英語的科普文章

科普英語在向社會大衆普及科學技術知識，提高公衆科學素養等方面發揮着舉足輕重的作用。下面是本站小編帶來的英語的科普文章，歡迎閱讀!

The World' s Cheapest Car: Nano

世界上最便宜的車：Nano

In the words of Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Motors Limited, India's "People's Car" will be a safe, affordable, all weather vehicle for a family which is today traveling on a two wheeler. The entry level model is ticketed at just over $2，500-or the equivalent of 100，000 rupees or one Lakh -a revolutionary price where the average lower middle class income is $200 a month. (For comparison's sake, in the early 1970s, Honda introduced affordable, good quality Civics at about $2,200, which adjusted for inflation would now be nearly $10,500.) It could well be one of the most important cars ever designed.

用印度塔塔公司總裁拉丹·塔塔的話說，印度"普通人的車"是"安全、經濟、所有天氣都適合開"的家用汽車，而現在大部分家庭還在使用二輪車。基本款的售價是2500美元，相當於 10萬盧比。這是一種改革性的價格，平均中下層收入每月只有 200美元。爲了比較起見，在70年代初，本田推出 2200美元的經濟款汽車，調整通貨膨脹差值，摺合成現在近10500美元。)它將會是所有最重要汽車中的一款。

The car emerged at a much -anticipated launch on Thursday: a cute, short thing, with four doors, tiny wheels placed out at the far corners of the body and what looked like plenty of room inside. The Nano has just enough space for a briefcase or small bag under the hood. The engine -all two cylinders, 624cc and 33 horsepower of it . is in the back, just like the Volkswagen Beetle of old. The speedometer and other instruments cluster in a central pod in the middle of the dashboard rather than directly in front of the driver, the easier (and cheaper) to offer both leFT-and right-hand versions when Tata Motors starts exporting the car to Southeast Asia and Africa in a couple of years. It has a top speed of about 60 miles per hour. "Car companies are in probably the most emotive business area that one can find apart from fashion ," company chairman Ratan Tata told TIME a day before the big launch. "There will be people who say it looks like a toy, but if you consider the value proposition 1think the car is great."

週四，此款車在萬衆期待的發行會上亮相。它可愛、小巧，有四個開門，車身兩邊有小輪子，看上去裏面有不少空間。Nano的車篷下有足夠的空間放公文包或小袋子。此車的引擎安裝在後面，有兩個汽缸，624毫升， 33馬力，像老大衆甲殼蟲。速度計和其他器材安裝在儀表板的中間，而不是直接在駕駛者面前，更容易(更便宜)同時提供左、右手的啓動。這些年塔塔汽車公司開始向東南亞和非洲出口汽車。它擁有大約每小時60英里的最高速度。"人們可以發現，汽車公司可能是除了時尚業最情緒化的業務領域公司總裁拉丹·塔塔在發行會前一天受時代週刊採訪時說。"有人會說這看起來像一個玩具，但如果你考慮到價值定位，我認爲這款車是優秀的。"

Tata hopes the Nano will help millions of poor people around the world -the "Bottom of the pyramid" in developing world marketing-speak -switch from two wheels to four. Environmentalists, city planners and even some competitors, on the other hand, warn that the new vehicle will clog up India's crowded roads and add clouds of pollution to its already filthy air.

塔塔希望Nano可以造福世界各地千百萬的窮人，他們在發展中的世界營銷手段中被稱爲"金字塔的底層勺，從兩個輪子變成四個輪子。環保人士、城市規劃者，甚至一些競爭對手，卻批評說，印度道路已經夠塞車的了， Nano出現後，塞車必定惡化，空氣污染也會更嚴重。拉丹·塔塔強調，新型汽車符合印度的排放規定，甚至比歐洲4號更標準。

Ratan Tata emphasized that the new car complies with India's emissions laws and even with Europe's much stronger Euro 4 standards. Emissions, Tata says, are "lower than a scooter's today". The company claims the car will also deliver 50 miles per gallon, or better than 20 kilometers per liter, which would make it one of India' s most efticient vehicles, and vastly more efticient than the average in the U.S. Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with AI Gore, said recently that he was "having nightmares" about the low-cost car. "Or. Pachauri need not have nightmares," said Ratan Tata at today's unveiling. "For us it's a milestone and I hope we can make a contribution to the country."

