考研英语_1998_阅读及翻译.docxVIP

1998 Passage 1Few creations of big technology capture theimaginationlike giant dams. Perhaps it is humankinds long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal 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.在重大技术所创造的东西中很少能像大型水坝这样让人痴迷的。可能正是因为人类长期遭受洪水和干旱灾害的摆布才迫使人们治理江河、供我驱策的理想如此令人痴迷。但让人着迷有时也就使人盲目。有几个巨型大坝项目就有弊大于利的危险。The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesnt help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypts leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkeys bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.建造大坝的教训是：大的未必总是美的。但这个教训也无法阻止修建高大雄伟的大坝已成为那些力争得到自我肯定的国家和人民的伟大成就的象征。埃及由于建造了阿斯旺大坝而巩固了在阿拉伯世界的领导地位。土耳其在力争第一世界的努力中也包括修建阿塔特克大坝。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.但大坝不会像预期的那样产生效果。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土壤，换回来的是这么一个疾病滋生的水库。现在这个水库积满了淤泥，几乎不能发电了。And yet, the myth of controlling the waterspersists.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.不过，控制水的神话还在继续。本周，在文明的欧洲腹地，斯洛伐克人和匈牙利人就为了多瑙河上的一处水坝引起争端，差点动用了军队。这个大型工程可能会出现大坝上所有的常见问题。但斯洛伐克正在要求脱离捷克而独立，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 thego-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruct