因組成能在多大程度上掌控,或至少說(shuō)是強(qiáng)烈影響動(dòng)物和人與環(huán)境的交互活動(dòng),即他們的行為。換句話(huà)說(shuō),社會(huì)生物學(xué)關(guān)注的是如何去闡釋所有行為的生物學(xué)基礎(chǔ)。

  TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 參考譯文:

  The Truth about the Environment

  環(huán)境問(wèn)題真相

  For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

  在許多環(huán)境論者看來(lái),我們的世界似乎變得越來(lái)越糟。他們列出了一系列我們擔(dān)憂(yōu)的問(wèn)題:自然資源正在枯竭,人口不斷增長(zhǎng),糧食越來(lái)越少,物種大批滅絕,地球的空氣污染和水污染越來(lái)越嚴(yán)重。

  But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have become more abundant, not less so, since the book ‘The Limits to Growth’ was published in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per head of the world’s population than at any time in history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50 years, not 25-50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are transient — associated with the early phases of industrialisation and therefore best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form of pollution — the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming — does appear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future, but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it.

  但我們只要簡(jiǎn)單分析一下事實(shí)就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)另外一種情況。首先,自1972年一組科學(xué)家出版了《增長(zhǎng)的極限》這本書(shū)以來(lái),能源和其他自然資源是變得越來(lái)越豐富了,而不是越來(lái)越少。其次,人均糧食產(chǎn)量比以往任何時(shí)候都要高,挨餓的人越來(lái)越少。第三,盡管物種的確在滅絕,但未來(lái)50年只會(huì)有0.7%的物種滅絕,而不是像人們通常所預(yù)計(jì)的25~50%。最后,大多數(shù)環(huán)境污染問(wèn)題或者被夸大其詞或者只是暫時(shí)的,只是與工業(yè)化的早期階段相聯(lián)系的,因此解決這些污染問(wèn)題的最佳方法不是限制經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展, 而是加速經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展。有一種污染,即由于排放溫室氣體所引起的全球變暖問(wèn)題,似乎會(huì)在未來(lái)長(zhǎng)期存在,但其總效應(yīng)卻不大可能會(huì)帶來(lái)特別嚴(yán)重的問(wèn)題。更大的問(wèn)題反而可能出在應(yīng)對(duì)措施不得力上。

  Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standards are declining and four factors seem to cause this disjunction between perception and reality.

  但是民意調(diào)査顯示,許多人所持的觀(guān)念認(rèn)為環(huán)境質(zhì)量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)在下降,造成這種事實(shí)與人們觀(guān)念間的差異的原因大致有四個(gè):

  One is the lopsidedness built into scientific research. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that many more potential problems exist than is the case.

  一是科學(xué)研究上的偏頗??茖W(xué)基金主要投人到存在問(wèn)題的領(lǐng)域。這似乎是一項(xiàng)明智的決策,但是這同樣也給人們?cè)斐闪艘环N印象,似乎存在許多潛在的問(wèn)題,而事實(shí)并非如此。

  Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: ‘Two thirds of the world’s forests lost forever.’ The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.

  第二,環(huán)保組織需要得到媒體的注意,也需要支持資金源源不斷地流入。因此對(duì)于這些團(tuán)體有時(shí)會(huì)有夸大其詞的情況就不難理解了。比如說(shuō),1997年世界自然基金就發(fā)布一篇名為《世界森林2/3已不復(fù)存在》的新聞稿。而事實(shí)上世界森林只減少了20%左右。

  Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organisation arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.