塔塔公司稱，這款車的排量比摩托車還低。塔塔公司稱該車每跑50英里用一加侖汽油，或更節省每20公里用一升。這將是印度最省油的汽車。和阿爾·戈爾一同榮獲諾貝爾和平獎的聯合國首席氣候學家拉金德拉·帕喬裏說，他最近總是做關於低成本汽車的"噩夢"。在今天的揭幕儀式上拉丹·塔塔說"帕喬裏博士不用做惡夢。對於我們來說這是一個里程碑，我希望我們能爲國家作出貢獻。"

But with India's road infrastructure struggling to keep up with explosive growth in car sales, won't the new Tata just add to the country's road hassles? That's a problem the Indian government has to deal with, not manufacturers, Tata said. "We' d certainly be concerned if our vehicle created absolute chaos' all across India," he told one questioner who complained that his morning journey of a few miles across Delhi took over an hour. "But if you had chaos today and it did not include our vehicles, then I would suggest the problem has to do with something else besides the presence or absence of our vehicles." India, he agreed, "does desperately need mass transit systems... both within cities and between cities." But poor Indian families also have a right to what millions take for granted elsewhere in the world. "Should they be denied the right to independent transport?"

但是，印度的道路基礎設施建設努力跟上汽車銷量爆炸性增長的步伐，新型的塔塔汽車就不會增加國家的公路擁擠了嗎?這是印度政府需要解決的問題，而不是 一名記者抱怨，早晨穿過德里城只有幾英里的路程卻花了一個小時。塔塔說:"如果我們的汽車使印度的交通完全混亂，我們當然會擔心。""但如果今天堵車，其中並沒有我們的車。那麼無論有沒有我們的車，問題都需要解決。"他認爲"印度，不論是城市裏和城市之間都需要集體運輸系統。"但是貧窮的印度家庭理所當然和世界其他國家人一樣享有權利。"他們應該被剝奪了獨立運輸的權利嗎? "

Eventually, Tata Motors hopes to sell a million Nanos a year. Even before it goes on sale, though, it has become an important symbol of an emerging trend in the developing world, a new brand of innovation that makes more out of less and engineers clever but cheap fixes to problems that Western companies might throw expensive technology at.

最後，塔塔公司希望一年銷售一百萬輛Nano。即使在它出售之前，它就已成爲發展中世界一個新趨勢的象徵。創新的新品牌可以提高效率，西方公司可能會用昂貴的技術解決的問題，廉價的新品牌仍可以解決。

The head of the Nano team says Tata Motors has applied for 34 patents on various components and design features on the new car, though he was short on specifics. The car reportedly uses super strong glue rather than welds in some joints -a technique that a handful of other car makers have used before, though perhaps never as extensively. Tata Motors' cost-cutting drive was relentless: the steel, rubber and other inputs in the past few years, it's possible that the entry level Nano might not break even, though Tata made a point of saying the "one lakh" price tag in India will stay because "a promise is a promise". Ratan Tata said.

Nano團隊負責人說，塔塔汽車公司已經申請了新型車34個不同的組件和功能的設計專利，但他未透漏具體細節。據報道，這款車在一些連接處使用超強力膠水而不是焊接，這是其他一些汽車製造商曾經用過的技術，但並沒有廣泛的應用。塔塔汽車公司苛刻的削減成本:擋風玻璃上只有一個雨刷，爲節約鋼材未設置金屬轉向柱，使用更便宜的軸承。拉丹·塔塔說，由於過去幾年鋼鐵、橡膠和其他材料成本增加，但Nano的售價可能不會改變，塔塔公司承諾在印度"一萬盧比"的價格將不變，因爲"一諾千金"。

The Next World Factory

下一個世界工廠

Ask any cab driver in Beijing, and they can tell you without hesitation what ails their country: China just has too many people, they will say with a Sigh.

