CATTI真题

贸学长

2010年11月

第一篇

Offshore supply vessels resembling large,floating flat-backed trucks fill Victoria Dock, unable to find charters in asign of the downturn in Britain's oil industry.

With UK North Sea oil and gas production 44percent below its peak, self-styled oil capital of Europe Aberdeen fears theslowdown is not simply cyclical.

The oil industry that at one stage sparkedtalk of Scotland as "the Kuwait of the West" has already outlivedmost predictions.

Tourism, life sciences, and the export ofoil services around the world are among Aberdeen's targeted substitutes forNorth sea oil and gas -- but for many the biggest prize would be to use itsoffshore oil expertise to build a renewable energy industry as big as oil.

The city aims to use its experience tobecome a leader in offshore wind, tidal power and carbon dioxide capture andstorage.

Alex Salmond, head of the devolved Scottishgovernment, told a conference in Aberdeen last month the market for wind powercould be worth 130 billion pounds, while Scotland could be the "SaudiArabia of tidal power."

"We're seeing the emergence of anoffshore energy market that is comparable in scale to the market we've seen inoffshore oil and gas in the last 40 years," he said.

Another area of focus, tourism, has previouslybeen hindered by the presence of oil. Eager to put Aberdeen on theinternational tourist map, local business has strongly backed a plan by U.S.real estate tycoon Donald Trump for a luxury housing and golf project 12 km (8miles) north of the city, even though it means building on a nature reserve.

The city also hopes to reorientate itsvibrant oil services industry toward emerging offshore oil centers such asBrazil. "Just because the production in the North Sea starts to declinedoesn't mean that Aberdeen as a global center also declines," said RobertCollier, Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive. "That expertise can stillstay here and be exported around the world."

第二篇

We mark the passing of 800 years, and thatis indeed a remarkable span for any institution. But history is never aneven-flowing stream, and the most remarkable thing about modern Cambridge hasbeen its enormous growth over the past half century. Since I came up as anundergraduate in 1961 the student population has more than doubled. Morestudents have meant more teachers, and, even more significantly, more scholarsdevoted solely to research: every category has more than doubled in numbers.This huge increase has been partly absorbed by an expansion of the colleges:they all have more students and more Fellows than they did 50 years ago; and,since 1954, no fewer than 11 of the 31 colleges are either brand newfoundations, or have been conjured up as new creations from existing but quitedifferent bodies. From being a university primarily driven by undergraduateeducation, Cambridge's reputation is now overwhelmingly tied to its researchachievements, which can be simply represented by the fact that more thanthree-quarters of its current annual income is devoted to research. This has broughtnot just new laboratories but new buildings to house whole faculties anddepartments: in the mid-20th century few faculties had a physical manifestationbeyond, perhaps, a library and a couple of administrative offices.

Cambridge attracts the best students and academicsbecause they find the University and the colleges stimulating and enjoyableplaces in which to live and work. The students are thrown in with similarlyable minds, learning as much from each other as from their teachers; the goodsenior academics know better than to be too hierarchical or to cut themselvesoff from intellectual criticism and debate.

One generation dismisses another: not evenErasmus or Newton, Darwin or Keynes stand unscathed by the passage of time; norcan we be but humbled, especially in our day when so much information is soeasily accessible, by the vast store of knowledge which we can approach butnever really control. Our library and museum collections bring us into contactwith many lives lived in the past. They serve as symbols of the continuity oflearning, or the diversity of views, of an obligation to wrestle with fact andargument, to come to our own conclusions, and in turn to be accountable for ourfindings. The real quest is not for knowledge, but for understanding.

2010年5月

英译汉－必译题

In the European Union, carrots must be firmbut not woody, cucumbers must not be too curved and celery has to be free ofany type of cavity. This was the law, one that banned overly curved,extra-knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.

But in a victory for opponents of Europeanregulation, 100 pages of legislation determining the size, shape and texture offruit and vegetables have been torn up. On Wednesday, EU officials agreed toaxe rules laying down standards for 26 products, from peas to plums.

In doing so, the authorities hope they havekilled off regulations routinely used by critics - most notably in the Britishmedia - to ridicule the meddling tendencies of the EU.

With the cost of the weekly supermarketvisit on the rise, it has become increasingly hard to defend the act ofthrowing away food just because it looks strange.

Beginning in July next year, when thechanges go into force, standards on the 26 products will disappear altogether.Shoppers will the be able to chose their produce whatever its appearance.

Under a compromise reached with nationalgovernments, many of which opposed the changes, standards will remain for 10types of fruit and vegetables, including apples, citrus fruit, peaches, pears,strawberries and tomatoes.

But those in this category that do not meetEuropean norms will still be allowed onto the market, providing they are markedas being substandard or intended for cooking or processing.

"This marks a new dawn for the curvycucumber and the knobbly carrot," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Europeancommissioner for agriculture, who argued that regulations were better left tomarket operators.

"In these days of high food prices andgeneral economic difficulties," Fischer Boel added, "consumers shouldbe able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no senseto throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong'shape."

Such restrictions will disappear next year,and about 100 pages of rules and regulations will go as well, a move welcomedby Neil Parish, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee.

"Food is food, no matter what it lookslike," Parish said. "To stop stores selling perfectly decent foodduring a food crisis is morally unjustifiable. Credit should be given to the EUagriculture commissioner for pushing through these proposals. Consumers careabout the taste and quality of food, not how it looks."

摘自：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/1... ood.4.17771299.html

英译汉－选译题一

Ask mothers why babies are constantlypicking things up from the floor or ground and putting them in their mouths,and chances are they'll say that it's instinctive - that that's how babiesexplore the world. But why the mouth, when sight, hearing, touch and even scentare far better at identifying things?

Since all instinctive behaviors have anevolutionary advantage or they would not have been retained for millions ofyears, chances are that this one too has helped us survive as a species. And,indeed, accumulating evidence strongly suggests that eating dirt is good foryou.

In studies of what is called the hygienehypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions ofbacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with"dirt" spur the development of a healthy immune system. Severalcontinuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune systemthat has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.

One leading researcher, Dr. Joel Weinstock,the director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center inBoston, said in an interview that the immune system at birth "is like anunprogrammed computer. It needs instruction."

He said that public health measures likecleaning up contaminated water and food have saved the lives of countlesschildren, but they "also eliminated exposure to many organisms that areprobably good for us."

"Children raised in an ultra-cleanenvironment," he added, "are not being exposed to organisms that helpthem develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits."

Studies he has conducted with Dr. DavidElliott, a gastroenterologist and immunologist at the University of Iowa,indicate that intestinal worms, which have been all but eliminated in developedcountries, are "likely to be the biggest player" in regulating theimmune system to respond appropriately, Elliott said in an interview. He addedthat bacterial and viral infections seem to influence the immune system in thesame way, but not as forcefully.

Most worms are harmless, especially inwell-nourished people, Weinstock said. "There are very few diseases thatpeople get from worms," he said. "Humans have adapted to the presenceof most of them."

Ruebush deplores the current fetish for thehundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense of security andmay actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causingbacteria. Plain soap and water are all that are needed to become clean, shenoted.

2009年5月

E-C Translation

　　CompulsoryTranslation

　　There was,last week, a glimmer of hope in the world food crisis. Expecting a bumperharvest, Ukraine relaxed restrictions on exports. Overnight, global wheatprices fell by 10 percent.

　　By contrast,traders in Bangkok quote rice prices around $1,000 a ton, up from $460 twomonths ago.

　　Such is thevolatility of today’s markets. We do not know how high food prices might go, nor how farthey could fall. But one thing is certain: We have gone from an era of plentyto one of scarcity. Experts agree that food prices are not likely to return tothe levels the world had grown accustomed to any time soon.

　　Imagine thesituation of those living on less than $1 a day - the “bottom billion,” the poorest of the world’s poor. Most live in Africa, andmany might typically spend two-thirds of their income on food.

　　In Liberialast week, I heard how people have stopped purchasing imported rice by the bag.Instead, they increasingly buy it by the cup, because that’s all they can afford.

　　Traveling thoughWest Africa, I found good reason for optimism. In Burkina Faso, I saw agovernment working to import drought resistant seeds and better manage scarcewater supplies, helped by nations like Brazil. In Ivory Coast, we saw a women’s cooperative running a chickenfarm set up with UN funds. The project generated income - and food - forvillagers in ways that can easily be replicated.

　　Elsewhere, Isaw yet another women’s group slowly expanding their local agricultural production, withUN help. Soon they will replace World Food Program rice with their ownhome-grown produce, sufficient to cover the needs of their school feedingprogram.

　　These arehome-grown, grass-roots solutions for grass-roots problems - precisely the kindof solutions that Africa needs.

　　optional

　　Topic 1

　　For adecade, metallurgists studying the hulk of the Titanic have argued that thestoried ocean liner went down quickly after hitting an iceberg because theship's builder used substandard rivets that popped their heads and let tons oficy seawater rush in. More than 1,500 people died.

　　Now a teamof scientists has moved into deeper waters, uncovering evidence in thebuilder's own archives of a deadly mix of great ambition and use of low-qualityiron that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.

　　Thescientists found that the ship's builder, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast,struggled for years to obtain adequate supplies of rivets and riveters to buildthe world's three biggest ships at once: the Titanic and two sisters, Olympicand Britannic.

　　Eachrequired three million rivets, and shortages peaked during Titanic'sconstruction.

　　"Theboard was in crisis mode," said Jennifer Hooper McCarty, a member of theteam that studied the company's archive and other evidence. "It wasconstant stress. Every meeting it was, 'There's problems with the rivets, andwe need to hire more people.' "

　　The teamcollected other clues from 48 Titanic rivets, using modern tests, computersimulations, comparisons to century-old metals and careful documentation ofwhat engineers and shipbuilders of the era considered state of the art.

　　Thescientists say the troubles began when the colossal plans forced Harland andWolff to reach beyond its usual suppliers of rivet iron and include smallerforges, as disclosed in company and British government papers. Small forgestended to have less skill and experience.