  盡管這些組織絕大多數(shù)都是由無(wú)私的人們管理運(yùn)營(yíng)的,但他們和其他游說(shuō)團(tuán)體有許多共同之處。除非人們對(duì)待環(huán)境問(wèn)題的游說(shuō)活動(dòng)也像對(duì)待其他問(wèn)題的游說(shuō)活動(dòng)一樣,持同等的懷疑態(tài)度, 這種共同之處才不會(huì)發(fā)揮那么大的作用。比如說(shuō),一個(gè)貿(mào)易組織如果要求降低污染控制標(biāo)準(zhǔn),這個(gè)組織馬上就會(huì)被認(rèn)為是在謀私利。而即使對(duì)這一污染控制標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的客觀(guān)審視可能會(huì)證明環(huán)保組織反對(duì)這種污染控制的低標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是弊大于利,這個(gè)環(huán)保組織仍會(huì)被認(rèn)為是無(wú)私的。

  A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant distortions of perception. An example was America’s encounter with El Nino in 1997 and 1998. This climatic phenomenon was accused of wrecking tourism, causing allergies, melting the ski-slopes and causing 22 deaths. However, according to an article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the damage it did was estimated at US$4 billion but the benefits amounted to some US$19 billion. These came from higher winter temperatures (which saved an estimated 850 lives, reduced heating costs and diminished spring floods caused by meltwaters).

  另一個(gè)使人們印象錯(cuò)位的因素就是媒體的態(tài)度。顯然,人們對(duì)壞消息比對(duì)好消息更好奇。新聞和廣播就是要提供大眾所需要的東西。而這一點(diǎn)可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致人們認(rèn)識(shí)上的巨大偏差J997年和1998年美國(guó)受到了厄爾尼諾現(xiàn)象的影響就是一個(gè)例子。人們責(zé)難這一氣候現(xiàn)象使旅游業(yè)陷于癱瘓,引起人們的過(guò)敏癥狀, 使一個(gè)滑雪坡融化造成22人死亡。盡管如此,美國(guó)氣象協(xié)會(huì)公告上的一篇文章卻認(rèn)為, 盡管厄爾尼諾造成的損失估計(jì)有40億美元,但它帶來(lái)的收益卻髙達(dá)約190億美元。這主要得益于冬季氣溫的升髙,這種升溫拯救了大約850人的生命,降低了取暖費(fèi)用,緩解了由于冰峰河流春季融化造成的春洪。

  The fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise in the amount of stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of places to dispose of waste. Yet, even if America’s trash output continues to rise as it has done in the past, and even if the American population doubles by 2100, all the rubbish America produces through the entire 21st century will still take up only one-12,000th of the area of the entire United States.

  第四個(gè)因素是個(gè)人見(jiàn)識(shí)的狹隘。人們擔(dān)心人均垃圾產(chǎn)生量的日益增多將使世界無(wú)處存放垃圾。但是,即使美國(guó)的垃圾產(chǎn)生量像以前那樣繼續(xù)增加,即使到2100年美國(guó)的人口加倍,全美國(guó)在整個(gè)21世紀(jì)產(chǎn)生的垃圾仍然僅會(huì)占到美國(guó)領(lǐng)土總面積的1/12,000。

  So what of global warming? As we know, carbon dioxide emissions are causing the planet to warm. The best estimates are that the temperatures will rise by 2-3℃ in this century, causing considerable problems, at a total cost of US$5,000 billion.

  那么全球變暖這一問(wèn)題怎么樣呢?眾所周知,二氧化碳的排放導(dǎo)致地球變暖。據(jù)估計(jì)本世紀(jì)氣溫最髙會(huì)上升2~3℃,這將帶來(lái)嚴(yán)重的問(wèn)題,造成5萬(wàn)億美元的損失。

  Despite the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly problem, economic analyses clearly show it will be far more expensive to cut carbon dioxide emissions radically than to pay the costs of adaptation to the increased temperatures. A model by one of the main authors of the United Nations Climate Change Panel shows how an expected temperature increase of 2.1 degrees in 2100 would only be diminished to an increase of 1.9 degrees. Or to put it another way, the temperature increase that the planet would have experienced in 2094 would be postponed to 2100.