隨便問一位北京出租車司機，困擾中國的問題是什麼?他們都會毫不猶豫地嘆口氣答道:中國就是人太多了。

But economists disagree, and as the population reaches a turning point- the number of entrants to the workforce may peak this year the country is set for a difficult adjustment, with growing labour market pressures bearing on the workshop of the world.

但經濟學家們卻不同意這種觀點。而且，隨着中國人口總數達到拐點(新增勞動力數量可能於今年見頂)，這個世界工廠的勞動力市場將日益趨緊，中國勢必將面臨一個艱難的調整。

That is a transition that China's neighbour, India set

to overtake it as the world's most populous nation in 2025 hopes to capitalise on, as entrants to its labour market will rise annually for the next 14 years.

面對這一轉變，中國的鄰邦印度希望自己能夠從中獲益。印度將在2025年超過中國，成爲世界上人口最多的國家。今後的14年，印度的新增勞動力數量每年都將增長。

But many analysts are questioning whether India with its overstretched, underdeveloped infrastructure and its poorly educated youth really has the capacity to take up the slack.

但考慮到該國欠發達、超負荷運轉的基礎設施，以及受教育程度較低的年輕人，許多分析人士懷疑，印度是否真的有能力填補勞動力市場的缺口。

"In all likelihood, India will not be able to benefit from this reduction in the growth of China's labour force, simply because India is not ready to have a manufacturing sector as large as China's," says Laveesh Bhandari, founding director of Indicus Analytics the New Delhi -based economics research house. "Infrastructure is limited and too expensive, and the human capital base is not deep enough."

新德里經濟研究機構Indicus Analytics的創始董事拉維什·班達裏表示:"印度十有八九無法從中國勞動力增長減緩中受益，這不過是因爲，印度還沒有爲建立像中國那樣龐大的製造業做好準備。這裏的基礎設施有限且過於昂貴，人力資本基礎也不夠雄厚。"

China, where the total workforce is due to start falling by about 2016, is already showing symptoms of a tightening labour market, with the country rocked this summer by a spate of labour disputes and strikes, by staff demanding higher wages.

到2016年左右，中國的勞動力總數將開始下降。中國目前已顯現出勞動力市場日益趨緊的徵兆。今年夏季，要求加薪的工人們造成了一連串勞資糾紛和罷工事件，震撼了中國各地。

The unrest has fuelled debate about whether China has reached its "Lewis turning point", named after Nobel laureate Arthur Lewis, who theorised that a developing economy's wages will rise sharply once labour demand from industry has exhausted available surplus' labour from the agricultural sector.

這些動藹促使人們就中國是否已進入"劉易斯拐點"展開了爭論。這一概念是 以諾貝爾經濟學獎得主阿瑟·劉易斯名字命名的，他認爲，一旦某個發展中經濟體的工業部門的勞動力需求徹底消化掉來自農業部門的剩餘勞動力供應，該經濟體的工資水平就將大幅上升。

Some economists believe that China reached this tipping point in 2004. when manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta reported labour shortages although pressures eased temporarily during the global financial crisis when demand for Chinese exports fell.

一些經濟學家認爲，中國在2004年就已進入這個拐點，當時珠江三角洲的製造業企業出現了勞動力短缺現象一一儘管在全球金融危機期間，當外界對中國出口的需求下滑之時，短缺壓力暫時得到了緩解。

But this year, the manufacturing hubs of Guangzhou and Dongguan have both raised their minimum wages, and many companies are expanding leisure activities and improving food at their factory compounds in order to boost worker retention.

但今年，廣州和東莞這兩個製造業中心都上調了最低工資;許多企業則在工業園區內增加休閒活動、改善伙食，以降低工人流失率。

Companies such as Foxconn, the electronics maker, have also begun moving inland closer to the areas where their workers hail from hoping to make it easier to gain new recruits, and thereby forcing local factories to raise their wages to compete.

