大学英语四册test1passage two翻译参考.docVIP

Do animals have rights? Do trees? Do humans have an obligation to behave ethically (合乎道德地) to rivers? To rocks? Viruses? The entire planet? 动物有自己的权利吗？树有自己的权利吗？ 人类有责任义务尊重江河， 岩石，病毒，以及整个地球万物吗？ As this century draws to a close, these are not merely questions for abstract philosophical debate but, as Roderick Frazier Nash points out in The Rights of Nature, issues of intense interest to theologians (神学家), lawyers, legislators and even scientists. Radical environmentalists are already demanding that legal and ethical protection be extended to all of nature, and a few of them have demonstrated a willingness to fight, break the law and even die in support of this belief. 随着这个世纪即将结束，这不只是抽象的哲学辩论的问题，而是如纳什在“大自然权利”中指出的神学家、律师、立法者，甚至科学家都有强烈兴趣的议题。 激进的环保主义人士已经要求将法律和伦理的保护延伸到整个自然界，他们其中一部份人士已经向我们证明了愿意为了支持这种信念去抵抗和违反法律，甚至可以为此去牺牲的意志。 As described by Nash, the circle covered by the ethical rules governing individual and social behavior has expanded slowly and irregularly throughout history. Starting by granting rights to themselves, humans gradually enlarged the circle to include the family, the tribe, the nation and, in theory if not in practice, the entire community of human beings. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that all men were created equal and entitled to certain unalienable (不可剥夺的) rights, it was understood he was talking only about white males. Since the American Revolution, however, the right to ethical treatment has been extended, at least by law and social consensus, to include women and ethnic (民族的) minorities 正如纳什所描述的，纵观整个历史，规范个人和社会行为的道德准则所涵盖的圈子延伸（扩展）地缓慢而且无规律可循。从授予自己权力开始，人类逐渐地扩大圈子至家庭、民族、国家以及就算不是实际最起码在理论上包括整个人类社会。托马斯杰斐逊曾写道人人生而平等并且被赋予某些不可剥夺的权利，他所谈论的被解读为只包括白种族的男性。然而，因为美国独立战争的爆发，人道对待的权力范围被扩大了，至少在法律和社会共识方面囊括了女性和少数民族。 The next page in this history - the extension of ethical and legal rights to animals, plants, and the rest of the natural world - is now being written, Nash believes. For a growing number of people throughout the world but particularly in the United States, the belief i