　　Adding tothe threat, the company, in buying iron for Titanic's rivets, ordered No. 3bar, known as "best," not No. 4, known as "best-best," thescientists found. They also discovered that shipbuilders of the day typicallyused No. 4 iron for anchors, chains and rivets.

　　So theliner, whose name was meant to be synonymous with opulence, in at least oneinstance relied on cheap materials.

　　The scientistsargue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat longenough for rescuers to have arrived before the icy plunge, saving hundreds oflives.

2005.11

The Gap Between Rich and Poor Widened inU.S. Capital

Washington D.C. ranks first among the 40cities with the widest gap between the poor and the rich, according to a recentreport released by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute on July 22nd. The top 20percent of households in D.C. have an average yearly income of $186,830, 31times that of the bottom 20 percent, which earns only $6,126 per year. Theincome gap is also big in Atlanta and Miami, but the difference is not aspronounced.

The report also indicates that the wideninggap occurred mainly during the 1990s. Over the last decade, the average incomeof the top 20 percent of households has grown 36 percent, while the averageincome of the bottom 20 percent has only risen 3 percent.

"I believe the concentration of themiddle- to high-income families in the D.C. area will continue, therefore, theincome gap between rich and poor will be hard to bridge," David Garrisontold the Washington Observer. Garrison is a senior researcher with theBrookings Institution, specializing in the study of the social and economicpolicies in the greater Washington D.C. area.

The report attributed the persistent incomegap in Washington to the area's special job opportunities, which attracthigh-income households. Especially since the federal government is based inWashington D.C., Government agencies and other government related businessessuch as lobbying firms and government contractors constantly offer high-payingjobs, which contribute to the trend of increasing high-income households in theD.C. area. For example, a single young professional working in a law firm inD.C. can earn as much as $100,000 in his or her first year out of law school.

"In addition, high-quality housingavailable in Washington D.C. is one of the main reasons why high-incomefamilies choose to live here, while middle and low-income families, if they canafford it, choose to move out of Washington D.C. to the Virginia and Marylandsuburbs so that their kids can go to better schools," stated Garrison.

"As rich families continue to moveinto D.C. and middle and low-income families are moving out, the poorestfamilies are left with nowhere to move, or cannot afford to move. This createsthe situation we face now: a huge income gap between the rich and poor."

The Washington D.C. area to which Garrisonrefers is the District of Columbia city itself, not including the greaterWashington metro area. "The greater Washington metro area has a largepopulation of about 5 million, but the low-income households are oftenconcentrated in D.C. proper," Garrison explained.

Tony Blalock, the spokesperson for MayorAnthony Williams, said resignedly, "No matter what we seem to do to bringinvestment into the District, a certain population is not able to access theunique employment opportunities there. The gap between the rich and poor is theproduct of complex forces, and won't be fixed overnight."

Garrison believes that the D.C. governmentshould attract high-income families. By doing so, the District's tax base cangrow, which in turn can help improve D.C.'s infrastructure. "But in themeantime, the District government should also take into consideration therights of the poor, set up good schools for them, and provide sound socialwelfare. All these measures can alleviate the dire situation caused by incomedisparity. "

Garrison, however, is not optimistic aboutthe possibility of closing the gap between the rich and poor. He isparticularly doubtful that current economic progress will be able to help outthe poor. "Bush's tax-cut plan did bring about this wave of economicrecovery, and the working professionals and rich did benefit from it. It isunfair to say that the plan did not help the poor at all… it just didn'tbenefit them as much as it did the rich, " Garrison said. "Theworking class in America, those who do the simplest work, get paid the least,and dutifully pay their taxes, has not benefited from Bush's tax-cut planmuch."

Garrison concludes, "A lot of citiesin America did not enjoy the positive impact of the economic recovery.Washington D.C., on the other hand, has always been sheltered by the federalgovernment. The wide gap between rich and poor in the District, therefore,deserves more in-depth study and exploration."

英译汉参考答案

美国首都贫富不均情况加重

美国首都独立研究机构华盛顿特区财政政策研究院（DC Fiscal Policy Institute）于7月22日公布的一份其最新的研究报告显示，华盛顿特区的贫富差距居全美40个大都会区之冠，20%最富有的家庭其年收入高达$186,830美元，是20%最贫穷家庭年收入（仅$6,126美元）的31倍。虽然亚大兰大和迈阿密两市的贫富差距与华盛顿相当，但其贫富不均的情况却不如华盛顿明显。

报告指出，华盛顿特区贫富差距逐渐加大主要是发生在90年代。在过去十年中，20%最富有的家庭其年收入增长了36倍，而20%最贫穷家庭的年收入仅仅增加了3倍。

“我认为中高收入家庭过分集中在特区的情况仍然会持续下去，在未来十年内贫富鸿沟恐怕难以拉近，”布鲁金斯学院（Brookigns Institution）专攻大华盛顿地区经济和社会形势的高级研究员大卫·盖立森（Daivd Garrison）对《华盛顿观察》周刊说道。