此外，電子產品製造商富士康等企業還着手向內陸地區遷移，靠近勞動力的來掘地，希望藉此能夠更容易招到人。這進而又迫使當地工廠提高工資水平，以應對競爭。

"The consensus is that China is probably approaching the Lewis turning point soon, based on recent developments in population growth and also the one-child policy," says Jiang Tingsong, senior economist at the Centre for International Economics in Australia.

澳大利亞國際經濟中心高級經濟學家蔣庭鬆表示:"人們一致認爲，中國可能很快就將進入劉易斯拐點。這一共識基於人口增長的新動向以及獨生子女政策。"

Rising wages in the coming years are expected to drive manufacturers away from low-value-added sectors, while rising consumption by better-paid Chinese workers will play a bigger role in propelling the domestic economy.

預計未來幾年裏，一方面不斷上漲的工資將迫使製造商退出低附加值行業;另一方面，中國工人在加薪後將擴大消費，在推動國內經濟方面發揮更大的作用。

Morgan Stanley has projected that Chinese labour's share of gross domestic product would rise from its current level of 15 per cent to at least 30 per cent by 2020, reversing the trend of the past decade, in which wage growth has trailed economic expansion.

摩根士丹利預計，到2020年，中國勞動力佔國內生產總值的比重，將從目前的 15%上升到至少30%.，扭轉過去十年裏工資增長落後於經濟增長的趨勢。

"If wages rise, then the household share of national income must rise. That would be a very beneficial process and that would aid the economic re-balancing," explains Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Dragonomics, an independent research and advisory firm.

"如果工資上漲，那麼國民收入中家庭所佔的比重肯定也會上升。這將是一個非常有益的過程，有助於經濟恢復平衡理葛藝豪解釋道。

Yet some economists fret that tightening labour supplies will lead to slower growth and higher inflation.

但一些經濟學家擔心，勞動力供應趨緊將導致經濟增長減速和通脹擡頭。

Mr Jiang estimates that a 5 per cent reduction in the size of China's unskilled labour force could result in a 2 per cent slowdown in GDP.

蔣庭鬆估計，中國非熟練勞動力數量若減少5%，可能會造成GDP增速減少兩個百分點。

In China's labour headaches, some Indians see opportunity. The UN estimates that India's population will rise by 26 per cent from 1.2bn in 2010 to 1.5bn in 2035, while its labour force will rise by 33 per cent to nearly 1 bn.

一些印度人從中國的勞動力困局中看到了機會。聯合國估計，到2035年，印度人口將較2010年增長26%，從12億人增至15億人;同期勞動力數量將增長33%，達到近10億人。

By then, Indians of working age 15 to 59 will account for about 65 per cent of the population, making India the world's largest labour market.

屆時，處在工作年齡段(15歲至59歲)的印度人將佔到該國總人口的 6517毛左右，令該國成爲全球最大的勞動力市場。

Goldman Sachs says that India's labour force will grow by 110m people over the next 10 years, the largest addition to the global labour force, which could potentially add 4 percentage points to GDP growth over the next decade.

高盛表示，未來十年印度的勞動力數量將增加1.1億人，成爲對全球勞動力數量增長貢獻最大的國家;未來十年印度的GDP增速可能由此增加四個百分點。

But what worries many Indian business executives, economists and policymakers is whether the country's economy can absorb the masses of aspiring workers, mainly from poor rural areas and with little or no training. While nearly 13m young Indians are entering the workforce every year, India's vocational training system has the capacity to train just 3.1 m a year. Many young people lack even rudimentary' skills.

但令許多印度商界高管、經濟學家和政策制定者擔心的是，印度經濟是否能夠消化如此衆多渴望成功的工人——這些工人主要來自貧窮的鄉下，很少或根本沒有受過培訓。印度每年有近1300萬年輕人加入勞動力大軍，但該國的職業培訓體系每年只能培訓310萬人。許多印度年輕人甚至缺乏最基本的技能。

"We do not have people who are actually functionally literate," says Mr Bhandari. "Most of our labour force is inappropriate for the mass manufacturing practices that China has excelled at."

