2013年自考英语(二)课文译文:世界中的世界
世界中的世界
First of all let us consider the earth (that is to say, the world) as a planet revolving round the sun. The earth is one of nine planets which move in orbit round the sun. These nine planets, together with the sun, make up what is called our solar system. How this wonderful system started and what kept it working with such wonderful accuracy is largely a mystery but astronomers tell us that it is only one of millions of similar systems in space, and one of the smallest.
我们先来看一下绕太阳运转的行星地球(也就是我们这个世界)。地球是绕太阳轨道运行的九大行星之一。这九大行星和太阳一起构成了我们所说的太阳系。这个神奇的星系是怎样起源,以及什么使它如此精确运行仍在相当程度上是个谜。而天文学家告诉我们,太阳系是太空中亿万个类似星系中的一个,并且是属于最小星系之列。
The stars which we see glittering in the sky on a dark and cloudless night are almost certainly the suns of other solar systems more or less like our own, but they are so faraway in space that it is unlikely that we shall ever get to know very much about them. About our own solar system, however, we are learning more every day.
在晴朗的夜空中我们看到的闪烁恒星,基本上都是其他太阳系的太阳,与我们的太阳很相似,但它们与我们相距十分遥远,要想详细了解它们是不可能的。然而,对于我们的太阳系,每天我们对它都有新的认识。
Before the American and Russian astronauts made their thrilling journeys into outer space it was difficult for us to realise what our earth looked like from hundreds of thousands of miles away, but the photographs which the astronauts were able to take show us the earth in space looking not very different from what the moon looks like when we look at it from the earth. The earth is, however, very different from the moon, which the American astronauts have found to be without life or vegetation, whereas our earth is very much alive in every respect. The moon, by the way, is called a satellite because it goes round our earth as well as round the sun. In other words, it goes round the sun with our earth.
在美国和俄国宇航员进行令人振奋的太空旅行之前,我们很难知道地球从几十万英里之外看是什么样子。而从宇航员拍的照片来看,从太空中看地球与我们在地球上看到的月亮的样子没有很大差别,其实地球同月球大不一样。美国宇航员已发现,月球上没有生命和植物,而地球上的每一个地方都是生机勃勃。顺便提一下,月球也叫卫星,因为它即绕太阳运行,也绕地球运转,换句话讲,月球随地球一道绕太阳运转。
The surface of our earth is covered by masses of land and larger areas of water. Let us consider the water areas first. The total water area is about three times as large as the land area. The very large separate areas of water are called "oceans” and the lesser areas are called "seas.”
地球表面是大面积的陆地和比陆地面积更大的水域。先让我们来看一下水域。水域面积大约是陆地面积的三倍,非常大的独立水域称为“洋”,小一些的称为“海”。
In most of the oceans and seas some of the water is found to be flowing in a particular direction -- that is to say, from one part towards another part of the ocean or sea concerned. The water which is flowing in this manner is said to be moving as a "current." There are many thousands of currents in the waters of the oceans and seas, but only certain of the stronger and better marked currents are specially named and of great importance. These currents are important because they affect the climate of the land areas close to where they flow and also because they carry large quantities of microscopic animal and vegetable life which forms a large part of the food for fishes.
人们发现,在大多数的大洋大海里,一部分水会朝某一个方向流动,即从海洋的一个区域流向另一个区域。这样流动的水体称为“洋流”。在海洋的水域里有成千上万条洋流,但我们只给某些较为强大和显著的洋流命名,而且这些洋流非常重要。说它们重要原因之一是这些洋流影响其流经区域的气候,原因之二是洋流夹带着大量的微生物和植物,是鱼类的食物的主要来源。
The nature and characteristics of the surface of the land areas of the earth vary a great deal from area to area and from place to place. The surface of some areas consists largely of high mountains and deep valleys whilst, in other areas, most of the surfaceconsists of plains. If one made a journey over the Continents one would find every kind of surface including mountain ranges, plains, plateau, deserts, tropical forestlands and empty areas covered permanently by ice and snow.
地球陆地表面的自然形态和特征因地域而变化很大。有些地域的表面多以高山深谷为主,而另一些地区则大部分是平原。如果到世界各大陆作一番旅行,就会看到地表的各种形态:山脉、平原、高原、沙漠、热带雨林,还有常年冰雪覆盖的空旷地带。
When thinking and learning about the world we should not forget that our world is the home of a very great many different people -- peoples with different coloured skins, living very different lives and having very different ideas about a great many important things such as religion, government, education and social behaviour.
当我们思考和认识这个世界时,不应忘记我们的世界是许多不同民族的家园,他们具有不同的肤色,过着不同的生活,还有各自不同的对宗教、政府、教育和社会行为等重要问题的看法;
The circumstances under which different people live make a great difference between the way in which they live and the way in which we live, and it ought to be our business to try to understand those different circumstances so that we can better understand people of other lands. Above all, we should avoid deciding what we think about people different from ourselves without first having learned a great deal about them and the kind of lives they have to live. It is true to say that the more we learn about other people, the better we understand their ideas and, as a rule, the better we like those people themselves.
不同人群的生活环境使我们的生活方式与他们的有着很大不同。因此,我们的任务是应该了解那些不同的环境,以便更好地了解异国的人民;最为重要的是,在没有首先对他们以及他们必须过着的那种生活有着相当多的认识时,应避免对他们产生想当然的看法。但可以肯定地说,对别人了解越多,就能更好地理解他们的思想,而且作为常理,我们就越发喜欢他们。
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