雅思12test8passage2閱讀原文翻譯

雅思12test8passage2閱讀原文翻譯

第1段

There is a poem,written around 598 AD,which describes hunting a mystery animal called a llewyn.But what was it?Nothing seemed to fit,until 2006,when an animal bone,dating from around the same period,was found in the Kinsey Cave in northern England.Until this discovery,the lynx—a large spotted cat with tasselled ears—was presumed to have died out in Britain at least 6,000 years ago,before the inhabitants of these islands took up farming.But the 2006 find,together with three others in Yorkshire and Scotland,is compelling evidence that the lynx and the mysterious llewyn were in fact one and the same animal.If this is so,it would bring forward the tassel-eared cat’s estimated extinction date by roughly 5,000 years.

一首寫于公元598年的詩歌描述了對一種叫做llewyn的神秘動物的圍獵。但它究竟是什么?直到2006年，似乎都沒有真實的動物能跟它對上號。當時，在英格蘭北部的Kinsey洞穴里發(fā)現(xiàn)了一塊可以追溯到大約同一時期的動物骨頭。在這一發(fā)現(xiàn)之前，猞猁-一種耳朵尖端長著一撮絮狀毛、皮膚上遍布斑點的貓科動物-一直被認為已經(jīng)于6000多年前，英倫群島居民尚未開始農(nóng)耕時就已經(jīng)在該地滅絕。但2006年的這項發(fā)現(xiàn)，再加上約克郡和蘇格蘭的其他三處發(fā)現(xiàn)，組成極有說服力的證據(jù)，證明猞猁和神秘的llewyn實際上是同一種動物。如果事實真的如此，那么這種絮狀耳朵大貓的預(yù)估滅絕時間會再推遲大約5000年。

第2段

However,this is not quite the last glimpse of the animal in British culture.A 9th-century stone cross from the Isle of Eigg shows,alongside the deer,boar and aurochs pursued by a mounted hunter,a speckled cat with tasselled ears.Were it not for the animal’s backside having worn away with time,we could have been certain,as the lynx’s stubby tail is unmistakable.But even without this key feature,it’s hard to see what else the creature could have been.The lynx is now becoming the totemic animal of a movement that is transforming British environmentalism:rewilding.

然而，這還不是這種動物在英國文化中最后一次出現(xiàn)。一座來自Eigg島的9世紀的石頭十字架上顯示，被一個騎在馬上的獵手所追逐的獵物中，除了鹿、野豬和野牛之外，還有一只長著絮狀耳朵的斑點大貓。如果不是這只動物的背部由于年深日久而顯得模糊不清的話，我們本來是可以完全確定的。因為它那又短又粗的猞猁尾巴錯不了。然而，即使沒有這個關(guān)鍵特征，也很難說那只動物還能是別的什么。猞猁現(xiàn)在正逐漸成為一場改變英國環(huán)保主義信條的運動(重歸鄉(xiāng)野)的圖騰。

第3段

Rewilding means the mass restoration of damaged ecosystems.It involves letting trees return to places that have been denuded,allowing parts of the seabed to recover from trawling and dredging,permitting rivers to flow freely again.Above all,it means bringing back missing species.One of the most striking findings of modern ecology is that ecosystems without large predators behave in completely different ways from those that retain them.Some of them drive dynamic processes that resonate through the whole food chain,creating niches for hundreds of species that might otherwise struggle to survive.The killers turn out to be bringers of life.

重歸鄉(xiāng)野意味著大規(guī)模恢復(fù)遭到破壞的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。這涉及讓樹木回到那些光禿禿的地方，使部分海床不受拖網(wǎng)和捕魚船的騷擾而得以休養(yǎng)生息，允許河流得以重新自由地流淌。最重要的一點是，這意味著將那些消失了的物種重新帶回到自然環(huán)境中?，F(xiàn)代生態(tài)學(xué)研究最令人震驚的發(fā)現(xiàn)之一是，沒有大型捕獵動物生活在其中的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，會與保有它們的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)以完全不同的方式來運轉(zhuǎn)。一些獵食動物驅(qū)動著能震蕩整條食物鏈的動態(tài)進程，為成百上千個原本可能得掙扎求存的物種創(chuàng)造出生存的一席之地。殺手最終其實是生命的賦予者。

第4段

Such findings present a big challenge to British conservation,which has often selected arbitrary assemblages of plants and animals and sought,at great effort and expense,to prevent them from changing.It has tried to preserve the living world as if it were a jar of pickles,letting nothing in and nothing out,keeping nature in a state of arrested development.But ecosystems are not merely collections of species;they are also the dynamic and ever-shifting relationships between them.And this dynamism often depends on large predators.

這些發(fā)現(xiàn)為英國的物種保護工作提出了一個大大的挑戰(zhàn)，因為這種工作到目前為止通常只是隨機地選取一些植物和動物，然后再花費巨大的精力和財力去努力阻止它們發(fā)生變化。這是在嘗試著將一個活生生的世界當作一罐泡菜那樣儲存下來，什么都不讓進來，什么都不讓出去。這就把自然環(huán)境保持在一種束手束腳的發(fā)展局限之內(nèi)。然而，生態(tài)系統(tǒng)并不僅僅是物種的集合而已;它們還是物種之間動態(tài)的和不斷變化的關(guān)系。而這種活力往往依賴于大型獵食動物。

第5段

At sea the potential is even greater:by protecting large areas from commercial fishing,we could once more see what 18th-century literature describes:vast shoals of fish being chased by fin and sperm whales,within sight of the English shore.This policy would also greatly boost catches in the surrounding seas;the fishing industry’s insistence on scouring every inch of seabed,leaving no breeding reserves,could not be more damaging to its own interests.