班達裏表示"我們沒有多少真正受過足夠多教育的人。我們的勞動力大多不適合從事中國人擅長的大規模製造業工作。

關於獅身人面像的5件事

1. TECHNICALLY, THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA IS NOT A SPHINX.

Not a traditional sphinx, anyway. Although heavily influenced by Egyptian and later Mesopotamian mythology, the classical Greek depiction of the Sphinx consists of the body of a lion, the head of a woman, and the wings of a bird. Giza’s male-identifying landmark is, technically, an androsphinx. The lack of wings further muddles its accepted taxonomy.

1. 嚴格來說，吉薩的獅身人面像不是獅身人面像。

總之他並不是傳統意義上的獅身人面像。雖然他受到埃及以及後期美索不達米亞神話的影響嚴重，但在古希臘人的描繪中，獅身人面像應該有着獅子的身體，女人的頭，和鳥的翅膀。而吉薩的獅身人面像從外表上看是男性，嚴格來說，他是獅身人頭像，而翅膀的缺失讓他的分類更加模糊。

2. LABORERS WHO CONSTRUCTED THE STATUE ATE LIKE KINGS.

Most scientists’ initial assumption was that the men who toiled to bring the Sphinx to life belonged to an enslaved caste. Their diets would suggest otherwise, however; excavations led by Lehner revealed that the statue’s laborers regularly dined on luxurious cuts of prime beef, sheep, and goat meat.

2. 建造雕像的勞動者吃的非常好。

大部分科學家最初以爲建造獅身人面像的苦工們是奴隸，但是不然，領導挖掘的萊納透露說，建造雕像的人通常分到頂級的牛肉、綿羊肉以及山羊肉這樣的奢侈食物。

3. THE SPHINX WAS ONCE RATHER COLORFUL.

Though it is now indistinct from the drab tan of its sandy surroundings, the Sphinx may at one time have been completely covered in vivid paint. Remnants of red can be found on the statue’s face, while hints of blue and yellow remain on the body.

3. 獅身人面像曾經相當色彩豐富。

儘管他現在身處沙漠中與周圍環境有着同樣的淺褐色，並不顯眼。但是獅身人面像也許曾全身覆蓋着鮮豔的色彩。雕像的臉上可以找到殘餘的紅色，而身體上也留有藍色和黃色的痕跡。

4. A CULT VENERATED THE SPHINX LONG AFTER IT WAS BUILT.

Thanks to Thutmose’s mystical vision at the Sphinx, the sculpture and its represented mythological deity began to win new popularity during the 14th century BCE.

4. 獅身人面像建好後被長時間地狂熱崇拜

多虧了圖特摩斯對獅身人面像的神祕構思，這座雕像以及它所代表的神開始在公元前14世紀大受歡迎。

5. THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX IS MUCH KINDER THAN ITS GREEK COUSIN.

The Sphinx’s modern reputation for tyranny and trickery spawns not from Egyptian mythology, but Greek. The creature’s most famous appearance in Ancient Greek lore came from her run-in with Oedipus, whom she challenged with her allegedly unsolvable riddle. Ancient Egyptian culture valued its Sphinx as a much more benevolent, albeit no less powerful, godlike figure.

5. 埃及獅身人面像比它在希臘的表親要和善很多。

獅身人面像在現代暴政與欺詐的名聲並非起源於埃及神話，而是希臘神話。在古希臘的傳說中，她與俄狄浦斯的爭論非常出名，俄狄浦斯來挑戰她那無人可解的謎題。而在古埃及文化中，獅身人面像更爲仁慈，儘管依舊是強大、神一般的人物。

猜你喜歡：

1.一生必讀英文經典美文

2.英文文章帶翻譯

3.經典優美英文文章

4.關於優秀英語文章帶翻譯

5.英語美文朗讀