15、It has been found that when desperate, unhappy youngsters are preparing to break away from a disordered, drug-ridden commune in which they have been living for months, they first gather together in one spot their few possessions and introduce a semblance of order among them. The need to define who you are by the place in which you live remains intact, even when that place is defined by a single object, like the small blue vase that used to mean home to one of my friends, the daughter of a widowed trained nurse who continually moved from one place to another. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert often build no walls when they camp in the desert. They simply hollow out a small space in the sand. But then they bend a slender sapling into an arch to make a doorway, an entrance to a dwelling as sacrosanct from invasion as the walled estates of the wealthy are or as Makati, in Manila, is, where watchmen guard the rich against the poor. 人们已经发现, 当绝望的不幸少年打算摆脱他们曾经生活过数月的毫无秩序、 充斥着毒 品的社区时, 他们通常会先把他们有限的财产聚集到某个地方并按顺序摆放起来。 人们需要 靠自己生活的地方来定义自己的身份的做法没有改变,即使那个地方只是用一件物品定义 的。 就比如我的一个朋友——她的母亲是一位经过专门训练的护, 寡居但是需要经常搬家— —一个小小的蓝色花瓶对她的含义就是家。 卡拉哈里沙漠里的居民在沙漠中露营时通常是不 建围墙的。 他们仅仅是在沙漠中挖出一块小空间, 然后把一棵小树弯曲起来做成拱形当作入 口。 这个入口是神圣不可侵犯的, 就好比有钱人用墙围起来的地产或者是在马尼拉的马卡提, 有保安人员为富人提防穷人一样。 17、Home, I learned, can be anywhere you make it. Home is also the place to which you come back again and again. The really poignant parting is the parting that may be forever. It is this sense that every sailing may be a point of no return that haunts the peoples of the Pacific islands. On the very day I arrived in Samoa, people began to ask, “When will you leave?” When I replied, “In a year,” they sighed, “Alas, talofai” — our love to you — with the sadness of a thousand partings in their voices. 我领悟到一点:家可以是在任何地方,家也是你一次次回来的地方。真正让人难过的分 别是那种有可能的永远的分别。 正是这种感觉一直困扰着南太平洋岛上的人们。 对他们来说, 每一次出海都可能不再回来。 在我到达萨摩亚群岛的当天, 人们就开始问我:你何时离开?” “ 当我告诉他们: “一年后” ,他们就会叹息道: “唉,talofai”(意思是送上我们的爱) , ,声音 带着似乎告别无数次才会有的悲伤。 因为住在这些群岛的居民都曾是航海者, 他们出发时只 是为了一次短途航行, 但大风却把他们的小船吹离了航线数百英里。 然而即使是一艘打鱼船 出海,它都有可能撞上危险的暗礁而使人溺水身亡,因此最短的航行都可能意味着永别。 18、I have seen something similar on the seacoast of Portugal, where every year for four hundred years fishermen set out in their frail boats for the fishing banks across the treacherous Atlantic and no one could tell when — or whether —they would return. Portugal is still a widow’s walk. The old women, dressed in black, still seem to be looking out to sea for the men who disappeared into the distance and an unknown fate. 同样的情形我在葡萄牙的海岸边也见过。400年来,那里的渔民们驾着他们不堪一击的 小船穿越变化莫测的大西洋去浅水渔场。 但是没有人知道他们什么时候或者说能否回来。 现 在葡萄牙仍然像是望台。 身着黑衣的老妇们似乎仍在远眺着大海, 搜寻她们消失在远方的丈 夫,揣测他们未知的命运。 19、In all my years of field work, each place where I have lived has become home. Each small object I have brought with me, each arrangement on a shelf of tin cans holding beads or salt for trade or crayons for the children to draw with becomes the mark of home. When it is dismantled on the last morning — a morning that is marked by the greed of those who have little and hope for a share of whatever is left behind, as well as by the grief of feeling that someone is leaving forever — on that morning, I weep. I, too, know that this departure, unlike my forays from home as a child, is likely to be forever. 在我多年实地考察的工作生涯中。 我所生活过的每个地方都是家。 我所带的每一样小东 西,架子上的每一件摆设-----装着用来换东西的一珠子或盐的各种锡罐。或是孩子们用来画 画的蜡笔都成了家的印记。最终有个早晨,我的这个家消失了。那个早晨留下了穷人的贪婪 的鲂,他们希望分享你留下的任何东西。那个早晨也留下了悲伤的印记。因为他们感到有人 即将永远离别------在那个早晨,我哭了,而且我知道。这次离别,和我儿时一次次离家探险 有所不同,它可能是永远的。 