这份报告将华盛顿特区的贫富鸿沟归咎于当地特殊的工作机会。而这些工作往往会吸引高收入家庭搬到此地。特别是华盛顿也是美国联邦政府的所在地，而联邦政府和与政府相关的行业，如院外游说团体和政府合约承包商等等，不断提供高薪工作，也使得华府的高收入家庭有不断增加的趋势。举例来说，一个单身的年轻专业人士从法学院毕业后，在华府的律师事务所服务第一年的年收入可高达$100,000美元。

“此外，华盛顿特区也提供高品质的住宅（high-quality housing），这也是为什么高薪家庭选择在华府居住的主因之一，”盖立森分析道，“而一般中低收入家庭，在有余力的情况下，为了孩子能够上较好的学校而选择搬离华盛顿特区，移至分布于马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州的住宅区。”

“在高收入家庭不断迁移到特区、中低阶层的家庭移出，而最贫穷的家庭又面临无处，也无力可搬的窘境时，就造成我们现在看到的，贫富悬殊的华盛顿特区，”盖立森对《华盛顿观察》周刊说到。

盖立森此处所指的华盛顿特区指的是约有56万人口的都市（Districtof Columbia）本身，不包括整个华盛顿大都会区（Greater Washington Metro Area），“整个华盛顿大都会区人口高达500万人，但低收入户却只往华盛顿特区集中，”他特别解释道。

“不论我们如何努力吸引商家到华盛顿特区投资，华府有一部分的低收入家庭就是无法从中受惠，没有办法得到特区独特的高薪工作机会。”华盛顿市长办公室发言人托尼·布拉克（Tony Bullock）说，“贫富差距的背后许多复杂的原因，是不能在一夕之间就改变的。”他言谈间颇有对特区的贫富悬殊无可奈何之叹。

盖立森则认为，特区政府的确应该吸引高收入家庭到特区居住，因为这样能够带来更多税收，对市政建设有积极作用。“但同时，特区政府也应该重视穷人的权益，设立好的学校、提供健全的社会福利等等，这些市政措施都能有效地改善特区严重的贫富不均状况。”

但盖立森对未来贫富差距是否真能拉近不是十分乐观，他尤其对这波经济复苏是不是能帮助到穷人保持怀疑的态度：“布什的减税方案虽然带动了美国这波经济复苏，有工作的人和富人的确享受到不少好处，但对穷人的帮助虽然不能说是完全没有，也只能说是不如富人的获益高，”盖立森分析道，“美国一般的工薪族（working class），也就是那些做初级工作、拿最低工资、老老实实缴税的人，实在没有从布什的减税案得到太大益处。”

盖立森总结说：“美国许多城市并没有享受到美国经济好转所带来的积极价值，但华盛顿特区一直以来受到联邦政府的庇佑，它贫富悬殊的情况仍然如此严重，确实值得深入的研究和检讨。”

实务汉译英和参考答案

２５年来，中国坚定不移地推进改革开放，社会主义市场经济体制初步建立，开放型经济已经形成，社会生产力和综合国力不断增强，各项社会事业全面发展，人民生活总体上实现了由温饱到小康的历史性跨越。从１９７８年至２００３年的２５年间，中国经济年均增长９．４％。２５年前，中国年国内生产总值为１４７３亿美元，去年已达到１４０００多亿美元。２５年前，中国年进出口贸易总额为２０６亿美元，去年已达到８５１２亿美元。２５年前，中国外汇储备为１．６７亿美元，去年已达到４０３３亿美元。目前，中国经济总量居世界第六，进出口贸易总额居世界第四。中国之所以能够发生这样巨大的变化，最关键的原因是我们始终坚持走中国特色社会主义道路，始终坚持改革开放，激发了全体人民的积极性、主动性、创造性。

中国虽然取得了很大的发展成就，但中国人口多，底子薄，生产力不发达，发展很不平衡，生态环境、自然资源与经济社会发展的矛盾比较突出。虽然中国人均国内生产总值已经突破１０００美元，但仍排在世界一百位以后。中国要实现现代化，使全体人民都过上富裕生活，还需要进行长期不懈的艰苦奋斗。

我们已经明确了本世纪头２０年的奋斗目标，这就是全面建设惠及十几亿人口的更高水平的小康社会，到２０２０年实现国内生产总值比２０００年翻两番，达到４万亿美元，人均国内生产总值达到３０００美元，使经济更加发展、民主更加健全、科教更加进步、文化更加繁荣、社会更加和谐、人民生活更加殷实。

参考译文

Over the past 25 years, China has beenfirmly pressing ahead with the implementation of the reform program and theinitiative of opening up to the outside world. With the establishment of apreliminary socialist market economy, and the nation’s economy attaining anoutward-oriented perspective, the productive forces and the comprehensivenational competence have been on the rising curve constantly. And varioussocial undertakings have been developing in full swing. The living standard of theChinese people as a whole has undergone a historical leap from a subsistencelevel to the level of moderate prosperity.

