2023-06-19 15:54:00来源：互联网
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科普英语在向社会大众普及科学技术知识，提高公众科学素养等方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。下面是七考网小编带来的英语的科普文章，欢迎阅读!
The World" s Cheapest Car: Nano
世界上最便宜的车：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.
用印度塔塔公司总裁拉丹·塔塔的话说，印度"普通人的车"是"安全、经济、所有天气都适合开"的家用汽车，而现在大部分家庭还在使用二轮车。基本款的售价是2500美元，相当于 10万卢比。这是一种改革性的价格，平均中下层收入每月只有 200美元。为了比较起见，在70年代初，本田推出 2200美元的经济款汽车，调整通货膨胀差值，折合成现在近10500美元。)它将会是所有最重要汽车中的一款。
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."
周四，此款车在万众期待的发行会上亮相。它可爱、小巧，有四个开门，车身两边有小轮子，看上去里面有不少空间。Nano的车篷下有足够的空间放公文包或小袋子。此车的引擎安装在后面，有两个汽缸，624毫升， 33马力，像老大众甲壳虫。速度计和其他器材安装在仪表板的中间，而不是直接在驾驶者面前，更容易(更便宜)同时提供左、右手的启动。这些年塔塔汽车公司开始向东南亚和非洲出口汽车。它拥有大约每小时60英里的最高速度。"人们可以发现，汽车公司可能是除了时尚业最情绪化的业务领域公司总裁拉丹·塔塔在发行会前一天受时代周刊采访时说。"有人会说这看起来像一个玩具，但如果你考虑到价值定位，我认为这款车是优秀的。"
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可以造福世界各地千百万的穷人，他们在发展中的世界营销手段中被称为"金字塔的底层勺，从两个轮子变成四个轮子。环保人士、城市规划者，甚至一些竞争对手，却批评说，印度道路已经够塞车的了， Nano出现后，塞车必定恶化，空气污染也会更严重。拉丹·塔塔强调，新型汽车符合印度的排放规定，甚至比欧洲4号更标准。
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."
塔塔公司称，这款车的排量比摩托车还低。塔塔公司称该车每跑50英里用一加仑汽油，或更节省每20公里用一升。这将是印度最省油的汽车。和阿尔·戈尔一同荣获诺贝尔和平奖的联合国首席气候学家拉金德拉·帕乔里说，他最近总是做关于低成本汽车的"噩梦"。在今天的揭幕仪式上拉丹·塔塔说"帕乔里博士不用做恶梦。对于我们来说这是一个里程碑，我希望我们能为国家作出贡献。"
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，印度的道路基础设施建设努力跟上汽车销量爆炸性增长的步伐，新型的塔塔汽车就不会增加国家的公路拥挤了吗?这是印度政府需要解决的问题，而不是 一名记者抱怨，早晨穿过德里城只有几英里的路程却花了一个小时。塔塔说:"如果我们的汽车使印度的交通完全混乱，我们当然会担心。""但如果今天堵车，其中并没有我们的车。那么无论有没有我们的车，问题都需要解决。"他认为"印度，不论是城市里和城市之间都需要集体运输系统。"但是贫穷的印度家庭理所当然和世界其他国家人一样享有权利。"他们应该被剥夺了独立运输的权利吗? "
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.
最后，塔塔公司希望一年销售一百万辆Nano。即使在它出售之前，它就已成为发展中世界一个新趋势的象征。创新的新品牌可以提高效率，西方公司可能会用昂贵的技术解决的问题，廉价的新品牌仍可以解决。
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团队负责人说，塔塔汽车公司已经申请了新型车34个不同的组件和功能的设计专利，但他未透漏具体细节。据报道，这款车在一些连接处使用超强力胶水而不是焊接，这是其他一些汽车制造商曾经用过的技术，但并没有广泛的应用。塔塔汽车公司苛刻的削减成本:挡风玻璃上只有一个雨刷，为节约钢材未设置金属转向柱，使用更便宜的轴承。拉丹·塔塔说，由于过去几年钢铁、橡胶和其他材料成本增加，但Nano的售价可能不会改变，塔塔公司承诺在印度"一万卢比"的价格将不变，因为"一诺千金"。
The Next World Factory
下一个世界工厂
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.
随便问一位北京出租车司机，困扰中国的问题是什么?他们都会毫不犹豫地叹口气答道:中国就是人太多了。
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.
但经济学家们却不同意这种观点。而且，随着中国人口总数达到拐点(新增劳动力数量可能于今年见顶)，这个世界工厂的劳动力市场将日益趋紧，中国势必将面临一个艰难的调整。
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.
面对这一转变，中国的邻邦印度希望自己能够从中获益。印度将在2025年超过中国，成为世界上人口最多的国家。今后的14年，印度的新增劳动力数量每年都将增长。
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.
但考虑到该国欠发达、超负荷运转的基础设施，以及受教育程度较低的年轻人，许多分析人士怀疑，印度是否真的有能力填补劳动力市场的缺口。
"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."