3 濒危物种 vs.人类需求 Martha Grace Low 1、The most famous endangered species on earth were the dinosaurs. They died out in one of five "great extinctions "that have occured in the millions of years since life began on this planet ----periods in which, for natural causes ,a large percentage of the specices that ecisted simply disappeared .We are now in the middle of a six great extinction ,but this one has been caused by human activity. Consequently ,the importance of preserving species is a popular topic today ,particurlarly in the industrialized world . 地球上最著名的濒危动物是恐龙。自从地球上有生命以来,发生过 5 次“大灭绝” ,每 次都是由于自然的原因使得曾经存在的很多物种消失。恐龙就在几百万年中 5 次“大灭绝” 中的其中一次灭绝。现在我们正处在第六次“大灭绝”的中期,但这次人类活动造成的。因 此,物种保护的重要性成了当今的热门话题,尤其是在当今工业化世界。 2、 no discussion of endangered species is complete without an examination of the reasons But behind its causes,which are human needs.In Africa ,where the world's population is growing the fastest are shringking as people clear lands for homes and farms and cut wood for fuel.Herds of goats and sheep eat the vegetation,leaving the bare soil to be carried away by wind and water .Human kill wildlife to protect their crops ,and may also kill them for the illegal trade in ivory ,rhinoceros horns ,furs .In Latin America and Southeast Asia ,rainforests are cleared for farmlands and for fuel and timber .The loss of the forest endangers many species of plants and destroys many animals'habitats.or natural homes .And in the oceans ,fish supplies have been greatly reduced by overfishing and by pollutin. 但是, 如果不考察导致物种濒危背后的原因而去讨论物种灭绝是不全面的。 其背后的原 因就是人类需要。在全球人口增长速度最快的非洲,森林在不断萎缩,因为人们为了住房和 农场而开垦土地,为了燃料而砍伐树木。成群的山羊和绵羊吃掉草皮,造成土壤裸露而被风 和水流带走。人们杀害野生动物以保护农作物,或去做非法象牙、犀牛角、皮毛贸易。在拉 丁美洲和东南亚,为了农田、燃料和木材,雨林被砍伐。森林减失危及许多种植物,并破坏 许多动物的栖息环境或自然家园。而在海洋,过度捕鱼和污染已使鱼的供应大大减少了。 3、Humans want to survive just as every other species does .we need food ,shelter ,and a place to rear our young ,So how do our activities endanger other species ?Speciefically ,there are three major ways ,We kill off animals directly in some cases ,We may want their meat ,bones .skins ,tusks .horns,or feathers ;or we may wantto protect our crops and livestock from them ,By overhunting ,Euro-Americans endangered the buffalo in North America ,and in the nin eteenth century hunters drove to extinction the passenger pigeon ,which was probably the most populous species that have ever lived. 人类和其他物种一样都渴望生存。我们需要食物、住所和哺育后代的地方。那么,我们 的行为是怎样危及其他物种的呢?具体说来,主要有三种途径。我们有时直接杀死动物,或 许是因为希望得到它们的肉、骨头、皮、牙、角或羽毛;或许是为了保护农作物和牲畜。由 于过度狩猎,欧裔美国人使北美的野牛濒于灭绝。19 世纪灭绝的旅鸽就是由于过度狩猎所 致,而旅鸽曾经可能是生活在地球上的数量最多的鸟类。 4、 Another way that we endanger native life-forms is by introducing foreign species into their habitat .A prime example of this was the introduction of European rabbits into Australia . where they multiplied until they endangered the native species of grazing animals by eating all the vegetation .This became a terrible problem that has finally been brought under some control ,though not completely solved. 我们危及当地生态的另一种方式是引进外来物种。 一个突出的例子是把欧洲的兔子引入 澳洲。在澳洲,它们的数量倍增,以至吃掉所有植被,危及当地其他的吃草动物。这就造成 了一个可怕的问题。虽然这一问题最后得到了一定的控制,但并没有完全解决。 7、 Many people's answer is thar every life-form has a right to exist,and that no other reason is needed for preserving it,A more common reason is the beauty of many species .Certain species also provide humans with economic value ,But scientists identify two additional reasons which may not be obvious to most of us. 许多人的回答是:每个物种都有生存的权利,因而保护它们不需要其它任何理由。而一 个更加普遍的理由是物种多样化可使地球更加美丽。 况且某些物种对人类还有经济价值。 然 而科学家却给出了另外两个我们大多数人可能没有意识到的理由。