In the 25 years between 1978 and 2003, theannual growth rate of China's economy was running at an average of 9.4 percent,with its GDP jumping from 147.3 billion US dollars to over 1.4 trillion USdollars.

25 years ago, China’s foreign trade valueand foreign exchange reserves each stood at 20.6 billion and 167 million in USdollars, but last year they shot up to 851.2 billion US dollars and 403.3billion US dollars respectively.

China has now become the sixth largesteconomy and the fourth largest trader in the world.

The tremendous changes in China areattributed to the fact that we have adhered to the path of building socialismwith Chinese characteristics and persevered in our reform and openingendeavors, which brought into full play the Chinese people's initiative,enthusiasm and creativeness.

Though China has scored impressiveachievements in its development, we must not lose sight of our problems:overpopulation, a weak economic foundation, underdeveloped productivity, highlyuneven development, and the fairly sharp contradictions between the country'secological environment and natural resources on the one hand and its economic andsocial development on the other.

China's per capita GDP, though reaching therecord high of 1,000 US dollars last year, still ranks well behind the 100thplace in the world.

To realize China's modernization programand offer all the Chinese people a prosperous life there is yet an uphillbattle to fight.

We have already set our vision for thefirst 20 years of this century, which involves the building of a moderatelyprosperous society of a higher standard in an all-round way for the benefit ofwell over one billion Chinese people. By 2020 the GDP will be quadrupled fromthe figure of 2000 to 4 trillion US dollars, with the per capita levelaveraging at 3,000 US dollars. By then the nation will be immersed in anambience of greater social harmony with an improved quality of life for thepeople, featuring a more developed economy, more sound democracy, more thrivingculture and more advanced science and education.

2010年5月 三笔

LECCO, Italy — Each morning, about 450students travel along 17 school bus routes to 10 elementary schools in thislakeside city at the southern tip of Lake Como. There are zero school buses.

They set up a piedibus (literally foot-busin Italian) — a bus route with a driver but no vehicle. Each morning a mix ofpaid staff members and parental volunteers in fluorescent yellow vests leadlines of walking students along Lecco’s twisting streets to the schools’ gates,Pied Piper-style, stopping here and there as their flock expands.

At the Carducci School, 100 children, ormore than half of the students, now take walking buses. Many of them werepreviously driven in cars. Giulio Greppi, a 9-year-old with shaggy blond hair,said he had been driven about a third of a mile each way until he startedtaking the piedibus. “I get to see my friends and we feel special because weknow it’s good for the environment,” he said.

Although the routes are each generally lessthan a mile, the town’s piedibuses have so far eliminated more than 100,000miles of car travel and, in principle, prevented thousands of tons ofgreenhouse gases from entering the air, Dario Pesenti, the town’s environmentauditor, estimates.

The number of children who are driven toschool over all is rising in the United States and Europe, experts on bothcontinents say, making up a sizable chunk of transportation’s contribution togreenhouse-gas emissions. The “school run” made up 18 percent of car trips byurban residents of Britain last year, a national survey showed.

In 1969, 40 percent of students in theUnited States walked to school; in 2001, the most recent year data wascollected, 13 percent did, according to the federal government’s NationalHousehold Travel Survey.

Lecco’s walking bus was the first in Italy,but hundreds have cropped up elsewhere in Europe and, more recently, in NorthAmerica to combat the trend.

Towns in France, Britain and elsewhere inItaly have created such routes, although few are as extensive and long-lastingas Lecco’s. In the United States, Columbia, Mo.; Marin County, Calif.; andBoulder, Colo., introduced modest walking-bus programs last year as part of anational effort, Safe Routes To School, which gives states money to encouragestudents to walk or ride their bicycles.

Although carbon dioxide emissions fromindustry are declining on both continents, those from transportation accountfor almost one-third of all greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States and22 percent in European Union countries. Across the globe, but especially inEurope, where European Union countries have pledged to reduce greenhouse gasproduction by 2012 under the United Nations’ Kyoto protocol, there is greatpressure to reduce car emissions.

Last year the European Environmental Agencywarned that car trips to school — along with food importing and low-cost airtravel — were growing phenomena with serious implications for greenhouse gases.

In the United States and in Europe,“multiple threads are warping traditional school travel and making it harderfor kids to walk,” said Elizabeth Wilson, a transportation researcher at theHumphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Amongthose factors are a rise in car ownership; one-child families, often leery ofsending students off to school on their own; cuts in school-bus service orcharges for it as a result of school-budget cutbacks and fuel-price gyrations;and the decline of neighborhood schools and the rise of school choice, meaning thatstudents often live farther from where they learn.

Worse still, said Roger L. Mackett,professor at the Center for Transport Studies at University College in London,there is growing evidence that children whose parents drive a lot will becomecar-dependent adults. “You’re getting children into a lifelong habit,” he said.

In Lecco, car use has proved a tenacioushabit even though the piedibus has caught on. “Cars rule,” said Augosto Piazza,the founder of the city’s program, an elfin man with shining blue eyes, abouncing gait and a yellow vest. As he “drove” along a bus route on a recentmorning, store owners waved fondly to the familiar packs of jabbering children.