  盡管人們直覺(jué)上認(rèn)為應(yīng)當(dāng)采取一些激進(jìn)的措施,解決這一可能需要付出髙昂代價(jià)的問(wèn)題,但是經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的分析表明,采取激進(jìn)措施削減二氧化碳的排放量,將比采取措施適應(yīng)溫度的上升付出更大的代價(jià)。聯(lián)合國(guó)氣候變化專(zhuān)家小組的一位主要成員所設(shè)計(jì)的一項(xiàng)模型表明, 如何將2100年時(shí)2.1度的氣溫上升減少到只上升1.9度。換句話(huà)說(shuō),2094年地球會(huì)出現(xiàn)的升溫推遲到2100年出現(xiàn)。

  So this does not prevent global warming, but merely buys the world six years. Yet the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for the United States alone, will be higher than the cost of solving the world’s single, most pressing health problem: providing universal access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Such measures would avoid 2 million deaths every year, and prevent half a billion people from becoming seriously ill.

  所以這并不會(huì)防止全球變暖,而只是給了世界6年的寬限期。但僅對(duì)美國(guó)而言,與解決人人都能獲得清潔的飲用水和衛(wèi)生設(shè)施這一世界上最緊迫的健康問(wèn)題相比,減少二氧化碳排放量要付出更髙的代價(jià)。而解決了這一健康問(wèn)題,毎年將可以避免200萬(wàn)人死亡,防止5億人患上嚴(yán)重疾病。

  It is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible decisions for the future. It may be costly to be overly optimistic — but more costly still to be too pessimistic.

  要做出有關(guān)未來(lái)的最佳決定就應(yīng)當(dāng)審視一下事實(shí),這一點(diǎn)很關(guān)鍵。過(guò)度樂(lè)觀(guān)可能要付出代價(jià),但過(guò)度悲觀(guān)則要付出更大的代價(jià)。

  劍橋雅思閱讀5原文解析(test1)

  Test 1 Passage1

  Question 1-Question 3

  答案:D E G

  關(guān)鍵詞:Johnson’s Dictionary

  定位原文:全文綜合信息處理

  解題思路: A選項(xiàng)的all,B選項(xiàng)的only都太絕對(duì)了;C選項(xiàng)對(duì)應(yīng)的原文在第4段第4句“Johnson decided…”原文都說(shuō)了他不需要那么多人來(lái)確認(rèn)語(yǔ)言問(wèn)題的討論結(jié)果,和選項(xiàng)意思矛盾;D選項(xiàng)說(shuō)約翰遜字典主要集中于當(dāng)代文本中的語(yǔ)言,原文第6段第1句“Johnson wrote…”說(shuō)的是drawn from the Elizabethans to his own time;意思一致;E選項(xiàng)和文中第6段第3句“Working to a deadline…”意思一致;G選項(xiàng)和第6段第5句意思一致;F選項(xiàng)和H選項(xiàng)的定位句分別在第6段“...he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries.”和第6段“He did not expect to achieve complete originality.”都與原文矛盾。

  Question 4

  答案:copying clerks或clerks

  關(guān)鍵詞:1764/a number of/who stood at

  定位原文: 第5段第1句“…with a long desk running down the middle”

  解題思路: a number of要求其后填名詞復(fù)數(shù)形式,而此空后面的非限制性定語(yǔ)從句who又限定要填一個(gè)關(guān)于人的名詞。

  Question 5

  答案:library

  關(guān)鍵詞:did not have a/40,000

  定位原文: 第6段第1句“The work was immense:filling about eighty large…”

  解題思路: 找到定位句后,很容易得到答案library。

  Question 6

  答案:stability

  關(guān)鍵詞:James Boswell

  定位原文: 第8段最后1句“… in James Boswell’s words...”

  解題思路: 原文的conferred on 和 空處的bring to 屬于同義表達(dá)。

  Question 7

  答案:pension

  關(guān)鍵詞:King

  定位原文: 第9段1句“… King George III to offer him a pension”

  解題思路: offer him a pension 和題目的 was granted a pension 屬于同義表達(dá)。

  Question 8

  答案:TRUE

  關(guān)鍵詞: middle classes

  定位原文: 第3段第1句“Beyond…”

  解題思路: 題干中的growing跟increase對(duì)應(yīng)這一句中的兩個(gè)rise,與原文意思一致。

  Question 9

  答案:FALSE

  關(guān)鍵詞:Johnson/death

  定位原文: 第3段第2句“...as famous in his own time as in ours...”

