Text 1

Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.

几乎没有什么技术可以像大坝一样激起人们的想象力。或许长久以来任洪灾和旱灾的侵袭，所以人类特别痴迷于建大坝来控制水流。但是有时候太过兴奋就容易变得盲目。许多大坝已经有弊大于利的危险。

重大技术所创造的事物中，很少能有像大型水坝这样能激起人们想象力的。可能正是因为人类长期以来遭受旱涝灾害的摆布才使得治理江河，供我驱策的理想如此让人着迷。但让人着迷有时也使人盲目。数个巨型大坝将可能引起弊大于利的后果。

The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn't help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt's leadership in the Arab world was cemented by Aswan High Dam.Turkey's bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.

巨型水坝带来的教训就是大的事物并不总是美的事物。这不能阻止各国和人民将建造巨型的，宏伟的水坝视为成功的标志，他们极力用这种方式宣告自己的地位。A水坝巩固了埃及在阿拉伯世界的领导地位。在土耳其跻身第一世界的地位的努力中，At大坝功不可没。

建造大坝的教训是：大的未必总是美好的。但这个教训也无法阻碍修建宏大雄伟、功能强大的水坝成为那些竭力显示自己威力的国家和人民的一种成功的标志。埃及由于建造了阿斯旺大坝而巩固了其在阿拉伯世界的领导地位。土耳其力图跻身世界一流地位的努力中也包括修建阿塔图尔克大坝。

But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left- all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.

但大坝的运作往往不会如期进行。比如，阿斯旺大坝虽然阻止了尼罗河的泛滥，但也使埃及失去了洪水过后留下的肥沃的淤泥——这些淤泥反而堆积在水库里，泥满为患，使得水库几乎不能发电。

但是大坝往往不会按照预期来运行。以阿斯旺大坝为例，它阻止了尼罗河洪水泛滥，但也使埃及失去了洪水冲击过后留下的肥沃淤泥——这一切换回来的是一座巨大的“疾病库”（水库），现在它已积满淤泥，以至于几乎无法发电。

And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.

但至今，控制水域的误区仍然存在。本周，在文明的欧洲中心，因为水坝产生了分歧，S和匈牙利差点儿就在D兵戎相见。这个大型的建筑工程会带来水坝的通病。但是S正努力从C独立出来，并且它需要建造一个水坝来证明自己。

然而，控制水域的错误观念还在继续。本周，在欧洲文明的腹地，斯洛伐克人和匈牙利人因多瑙河上一处水坝发生争端而差点动用了军队。这个大型工程很可能会出现大坝的所有常见问题。但斯洛伐克正在寻求脱离捷克而独立，现在他们需要建一个大坝来证明自己的实力。

Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its adviser say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.

与此同时，世界银行更是资助印度建造大错特错的N水坝。尽管专家指出大坝将给普通百姓造成损失，使环境造到破坏，但它仍一意孤行。虽说可能给有权力的人带来好处，但是也并不能打保票。

与此同时，世界银行已经答应贷款给印度，助其建造“更加执迷不悟的纳尔马达大坝”。尽管世界银行的顾问指出，该大坝将给平民带来苦难，而且会破坏环境，但世界银行依然一意孤行。大坝只会给当权者带来利益，但这种利益也远远得不到保障。

Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the costs and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irritation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don't need a dam to be saved.

关于大坝产生的后果以及控制水域的利弊的合理的科学研究可以解决这些矛盾。可以考虑水力发电，控制洪水，合理灌溉，而不用建造那些可怕的大坝。但是一旦涉及到错误的观念，很难得出合理的或科学的结论。是时候吸取阿斯旺大坝的教训了。你根本不需要一座大坝来拯救。

对大坝的影响以及控水成本和收益进行恰当科学的研究有助于解决这些冲突。即使不建“怪兽大坝”，水力发电、洪水治理以及引水灌溉也是可能的。可是，在与错误观念打交道时，很难做到合理或科学。现在是全世界吸取阿斯旺大坝教训的时候了。人们未必非要通过修建大坝来拯救自己。

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Text 2

Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real.

人们常说不劳无获。但如果是劳而无获呢？在美国，无论你走到哪都会听说企业复兴的轶事。难的却是商人们自认为引领的生产力革命是否真是有效。

好吧，不劳无获，人们都这么说。可要是劳而无获呢？在美国，无论你走到哪里都会听到企业复苏的传闻。商界人士自认为由其主导的生产力革命是否确有其事，这一点则更加难以确定。

The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978-87 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a "disjunction" between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics. 