Yet as they pulled up to Carducci School,dozens of private cars were parked helter-skelter for dropoffs in the smallplaza outside as gaggles of mothers chatted on the sidewalk nearby. “I have twokids who go to different schools, plus their backpacks are so heavy,” saidManuela Corbetta, a mother in a black jacket and sunglasses, twirling her carkeys as she explained why her children do not make the 15-minute trek.“Sometimes they have 10 notebooks, so walking really isn’t practical.”

Some children are dropped off by parents ontheir way to work, and some others live outside the perimeter of the piedibus’sreach, although there are collection points at the edge of town for suchchildren. But many live right along a piedibus route, Mr. Piazza noted.

Yet other parents praised the bus, sayingit had helped their children master street safety and had a ripple effectwithin the family. “When we go for shopping you think about walking — you don’tautomatically use the car,” said Luciano Prandoni, a computer programmer whowas volunteering on his daughter’s route.

The city of Lecco contributes roughly$20,000 annually toward organizing and providing staff members for thepiedibus. The students perform a public service of sorts: they are encouragedto hand out warnings to cars that park illegally and chastise dog owners who donot clean up.

Naturally some children whine on rainymornings. Participation drops 20 percent on such days, although it increasesduring snowfalls. On rainy days, “She says, ‘Mom, please take me,’ andsometimes I give in,” said Giovanna Luciano, who lives in the countryside andnormally drops her daughter Giulia, 9, at a piedibus pickup point in a parkinglot by a cemetery.

To encourage use, children receive farecards that are punched each day. The bus routes have distinctive names (the onethrough the graveyard is the mortobus), and compete for prizes like pizza partiesfor the students. Teachers have students write poems about the piedibus.

In Britain, about half the local schoolsystems now have some sort of incentives to encourage walking, althoughgenerally less formal ones than the piedibus, said Roger L. Mackett, aprofessor at the Center for Transport Studies at University College in London.

“It’s quite alot of effort to keep it going,” he said. “It’s always easier to put childrenin the back of the car. Once you’ve got your two or three cars, it takes effortnot to use them.”

2006年三笔

For all the natural and man-made disastersof the past year, travelers seem more determined than ever to leave home.

Never mind the tsunami devastation in Asialast December, the recent earthquake in Kashmir or the suicide bombings thisyear in London and Bali, among other places on or off the tourist trail. Thenumber of leisure travelers visiting tourist destinations hit by trouble has insome cases bounced back to a level higher than before disaster struck.

“This new fastrecovery of tourism we are observing is kind of strange,” said John Koldowski,director for the Strategic Intelligence Center of the Bangkok-based PacificAsia Travel Association. “It makes you think about the adage that any publicityis good publicity.”

It is still too soon to compileyear-on-year statistics for the disasters of the past 12 months, but travelindustry experts say that the broad trends are already clear. Leisure travel isexpected to increase by nearly 5 percent this year, according to the WorldTourism and Travel Council.

“Tourism andtravel now seem to bounce back faster and higher each time there is an event ofthis sort,” said Ufi Ibrahim, vice president of the London-based World Tourismand Travel Council. For London, where suicide bombers killed 56 and wounded 700on July 8, she said, “It was almost as if people who stayed away after the bombattack then decided to come back twice.”

Early indicators show that the same holdstrue for other disaster-struck destinations. Statistics compiled by the PacificAsia Travel Association, for example, show that monthly visitor arrivals in SriLanka, where the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami left more than 30,000 people dead ormissing, were higher than one year earlier for every month from March throughAugust of this year.

A case commonly cited by travelprofessionals as an early example of the trend is Bali, where 202 people werekilled in bombings targeting Western tourists in October 2002. Visitor arrivalsplunged to 993,000 for the year after the bombing, but bounced back to 1.46million in 2004, a level higher than the two years before the bomb, accordingto the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

Even among Australians, who suffered theworst casualties in the Bali bombings, the number of Bali-bound visitorsbounced back within two years to the highest level since 1998, according thePacific Asia Travel Association.

Bali was hit again this year by suicidebombers who killed 19 people in explosions at three restaurants.

Visits are also on the upswing to post-tsunamiThailand, where the giant waves killed 5,400 and left more than 5,000 missing.

Although the tsunami killed more than 500Swedes on the Thai resort island of Phuket, the largest number of any foreignnationality to die, Swedes are returning to the island in larger numbers thanlast year, according to My Travel Sweden, a Stockholm-based group that sends600,000 tourists overseas annually and claims a 28 percent market share forSweden.

“We wereconfident that Thailand would eventually bounce back as a destination, but wedidn’t think that this year it would come back even stronger than last year,”said Joakim Eriksson, director of communication for My Travel Sweden. “We werevery surprised because we really expected a significant decline.”

Eriksson said My Travel now expects a 5percent increase in visitors to both Thailand and Sri Lanka this seasoncompared with the same season last year. This behavior is a sharp change fromthe patterns of the 1990s, Eriksson said.