  解題思路: 這句話(huà)表明他當(dāng)時(shí)跟現(xiàn)代都享有盛譽(yù),題干與原文矛盾。題干的 well known 為文章里這句話(huà)中的famous的同義替換。

  Question 10

  答案: NOT GIVEN

  關(guān)鍵詞:several years

  定位原文: 第4段內(nèi)容

  解題思路: 按照判斷是非題的順序原則,這題在文章中的定位應(yīng)該在第9題在文章中所定位的語(yǔ)句后面,同時(shí)又應(yīng)該出現(xiàn)在第11題定位語(yǔ)句的前面,故應(yīng)該從第3段末開(kāi)始找一直到第4段中間,我們找不到任何跟題干相關(guān)的信息,故此題為not given。

  Question 11

  答案:FALSE

  關(guān)鍵詞: academy

  定位原文:第4段第4句“Johnson decided he did not need…”

  解題思路: 這句話(huà)正說(shuō)明約翰遜并未建立研究院來(lái)協(xié)助他完成字典的編纂。

  Question 12

  答案: FALSE

  關(guān)鍵詞:payment

  定位原文: 第4段最后1句“He was to be paid …”

  解題思路: He was to be paid……installment對(duì)應(yīng),明確提到了得到分期付款,跟題干矛盾。

  Question 13

  答案: TRUE

  關(guān)鍵詞:assistants/publication

  定位原文: 第5段最后1句“He was also helped by six assistants…”

  解題思路: 題干中的 not survive 跟文章中這句話(huà)的die對(duì)應(yīng),根據(jù)文意,題目表述是正確的。

  Test 1 Passage 2

  Question 14

  答案:F

  關(guān)鍵詞:biological explanation/teacher-subject

  定位原文: F段第1句“…and that Milgram’s teacher-subjects were just following…”

  解題思路: 文章F段第一句中g(shù)enetic,built-in,instinct這些詞與題干中的biological explanation對(duì)應(yīng)。

  Question 15

  答案:A

  關(guān)鍵詞:explanation/for the experiment

  定位原文: A段最后1句“Specifically…”

  解題思路: 定位句中的短語(yǔ)in the cause of 即為題干explanation的同義替換。

  Question 16

  答案: B

  關(guān)鍵詞:identity/pupil

  定位原文: B段第3句“The supposed “pupil” was…”

  解題思路: 找到對(duì)應(yīng)句后很容易得出答案B。

  Question 17

  答案: D

  關(guān)鍵詞:expected/statistical

  定位原文: D段倒數(shù)第2句“The phychiatrists felt that “most subjects…”

  解題思路: 定位到D段后,發(fā)現(xiàn)這些數(shù)字都是描述的實(shí)驗(yàn)預(yù)期的結(jié)果。

  Question 18

  答案: I

  關(guān)鍵詞:general aim/sociobiological study

  定位原文: I段第3句“This, in essence, is…”

  解題思路: 找到定位句后,比較容易得出答案。

  Question 19

  答案: C

  關(guān)鍵詞:persuaded/continue

  定位原文: C段第2、3、4句“Many of the teacher-subjects balked…”

  解題思路: 注意go on即為 continue的同義替換。

  Question 20

  答案: B

  關(guān)鍵詞:teacher-subjects were told...

  定位原文: A段最后1句“Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer…”

  解題思路: 定位句說(shuō)得很清楚:Milgram向每位在試驗(yàn)中扮演教師角色的志愿者明確地解釋?zhuān)囼?yàn)是為了崇高的教育事業(yè)而進(jìn)行的,是要測(cè)試體罰犯錯(cuò)誤的學(xué)生是否會(huì)對(duì)學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)能力產(chǎn)生積極的影響。這就對(duì)應(yīng)選項(xiàng)B。

  Question 21

  答案: D

  關(guān)鍵詞:instructed to...