官方数据有点让人灰心。数据显示，如果把制造业和服务业加在一起来看，自1987年以来生产力平均增长1.2%。比过去十年的平均值稍稍快一点。并且从1991年以来，每年生产力增长约2%，是1978至1987年间平均值的两倍多。问题是这种增长很大程度上是由于商业循环此时出现的普通的反弹，所以这不能作为复苏的潜在趋势的有力证据。正如财政部长罗伯特说的，在大量的企业生产力大飞跃的传闻和数据所反映的现实情况之间存在差距。

官方统计数据有些让人沮丧。这些数据表明，即使把制造业和服务业合起来算，1987年以来生产力也只是平均增长1.2%。这比上一个十年的平均增长速度略快。自1991年来，生产力每年增长约2%，这是1978至1987年平均增长速度的两倍多。问题在于，近年出现的生产力快速增长现象部分是由于商业周期到这个时间点通常会出现反弹造成的，因而它不是经济复苏已经是潜在趋势的确凿证据。正如财政部长罗伯特所说的，大量表明生产力飞跃增长的商业传闻与统计数据所反映的情况之间存在着”脱节“。

Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace-- all that re-engineering and downsizing-- are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.

其中一些原因很容易解释。企业组织的新方法-- 重新规划和缩小规模-- 仅仅是一个国家总的生产力提高的一个因素，其被许多其他因素所推动，像对机器设备的联合投资，新技术和对教育培训的投资。此外，企业做这些改变大多是为了盈利，这也就意味着并不一定会提高生产力：对企业来说，转向新的市场或者提高质量也同样重要。

这其中有一部分情况很容易解释。企业组织新方法-- 所有那些诸如重新规划和精简规模的做法-- 只是推动某一经济整体生产力发展的因素之一，而生产力的发展还受到许多其它因素的驱动，如设备与机械和技术上的联合投资，以及教育和培训上的投资等。另外，公司大部分改革是为了赢利，而赢利并不一定意味着提高生产力：转向新的市场或提高产品质量也会有同样的效果。

Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.

其他的两个解释更大程度上是猜测的。首先，近些年的企业重组做的不好。其次，即使做得好的，这种做法也没能像人们预想的那样广泛推广。

其他两种解释带有更大的猜测性。其一认为，近年来的一些企业在重组工作上表现无能。其二则认为，即使重组工作执行得好，该行动也没能像人们设想的那样广泛推广。

Leonard, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much "re-engineering" has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions of cost. His colleague, Michael, says that far too many companies have applied re-engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long-term profitability. BBDO's Al is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re-engineering consultants as mere rubbish-- "the worst sort of ambulance chasing."

哈佛大学学者同时也是一家发展迅速的烘焙咖啡连锁店的前任总裁雷昂那多说大多数的重组工作粗鄙不堪。他坚信，在许多情况下，营业额的下滑比成本的削减要大得多。他的同时米歇尔说太多公司机械地采用重组的方式削减成本，却不充分考虑长远利益。BBDO的艾尔更是直言不讳。他对那些企业重组顾问的工作不屑一顾，认为简直就是垃圾--”最糟糕的趁火打劫”。

哈佛学者，快速发展的面包咖啡连锁店前任总裁说，“重组”大多是粗糙的。他认为在很多情况下，企业收益的损失超出了成本的降低。他的同事迈克说，太多的公司采用了机械的方式进行重组，没有充分考虑长期盈利能力就削减成本。BBDO 的艾尔更是直言不讳。他对重组顾问所做的许多工作不屑一顾，将其视为纯粹的垃圾-- “典型的趁火打劫”。

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Text 3

Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo's 17th-century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake's harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.

科学与文化的其他方面长时间以来关系都很紧张。想想17世纪G因背叛天主教的信仰而遭到审判，或者诗人W对牛顿的机械主义世界观的尖锐抨击。如果说科学和人文之间还存在分歧的话，那么本世纪有增无减。

科学与文化的其他方面历来关系紧张。想想17世纪伽利略因其叛逆信仰所受到的天主教会审判，还有诗人威廉布莱克对艾萨克牛顿机械主义世界观的尖锐批判。科学与人文之间这一分歧在本世纪甚至进一步加深。

Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics-- but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked "anti-science" in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon- Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.

直到前不久，科学界还非常强大，以致能对批评者置之不理-- 但现在不行了。随着科研基金的减少，科学家们在数本著作中开始抨击“反科学”，特别是佛吉尼亚大学生物学家保罗和拉特格斯大学数学家诺曼合著的《高级迷信》，以及康奈尔大学卡尔所著的《鬼出没的世界》。

Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as "The Flight from Science and Reason," held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of (Mis) Information," which assembled last June near Buffalo.

科学的捍卫者们也在会议上表达了他们的担忧。比如1995年在纽约举行的“逃离科学与理性”会议，以及去年6月在布法罗附近召开的“（伪）信息时代的科学”会议。

Anti-science clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologist, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science's objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.

显然，反科学对不同的人有不同的含义。他们主要挑那些质疑科学的客观性的社会学家、哲学家和其他学者的毛病。而萨根则更关注那些相信鬼神，上帝造物论和其他违背科学世界观的现象的人。

A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the anti-science tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.

1996年对新闻报道的调查表明，反科学的标签也贴在了许多其他群体身上，如从提倡消灭最后残存的天花病毒库的官方人士到提倡削减基础研究基金的共和党人。

Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pre-technological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are anti-science, as an essay in US News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.