“During thefirst Gulf war we saw a sharp drop in travel as a whole, and the same afterSept. 11,” Eriksson said. “Now the main impact of terrorism or disasters is achange in destination.”

参考答案:

尽管去年发生了许多自然灾害和人为的灾害，但是旅游者比以往更加坚决地出门旅行。

虽然去年12月亚洲的海啸产生了巨大的破坏力，最近克什米尔发生了地震，伦敦和巴厘岛出现了自杀性炸弹袭击，游客却毫不在意，无论在旅游路线上的地点或其他地方是否有危险。在某些情况下，受到灾难影响的旅游地区吸引的游客人数快速反弹，甚至比灾难发生之前的数量还多。

“我们注意到旅游业最近快速回升，这种情况是有一点奇怪。” 总部设在曼谷的太平洋亚洲旅游协会战略情报中心主任约翰－考尔多斯基说道，“这使你想到那句老话，就是-只要是宣传,好坏都不赖。”

虽然整理过去12个月的灾难年度数据还为时尚早，但是旅游业专家指出，现在旅游业发展总的趋势是清楚明确的。世界旅游协会指出，今年休闲旅游预期增长约5％。

“每次一有灾难发生，旅游业现在好像反弹得更快，旅游人数比灾害前更高。”总部在伦敦得世界旅游及旅行理事会副理事长尤菲－伊布拉辛说道。比如伦敦。7月8日伦敦的自杀爆炸袭击造成56人死亡，700人受伤。尤菲说：“看起来几乎是那些躲开了炸弹袭击的人决定再来伦敦看看。”

早期数字指出，对于其他遭受灾难的地方来说也是如此。例如，太平洋亚洲旅游协会的统计表明，虽然2004年12月26日的海啸造成超过3万人死伤，但是今天3月到8月间，来到斯里兰卡的游客人数每个月都比去年同期要高。

为了说明这种趋势，旅游专业人士常常引用的一个先前的例子是巴厘岛。2002年10月，针对西方人的炸弹袭击造成202人死亡。然而在爆炸后一年，游客人数骤降至993000人，而2004年反弹至146万人。太平洋亚洲旅游协会指出，这一数字比炸弹袭击的前两年还高。

太平洋亚洲旅游协会还指出，即使是在巴厘岛炸弹袭击中伤亡最为惨重的澳大利亚人也是如此。仅在袭击后的两年内，来巴厘岛旅游的人数就反弹至自1998年以来的最高点。

自杀式炸弹袭击者今年再度袭击了巴厘岛，三所饭馆发生爆炸，造成19人死亡。

泰国在遭受了海啸袭击后，也吸引了更多的游客，而当时的海啸掀起了巨浪，造成5400人死亡，5000人失踪。

虽然泰国旅游胜地普吉岛的海啸曾造成500多瑞典人死亡，是死亡人数最多的外国人，但是“瑞典－我的旅行”组织说，更多的瑞典人回到普吉岛旅游，总数超过去年。该组织总部设在斯德哥尔摩，每年把60万游客送往海外，占有28％的瑞典旅游市场份额。

“我们深信，泰国最终重新成为旅游热点地区，但是我们没有想到，今年的反弹力度比去年还要强劲。”“瑞典－我的旅行”组织交通部主任约吉姆－埃里克森说，“本来我们以为人数会有大的下滑，所以对现在的情况感到十分吃惊。”

埃里克森说，该组织预计，与去年相同的旅游季节相比，今天去泰国和斯里兰卡的游客人数均将上升5％。他说，这种情况与20世纪90年代有了显著的变化。

“在第一次海湾战争期间，我们发现，旅游业总体上有显著的下滑，911之后也是如此。”埃里克森说，“现在，恐怖主义活动或灾害袭击给旅游业造成的影响无非是改变了旅游的目的地而已。”

2009年11月 三笔

The Polish Sejm, or Parliament, hasdeclared 2010 the Year of Fryderyk Chopin, and special concerts, recitals,conferences and other events will honor the great Romantic composer, who wasborn near Warsaw in 1810.

波兰议会宣布确定2010年为"费雷德里克·肖邦年"，并将举办一些列专场管弦乐音乐会、独奏音乐会、纪念会议和其他活动，以纪念这位1810年出生于华沙的伟大的浪漫主义作曲家。

The prestigious International ChopinCompetition for pianists will mark its 16th edition in October 2010. Held everyfive years, the competition draws scores of young musicians from all over theworld. In addition, Warsaw's Chopin Museum, with the world's largest collectionof Chopin documents and other artifacts, will undergo a total redesign,modernization and expansion.

2010年10月，久负盛名的“肖邦国际钢琴家大赛”将迎来第十六届比赛。大赛每五年举办一次，吸引着全球各地众多的年轻音乐家参赛。此外，华沙的肖邦博物馆将会全部从新设计，进行现代化装修和扩建。肖邦博物馆收藏有全世界数量最多的文件和其生前用过的物品。

A lavishly illustrated new guidebook called"Chopin's Poland" was already published this year. It leads visitorsto dozens of sites in Warsaw and elsewhere around the country where thecomposer lived, ate, studied, performed, visited or even partied.