  定位原文: B段最后1句“Milgram told the teacher-subject…”

  解題思路: 其中的instructed跟文章中的told對(duì)應(yīng),按照控制試驗(yàn)條件的規(guī)則,不管電壓多髙都要直接施加。

  Question 22

  答案: C

  關(guān)鍵詞: phychiatrists

  定位原文: D段第2句“The overwhelming consensus…”E段第1、2句“What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per…”

  解題思路: 由這兩句話(huà)的反差可以看出,精神科醫(yī)生的確低估了試驗(yàn)對(duì)象對(duì)規(guī)則的遵從程度,其中的be willing to 跟題干中的willingness屬于同義表達(dá)。

  Question 23

  答案:NOT GIVEN

  關(guān)鍵詞:Yale University

  定位原文: A段第1句“...Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from…”

  解題思路: all walks of life是社會(huì)各界的意思,我們并不能肯定試驗(yàn)者就是來(lái)自耶魯大學(xué)的心理學(xué)學(xué)生。本題屬于典型的完全未提及型NOT GIVEN。

  Question 24

  答案:TRUE

  關(guān)鍵詞:explain/survival mechanism

  定位原文: F段第2句“A modem hard-core sociobiologist might…”

  解題思路: 定位句中的advantageous trait 與題干中的positive survival mechanism 屬于同義表達(dá)。

  Question 25

  答案:FALSE

  關(guān)鍵詞:sociobiological explanation

  定位原文: H段內(nèi)容和I段第1句“Here we have two radically different…”

  解題思路: 定位句的兩句話(huà)都在體現(xiàn)出個(gè)人價(jià)值觀(guān)在被權(quán)威所統(tǒng)治。

  Question 26

  答案:FALSE

  關(guān)鍵詞:sociobiology

  定位原文: I段整個(gè)段落內(nèi)容

  解題思路: 我們?cè)谖恼伦詈笠欢慰梢缘弥狹ilgram的實(shí)驗(yàn)并未解決社會(huì)生物學(xué)上的這個(gè)重大問(wèn)題,只不過(guò)是證明了這個(gè)問(wèn)題的存在。

  Test 1 Passage 3

  Question 27

  答案:YES

  關(guān)鍵詞:environmentalists

  定位原文: 第1段第1、2句 “For many…”

  解題思路: hit-list重要事件的列表,按計(jì)劃迸行殺害的名單。在這里應(yīng)該理解為一系列。

  Question 28

  答案: NOT GIVEN

  關(guān)鍵詞:1972, only

  定位原文: 第2段第2句“...“the Limits to Growth”was published in 1972…”

  解題思路: 1972年這個(gè)信息只在上面這句話(huà)中出現(xiàn),而按照順序解題原則,這道題目的答案只能在第二段中尋找,實(shí)際上該段并未提到任何關(guān)于資料搜集開(kāi)始時(shí)間的信息。所以這是一道典型的NOT GIVEN。

  Question 29

  答案: NO

  關(guān)鍵詞: starving people

  定位原文: 第2段第3句“Fewer people are starving…”

  解題思路: 這句話(huà)意思非常明確了,和題目表述矛盾。

  Question 30

  答案: NOT GIVEN

  關(guān)鍵詞: species

  定位原文: 第2段第5句話(huà)“Third, although species are indeed…”

  解題思路: 這一句雖然提到了物種,但是并沒(méi)有提到題目中論述的那個(gè)話(huà)題。而且,題目其實(shí)也是在變相地將新舊物種比較,屬于并不存在的比較關(guān)系,因此應(yīng)選擇NOT GIVEN。

  Question 31

  答案: YES

  關(guān)鍵詞: industrialisation

  定位原文: 第2段第6句“And finally, most forms…”

