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biosphere's productive capacity. At this level of ecological deficit, exhaustion of ecological assets and large-scale ecosystem collapse will become real.
Moving towards sustainability depends on significant action now. Population size changes slowly, and human-made capital --- homes, cars, roads, factories, or power plants --- can last for many decades. This implies that policy and investment decisions made today will continue to determine our resource demand throughout much of the 21st century.
【课文参考译文】
在我们这个星球上居住的人越来越多，是一个很重要的全球问题。如果继续按照现有的增长率发展下去，那么有限的土地及土地资源很快不能养活这么巨大的人口。
那么为什么会出现人口的大量增长呢？这的确是因为知识的广泛传播和众所周知的“死亡控制”的结果。毫无疑问，你肯定听到过“生育控制”这个术语。“死亡控制”是大不相同的。它承认了医生和科学家的工作，现在他们能够留住那些患有各种各样绝症的病人的生命。而这些绝症在不久之前还是不可治愈的。通过大范围的技术创新，其中包括耕作方法和对绝症的控制，我们已经找到降低死亡率的方法。然而，正是这项成功给人类带来最大的威胁。
如果计算一下维持不断增长的人口所需的土地量，我们就能
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意识到这个问题。如果这个星球上的每个人都平均分一块土地，我们每个人会拥有五万平方米。这个数字看似相当振奋人心，而当我们计算一下每个人的实际可用耕地之后，就知道情况不太乐观了。因为世界上超过3/5的土地都不能生产粮食。
显然，能够养活我们的耕地如此之少，我们就应该想方设法不要让耕地继续减少下去。但是，我们并没有这样做！反而我们正在消耗它的“本钱”——其不可再生的化石燃料与其它矿藏，它们是在几百万年的时间里才形成的，然而现在，几十年内就会被消耗殆尽。我们对待其它通常不被看做是不可再生的重要自然资源也是如此，譬如肥沃的土地、地下水和千百万与我们共同居住在地球上的物种。 【参考答案】 阅读理解
1. It continues to increase / grow at its present rate. 2. Death Control
3. They keep people who suffer from incurable diseases alive.
4. Because the world's land has already been taken up / occupied by the ever-increasing population. 5. non-renewable 【练习参考答案】 A．汉译英
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培训：中石油、中石化职称英语考试
1. Asia makes up twenty-nine per cent of the world's land area.
2. The increasing population makes it necessary for the earth to produce more grain.
3. We should conduct a sampling investigation before we write the report.
4. I admit that due to lack of experience I have made mistakes of all kinds.
5. The development of modern industry and commodity economy in China has promoted occupational (mobility) and population mobility. B．英译汉
一份以联合国所作的经济和人口缓慢增长的预期为基础的报告显示，到本世纪中叶，人类对自然界的需求将达到生态圈自身生产能力的两倍。在这样的生态“赤字”水平下，生态资源的枯竭和大规模的生态系统崩溃将会成为事实。
向可持续发展的转变取决于现在所采取的重大行动。人口数量变化缓慢，而人类创造的资本，如住宅、汽车、道路、工厂或发电站等会持续几十年。这意味着，今天所作的政策和投资决策将决定我们在21世纪的大部分时间里对资源的持续需求。
UNIT 4 Earthquake地震
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Read the text. Answer the given questions and translate the underlined sentences or paragraphs into Chinese.
Earthquakes may be ranked as one of the most devastating force known to men; since records began to be written down, it has been estimated that earthquake-related fatalities have numbered in millions and that earthquake-related destruction has been beyond calculation. The greater part of such damage and loss of life has been due to collapse of buildings and effects of rock slides, floods, fire, disease and other phenomena resulting from earthquakes, rather than from the quakes themselves.
The great majority of all earthquakes occur in two specific geographic areas. One such area encompasses the Pacific Ocean and its contiguous land masses. The other extends from the East Indians to the Atlas Mountains, including the Himalayas, Iran, Turkey and the Alpine regions. They may happen anywhere at any time. This element of the unknown has for centuries added greatly to the dread and horror surrounding earthquakes, but in recent times there have been indications that earthquake prediction may be possible. By analyzing changes in animal behavior, pattems of movements in the earth's crust, variations in the force of gravity and the earth's magnetic field and the frequency with which minor earth tremors are observed, scientists have shown increasing success
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培训：中石油、中石化职称英语考试
in anticipating when and where earthquakes will strike. As a result, worldwide earthquake warning network is already in operation and has helped to prepare for the vast destruction that might otherwise have been totally unexpected.
It is doubtful that man will ever be able to control earthquakes and eliminate their destructiveness altogether, but as how and why earthquakes happen become better understood, man will become more and more able to deal with their potential devastation before it occurs.
1. What are the causes of the great part ofthe damage and loss of life?
2. Where are the two most active earthquake belts in the world? 3. What fact does ―element of the unknown\in paragraph 3 refer to?
4. What four ways are used to anticipate earthquake activity? 5. What is the author's attitude toward the possibility of earthquake predictions? Exercises
A. Translate the following sentences into English.
1．会议的准备工作正在顺利地进行着。
2．科技发展在解决老问题的同时也带来了一些新问题。 3. 1976年唐山大地震是历史上最严重的自然灾害之一。
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