如果把这个术语用在“隐形炸弹人”身上，几乎不会有什么人反对。这个人在1995年公开发表声明，蔑视科学、渴望回到前技术时代的理想社会。当然，这并不能说明，对不加控制的工业增长表示担忧的环境主义者也是反科学的，而去年5月份刊登在《美国新闻和世界报道》上的一篇文章似乎暗示是这么回事。

The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.

环保主义者必会对这些批评作出回应。作为环境研究的先驱，保罗认为，科学的真正敌人是那些对证明全球变暖、臭氧层耗竭和其他工业增长后果的证据提出质疑的人。

Indeed, some observers fear that the anti-science epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. "The term anti-science can lump together too many, quite different things," notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science. "They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened."

一些评论员甚至担心反科学这个称号面临着失去意义的危险。哈佛大学的哲学家在其1993年所著的《科学与反科学》中写道：“反科学”一词可以涵盖很多截然不同的内容。它们唯一的共同之处就是会激怒或威胁那些自持更文明进步的人“

Text 4

Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.

1980年人口普查呈现出这样一副图景：随着东北部和中西部人口增长近乎停滞，地区间的竞争变得越来越激烈了。

This development-- and its strong implications for US politics and economy in years ahead-- has enthroned the South as America's most densely populated region for the first time in the history of the nation's head counting.

这一新态势--以及它对今后美国政治和经济的强大影响--已使南部地区在美国人口普查史上首次成为人口最密集区。

Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people-- numerically the third-largest growth ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records except for the Depression years.

20世纪70年代，美国人口总共增长了2320万--从数字上来看，这是有历史记载以来10年内人口增长的第三高。即便如此，人口总数也只增加了11.4%，除了大萧条时期，这是美国年度记录中最低的增长率。

Americans have been migrating south and west in larger numbers since World War 2, and the pattern still prevails

第二次世界大战以来，更多的美国人在向南部和西部地区迁移，而且这种模式如今仍然盛行。

Three sun-belt states-- Florida, Texas and California-- together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980 than a decade earlier. Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 18th and San Antonion from 15th to 10th-- with Cleveland and Washington. D. C., dropping out of the top 10.

佛罗里达州、德克萨斯州和加利福尼亚州这三个阳光地带，1980年的人口比10年前增加了近1000万。其中的一些大城市，圣地亚哥（加州）从第14位上升到了第8位，圣安东尼奥（德州）从第15位升到第10位，而克利夫兰（俄亥俄州）和华盛顿地区则被挤出了前十。

Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement out of the snow belt, census officials say. Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too-- and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday's baby boom generation reached its child-bearing years.

人口普查官员说，这种变化并非全都因为要逃离冷冻地带。不断的移民潮也起到了很大的作用，当然还有大批的新生儿的出现-- 曾经的“婴儿潮”那一代人到了生育的年龄。

Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west as joined by a related but newer phenomenon: More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too. Some instances-- 

而且，人口学家发现，向南部和西部地区的不断迁移还伴随着一种相关却又较新的现象：显然，美国人日益倾向于寻找不只是拥有更多工作机会的地方，而且还朝着人口较少 的地方移动。例证如下：

* Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states reported the most rapid growth rate-- 37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast area with only 5 percent of the US population.

从区域上看，落基山脉各州公布的人口增长率最高-- 1970年以来这片广阔的土地上的人口增长率为37.1%, 而其人口总量原本仅占美国总人口的5%。

Among states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively. Except for Florida and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western states with 7.5 million people-- about 9 per square mile.

从各州情况来看，内华达州和亚利桑那州是增长最快的：其增长率分别为63.5% 和53.1%。除了佛罗里达州和德克萨斯州外，处于人口增长率前十的都是西部各州，共有750万人--每平方英里约9个人。

The flight from overcrowdedness affects the migration from snow belt to more bearable climates.

从人口过度稠密地区的逃离，影响了以前那种从寒冷地带到气候宜人地区的迁移趋势。

Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West. There, California added 3.7 million to its population in the 1970s, more than any other state.

1980年的人口普查统计数据显示，没有任何地方比远西地区更能证明这种为了寻找广阔的生活空间而迁移的取向了。在那，加州1970年代人口增加了370万，比其他任何州都多。

In that decade, however, large numbers also migrated from California, mostly to other parts of the West. Often they chose-- and still are choosing-- somewhat colder climates such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska in order to escape smog, crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State.

不过，70年代也有大批人从加州迁出，大多数人去了西部其他地方。他们常常选择--现在依然选择--气候较冷的地方，为的是躲开“黄金州”（加州）的雾霾，犯罪和城市化带来的其他困扰。

As a result, California's growth rate dropped during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent-- little more than two thirds the 1960s' growth figure and considerably below that of other Western states.

结果，加州的人口增长率在1970年代降到了18.5%--只有60年代增长率的2/3，大大低于西部其他各州。