  解題思路: 這句話(huà)說(shuō)明工業(yè)化早期的確引起了一些污染問(wèn)題,,故此題選YES。

  Question 32

  答案: NO

  關(guān)鍵詞: economic growth/best

  定位原文: 第2段第6句“...and therefore best cured not by restricting…”

  解題思路: 文中已經(jīng)明確提到控制污染的最好方式不是減慢經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展速度,而是加速經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展。

  Question 33

  答案: C

  關(guān)鍵詞:paragraph 4

  定位原文: 第4段第2句“Scientific funding goes mainly…”

  解題思路: 題目問(wèn)的是作者提出了對(duì)哪個(gè)科研領(lǐng)域的關(guān)注,定位句明確說(shuō)明這同樣也給人們?cè)斐闪艘环N印象,似乎存在許多潛在的問(wèn)題,而事實(shí)并非如此,言下之意就是要確認(rèn)好對(duì)研究領(lǐng)域的選擇,C選項(xiàng)符合。

  Question 34

  答案: D

  關(guān)鍵詞:Worldwide Fund for Nature

  定位原文: 第5段第3句“Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes…”

  解題思路: 定位句明確說(shuō)明也許有時(shí)候他們夸張了事實(shí),選項(xiàng)D符合。

  Question 35

  答案: C

  關(guān)鍵詞:paragraph 6

  定位原文:第6段第2句“That would matter less if…”

  解題思路:題目問(wèn)的是作者對(duì)游說(shuō)團(tuán)體的看法,C選項(xiàng)和原文表述一致。

  Question 36

  答案: B

  關(guān)鍵詞:newspaper print

  定位原文: 第7段第3句“Newspaper and broadcasters…”

  解題思路: 定位句說(shuō)報(bào)紙和廣播應(yīng)該提供給公眾所需要的,選項(xiàng)B滿(mǎn)足讀者需求,和原文表述一致。

  Question 37

  答案: B

  關(guān)鍵詞:America

  定位原文: 第8段第3句“Yet, even if…”

  解題思路: 題目問(wèn)的是作者對(duì)美國(guó)垃圾問(wèn)題的觀(guān)點(diǎn)是什么,定位句說(shuō)即便垃圾持續(xù)增長(zhǎng),人口增長(zhǎng),整個(gè)21世紀(jì)美國(guó)產(chǎn)生的垃圾只占整個(gè)美國(guó)面積的12萬(wàn)分之一,言下之意,就是B選項(xiàng):垃圾問(wèn)題沒(méi)有我們想象的嚴(yán)重。

  Question 38

  答案: E. long-term

  關(guān)鍵詞: global warming/a

  定位原文: 文章中最后4段內(nèi)容

  解題思路:這里應(yīng)該填一個(gè)表示正面惑情色彩的形容詞,而且這個(gè)詞要可以和challenge搭配。那么選擇范圍就縮小到了agreed/right/long-term/surprising/urgent五個(gè)詞上,,然后再根據(jù)后半句but來(lái)判斷,,作者對(duì)全球變暖問(wèn)題的態(tài)度是樂(lè)觀(guān)的,顯然應(yīng)該是一個(gè)與catastrophic相反的詞,因此范圍最終縮小到了long-term。

  Question 39

  答案: D. right

  關(guān)鍵詞:way

  定位原文: 文章最后4段內(nèi)容

  解題思路: 要和way來(lái)搭配,修飾way。按照題目中句子的含義來(lái)說(shuō),就是說(shuō)以一個(gè)比較好的,合理的處理方法,就不會(huì)有災(zāi)難性的影響,只有right是最符合的。

  Question 40

  答案: I. urgent

  關(guān)鍵詞: health problem

  定位原文: 倒數(shù)第2段第2句“…most pressing…”

  解題思路: 這句話(huà)中的most pressing指最急迫的,最迫切的,正好和詞庫(kù)中的urgent相對(duì)應(yīng),屬于同義表達(dá)。


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