新德里经济研究机构Indicus Analytics的创始董事拉维什·班达里表示:"印度十有八九无法从中国劳动力增长减缓中受益，这不过是因为，印度还没有为建立像中国那样庞大的制造业做好准备。这里的基础设施有限且过于昂贵，人力资本基础也不够雄厚。"
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，中国的劳动力总数将开始下降。中国目前已显现出劳动力市场日益趋紧的征兆。今年夏季，要求加薪的工人们造成了一连串劳资纠纷和罢工事件，震撼了中国各地。
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.
这些动蔼促使人们就中国是否已进入"刘易斯拐点"展开了争论。这一概念是 以诺贝尔经济学奖得主阿瑟·刘易斯名字命名的，他认为，一旦某个发展中经济体的工业部门的劳动力需求彻底消化掉来自农业部门的剩余劳动力供应，该经济体的工资水平就将大幅上升。
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.
一些经济学家认为，中国在2004年就已进入这个拐点，当时珠江三角洲的制造业企业出现了劳动力短缺现象一一尽管在全球金融危机期间，当外界对中国出口的需求下滑之时，短缺压力暂时得到了缓解。
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，广州和东莞这两个制造业中心都上调了最低工资;许多企业则在工业园区内增加休闲活动、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，电子产品制造商富士康等企业还着手向内陆地区迁移，靠近劳动力的来掘地，希望借此能够更容易招到人。这进而又迫使当地工厂提高工资水平，以应对竞争。
"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.
澳大利亚国际经济中心高级经济学家蒋庭松表示:"人们一致认为，中国可能很快就将进入刘易斯拐点。这一共识基于人口增长的新动向以及独生子女政策。"
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.
预计未来几年里，一方面不断上涨的工资将迫使制造商退出低附加值行业;另一方面，中国工人在加薪后将扩大消费，在推动国内经济方面发挥更大的作用。
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.
摩根士丹利预计，到2020年，中国劳动力占国内生产总值的比重，将从目前的 15%上升到至少30%.，扭转过去十年里工资增长落后于经济增长的趋势。
"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.
"如果工资上涨，那么国民收入中家庭所占的比重肯定也会上升。这将是一个非常有益的过程，有助于经济恢复平衡理葛艺豪解释道。
Yet some economists fret that tightening labour supplies will lead to slower growth and higher inflation.
但一些经济学家担心，劳动力供应趋紧将导致经济增长减速和通胀抬头。
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.
蒋庭松估计，中国非熟练劳动力数量若减少5%，可能会造成GDP增速减少两个百分点。
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.
一些印度人从中国的劳动力困局中看到了机会。联合国估计，到2035年，印度人口将较2010年增长26%，从12亿人增至15亿人;同期劳动力数量将增长33%，达到近10亿人。
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.
届时，处在工作年龄段(15岁至59岁)的印度人将占到该国总人口的 6517毛左右，令该国成为全球最大的劳动力市场。
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，未来十年印度的劳动力数量将增加1.1亿人，成为对全球劳动力数量增长贡献最大的国家;未来十年印度的GDP增速可能由此增加四个百分点。
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.
但令许多印度商界高管、经济学家和政策制定者担心的是，印度经济是否能够消化如此众多渴望成功的工人——这些工人主要来自贫穷的乡下，很少或根本没有受过培训。印度每年有近1300万年轻人加入劳动力大军，但该国的职业培训体系每年只能培训310万人。许多印度年轻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."
班达里表示"我们没有多少真正受过足够多教育的人。我们的劳动力大多不适合从事中国人擅长的大规模制造业工作。
关于狮身人面像的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. 严格来说，吉萨的狮身人面像不是狮身人面像。
总之他并不是传统意义上的狮身人面像。虽然他受到埃及以及后期美索不达米亚神话的影响严重，但在古希腊人的描绘中，狮身人面像应该有着狮子的身体，女人的头，和鸟的翅膀。而吉萨的狮身人面像从外表上看是男性，严格来说，他是狮身人头像，而翅膀的缺失让他的分类更加模糊。
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. 建造雕像的劳动者吃的非常好。
大部分科学家最初以为建造狮身人面像的苦工们是奴隶，但是不然，领导挖掘的莱纳透露说，建造雕像的人通常分到顶级的牛肉、绵羊肉以及山羊肉这样的奢侈食物。
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. 狮身人面像曾经相当色彩丰富。
尽管他现在身处沙漠中与周围环境有着同样的浅褐色，并不显眼。但是狮身人面像也许曾全身覆盖着鲜艳的色彩。雕像的脸上可以找到残余的红色，而身体上也留有蓝色和黄色的痕迹。
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. 狮身人面像建好后被长时间地狂热崇拜
多亏了图特摩斯对狮身人面像的神秘构思，这座雕像以及它所代表的神开始在公元前14世纪大受欢迎。
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. 埃及狮身人面像比它在希腊的表亲要和善很多。
狮身人面像在现代暴政与欺诈的名声并非起源于埃及神话，而是希腊神话。在古希腊的传说中，她与俄狄浦斯的争论非常出名，俄狄浦斯来挑战她那无人可解的谜题。而在古埃及文化中，狮身人面像更为仁慈，尽管依旧是强大、神一般的人物。