一本带有丰富插图的名为《肖邦的波兰》的旅游手册已于今年出版，它向读者介绍了华沙及周边多家的一些旅游目的地，这些景点都是肖邦曾经居住、用餐、学习、表演甚至是聚会的场所。

"Actually, Chopin doesn't need to bepromoted, but we hope that Poland and Polish culture can be promoted throughChopin," said Monika Strugala, who is coordinating the Chopin 2010 programunder the aegis of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, a body set up by the Sejm in2001 to promote and protect Chopin's work and image.

此次负责此次“肖邦年”活动协调工作的莫妮卡·Strugala表示：“事实上，虽然肖邦名誉全球，但是我们还是希望通过宣传肖邦来推广波兰和波兰文化”。此次活动是由费雷德里克·肖邦研究会主办的。肖邦研究会是由波兰议会设立的一个政府组织，旨在宣传和保护肖邦的音乐作品及形象。

"We want to confirm to all that he isa very, very important Polish symbol," she said.

莫妮卡还说，“我们想向全世界证明，肖邦是波兰国家无可替代的象征。”

Indeed, it's not much of an exaggeration tosay that Chopin's music flows through the Polish national consciousness likesome sort of cultural lifeblood.

其实，可以毫不夸张地说，肖邦的音乐就像某种文化血液，流淌于波兰的民族意识当中。

He is "woven into Polish culture andpolitics," the Polish-born American filmmaker Marian Marzynski told aninterviewer for PBS, the American television station, in 2006.

在2006年，波兰裔美国电影制片人玛丽安·Marzynski对美国PBS电视台的一位记者说：“肖邦的音乐已经贯穿于波兰的文化和政治领域。”

The son of a Polish mother and a Frenchémigré father, Chopin was born in a manor house at Zelazowa Wola, about 50kilometers, or 30 miles, west of Warsaw, and moved to Warsaw as an infant.

肖邦出生于位于华沙以西50公里（30英里）的佐瓦沃拉的一座庄园里，他的母亲是波兰人，父亲是一位法国移民。后来他成了孤儿，并搬到了华沙。

The manor is something of a Chopin shrine -since the 1930s it has been a museum and center for concerts. Like the ChopinMuseum in Warsaw, it, too, is undergoing extensive renovation as part ofbicentennial preparations.

19世纪30年代，这座庄园改建成了博物馆和音乐厅。如今，这里是人们瞻仰肖邦的圣地。作为纪念活动准备工作的一部分，这里也如同华沙的肖邦博物馆一样正在进行大规模的翻新。

Chopin spent his first 20 years in andaround Warsaw. He was already a noted pianist as a boy and composed concertosand other important works as a teenager.

肖邦在华沙和周边地区度过了20年的时光。在他还是个小男孩时，就已经是著名的钢琴演奏家，并且创作了许多协奏曲和其他著名的作品。

He carried Polish soil with him when heleft Warsaw on a concert tour in 1830, just a few weeks before the outbreak ofthe November Uprising, an abortive Polish revolt against Czarist Russia, whichthen ruled Warsaw and a broad swath of Polish territory.

1830年，十月起义爆发，战败的波兰人民奋起反击统治着华沙和大片波兰国土的沙皇统治者。在起义爆发几周之后，肖邦离开了华沙开始音乐巡演，巡演中他仍然随身携带着一小撮波兰的泥土。

Chopin remained in exile in France afterthe uprising was crushed. But so attached was he to his native land that afterhis death in Paris in 1849 his heart - on his own instructions - was broughtback to Warsaw for interment. The rest of his body is buried in the PèreLachaise cemetery in Paris.

虽然后来起义被镇压，肖邦却一直在法国过着流放的生活，但是他对故土的热爱仍旧难以割舍。后来他在巴黎逝世，遵照他的遗嘱，他的心脏带回波兰安葬，而他的遗体则长眠于巴黎的Père Lachaise公墓。

"For where your treasure is, thereyour heart will be also," reads the Biblical inscription on a plaque wherehis heart is kept today, preserved in an urn and concealed in a pillar of theHoly Cross Church in central Warsaw. Mozart's "Requiem" will beperformed here as part of Bicentennial events.

保存肖邦心脏的骨灰盒，安放于华沙市中心的圣十字教堂，封存在教堂的立柱当中。墓志铭引用圣经的标题：“你的宝藏在哪里,你的心也就在那里。”作为纪念活动的一部分，教堂将演奏莫扎特的安魂曲。

Exile and patriotism, as well asextraordinary genius, have long made Chopin's appeal transcend all manner ofsocial and political divides.

肖邦的魅力在于他的流放生涯、爱国情怀，以及无与伦比的音乐天赋，这些已经在波兰的社会和政治领域中世代流传。

Polish folk motifs thread through some ofhis finest pieces, and patriotic fervor, as well as homesick longing, infusesome of his best-known works.

波兰民间音乐风格、肖邦的爱国情怀和思乡情怀始终贯穿于肖邦著名的音乐作品当中。