在海洋里，潛在的發(fā)展空間更為廣闊：通過保護大片海域不受商業(yè)捕撈的侵擾，我們就有可能再一次見到18世紀的文學(xué)作品所描繪的景象：從英國海灘極目遠眺之處，巨大的魚群被長須鯨和抹香鯨一路追逐。這個政策還能極大地提高周邊海域的捕撈量;捕魚業(yè)目前堅持搜刮每一寸海床、不留下任何休養(yǎng)繁殖余地的做法不可能比任何其他舉動都更加有損于其自身利益了。

第6段

Rewilding is a rare example of an environmental movement in which campaigners articulate what they are for rather than only what they are against.One of the reasons why the enthusiasm for rewilding is spreading so quickly in Britain is that it helps to create a more inspiring vision than the green movement’s usual promise of‘Follow us and the world will be slightly less awful than it would otherwise have been’.

在整場環(huán)保運動中，“重歸鄉(xiāng)野”是一個罕有的例子，因為其推行者們明確表達了他們想要支持達成什么而不僅僅只是反對什么。人們對“重歸鄉(xiāng)野”的熱情之所以在英國傳播得如此迅速，原因之一在于它有助于創(chuàng)造出一個更加令人振奮的前景，而不是環(huán)保運動通常保證的“跟著我們走，世界就會比它本來可能成為的那副樣子稍微少糟糕一點。

第7段

The lynx presents no threat to human beings:there is no known instance of one preying on people.It is a specialist predator of roe deer,a species that has exploded in Britain in recent decades,holding back,by intensive browsing,attempts to re-establish forests.It will also winkle out sika deer:an exotic species that is almost impossible for human beings to control,as it hides in impenetrable plantations of young trees.The attempt to reintroduce this predator marries well with the aim of bringing forests back to parts of our bare and barren uplands.The lynx requires deep cover,and as such presents little risk to sheep and other livestock,which are supposed,as a condition of farm subsidies,to be kept out of the woods.

猞猁對人類完全不構(gòu)成威脅：沒有任何已知的關(guān)于猞猁襲擊人的記載。它專門捕獵孢子，而該物種近幾十年來在英國的數(shù)量呈爆炸式增長。由于大量啃食植被而妨礙了人們試圖重建森林的努力，猞猁也偏愛獵食梅花鹿：人類幾乎完全沒可能控制得住這個外來物種，因為它的藏身之處位于無法穿行的小樹植被叢中。重新引人給猁這種獵食者的嘗試能很好地契合于讓我們的一些荒蕪之地重新被森林覆蓋的目標。猞猁需要地深林密的生活場所，因此對羊群和其他牲畜幾乎不構(gòu)成什么風(fēng)險，因為后者作為農(nóng)牧生產(chǎn)資料一般都會被限制在林地之外的場所活動。

第8段

On a recent trip to the Cairngorm Mountains,I heard several conservationists suggest that the lynx could be reintroduced there within 20 years.If trees return to the bare hills elsewhere in Britain,the big cats could soon follow.There is nothing extraordinary about these proposals,seen from the perspective of anywhere else in Europe.The lynx has now been reintroduced to the Jura Mountains,the Alps,the Vosges in eastern France and the Harz mountains in Germany,and has re-established itself in many more places.The European population has tripled since 1970 to roughly 10,000.As with wolves,bears,beavers,boar,bison,moose and many other species,the lynx has been able to spread as farming has left the hills and people discover that it is more lucrative to protect charismatic Wildlife than to hunt it,as tourists will pay for the chance to see it.Large-scale rewilding is happening almost everywhere—except Britain.

在最近去往Caimgorm山脈的一次旅途中，我聽到若干位環(huán)境保護學(xué)家建議說：在20年之內(nèi)猞猁就可以重新被放歸到那里的野生環(huán)境中，如果樹木回到了英國其他地區(qū)那些光禿禿的山上，這些大貓很快就會跟隨而來。如果從任何歐洲其他地區(qū)的角度看來，這些建議都并沒有什么非比尋常之處。猞猁目前已被重新放歸到了Jura山脈、阿爾卑斯山脈、法國東部的Vosges山脈和德國的Harz山脈各處，并且還在許多其他地方自行適應(yīng)了環(huán)境。自1970年以來，歐洲猞猁的數(shù)量已經(jīng)翻了三倍，達到了大約10000只。與狼、熊、河貍、野豬、野牛、駝鹿和許多其他物種一樣，猞猁能夠隨著農(nóng)耕活動退出山地區(qū)域而繁殖四散，并且人們也發(fā)現(xiàn)保護這些有魅力的野生動物要比獵捕它們更加有利可圖，因為旅游觀光客們會為有機會看到野生動物而付費。大規(guī)模的“重歸鄉(xiāng)野”活動正幾乎無處不在地進行著-只除了在英國。

第9段

Here,attitudes are just beginning to change.Conservationists are starting to accept that the old preservation-jar model is failing,even on its own terms.Already,projects such as Trees for Life in the Highlands provide a hint of what might be coming.An organisation is being set up that will seek to catalyse the rewilding of land and sea across Britain,its aim being to reintroduce that rarest of species to British ecosystem:hope.

在這里，人們的態(tài)度才剛剛開始轉(zhuǎn)變。環(huán)保學(xué)家們正開始接受和承認：原先那種老舊的儲藏罐模式正在失敗，即使以它自身的評判標準來看也是如此。諸如“高地上的生命之樹”這樣的項目預(yù)示著我們接下來有可能達成什么樣的目標。已建立了一個組織來試圖推進英國上下的土地和海域加快重歸鄉(xiāng)野進程，其目標在于將那個最為稀有的物種重新引入英國的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中來：希望。

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