导读:剑桥雅思系列真题是剑桥大学考试委员会外语考试部出版各类考试真题的唯一官方出版社出版的权威教材,书中包含最新的雅思全真试题资料,是各类雅思考生备考过程中必不可少的参考书。非常适合学生自学的习题解答和听力录音文本。TEST1PASSAGE1参考译文:AUSTRALIA’SSPORTINGSUCCESS澳大利亚的体育成就
剑桥雅思系列真题是剑桥大学考试委员会外语考试部出版各类考试真题的唯一官方出版社出版的权威教材,书中包含最新的雅思全真试题资料,是各类雅思考生备考过程中必不可少的参考书。非常适合学生自学的习题解答和听力录音文本。
TEST 1 PASSAGE 1参考译文:
AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS
澳大利亚的体育成就
A They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.
A他们努力竞争,他们积极参与,他们参加比赛完全为了取胜。澳大利亚体育劲旅轻松击败对手,取得辉煌战绩。他们何以做到这一点?成功的秘密在于一个由体育学院和科研机构组成的网络,该网络以科学与医学为基础,涉及面广且耗资巨大。在澳大利亚体育学院(AIS)里,数百名青年选手与职业运动员在教练的指导下共同生活和训练。另一家机构——澳大利亚体育运动委员会(ASC),则为总计96项体育运动中项目的数千名表现突出的男女运动员提供资助。上述两家机构均提供强化训练、训练设备和营养咨询服务。
B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one — such as building muscle strength in golfers — to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.
B 科学在体育科研机构中的地位举足轻重。AIS不仅雇用了上百名在体育方面深有研究的科学家和医生,还与大学及研究中心的几十名专家学者致力合作。AIS的科学家们同时研究多个体育项目,并将一个项目中的研究成果跨界应用,例如将增强髙尔夫球运动员肌肉力量的训练方法应用于游泳和壁球中。科学家们也得到了那些设计专用仪器来收集运动员资料的技术人员们的强大支持。他们都只关注一个目标:胜利。AIS的科研主管彼得?弗里克说:“我们不能在不切实际的科学问题上浪费时间,它们既无法协助教练指导运动员,也无法提高运动员本身的能力。”
C A lot of their work comes down to measurement — everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (Swimming Analysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be analysed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.
C 专家们的许多工作都涉及具体测量,测量内容包括从游泳运动员潜水的精确角度到自行车运动员每秒功率输出的所有数据。这些资料将有助于运动员发挥最大的潜力来提高运动能力。工作核心是以人为本,其目的在于促使运动员发挥最大潜力来提高哪怕是百分之一秒的速度或者是一毫米的成绩。无论多么微小的收获都值得为之努力。正是这些跬步的积累,才使得澳大利亚取得举世瞩目的体育成就。为了说明系统运作的原理,AIS的科学家布鲁斯?梅森展示了为研究游泳运动员而设计的三维分析工具模型。只见一个游泳冠军获得者的线框模型划开水面,她的双臂以慢动作的形式划动。侧面观察,梅森可以测量每次划动中运动员前进的距离。俯视观察,他可以分析这位运动员的脊柱是怎样转动的。该系统设计完成后,他将能够为教练们建立生物力学的模型,协助培养游泳运动员。梅森对体育事业的贡献还包括游泳运动分析系统(SWAN)的开发,该系统现在正广泛应用于澳大利亚各项全国赛事之中。系统采用摄影频率为50格/秒的数 码相机收集影像,然后将游泳运动员的每个动作都分解成可分析的因素.例如划距、划频、每个划水动作 的平均持续时间、速率、出发时间、往返时间和结束时间等等。每次比赛结束后,SWAN都会给出每名运动员的数据资料。
D ‘Take a look,’ says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says Mason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better.’ This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports. With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run. There’s more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.
D“请看,”梅森一边说一边抽出一张数据资料分析表。他指出获得第二名和第三名运动员的资料,数据证明游的最快的人其实是获得第三名的选手。那么,为什么他会以0. 35秒之差落后呢?梅森解释说:“他转身所需的时间比另一名选手长0.44秒、如果能够提高转身的技能,他的成绩将会大大提高。”AIS科学家们的研究将这种精确性带到各种体育项目之中。他们正与位于墨尔本的微技术合作研究中心合作,共同开发可嵌人运动员衣服或跑鞋里的微型传感器,用以监控心律、出汗情况、发热量以及其他一切可能对运动员赛跑能力造成影响的因素。这不仅仅是简单地测评运动员们的表现。弗里克举了个每年都会因感冒咳嗽而病倒十一二次的运动员的例子来说明了这一点。经过多年试验,AIS与新南威尔士州的纽卡斯尔大学合作研发出一种测试,以测量运动员唾液中免疫球蛋白A的含量如果免疫球蛋白A的含量突然降到某一水平之下,训练就会减弱强度或完全停止。不久,免疫球蛋白A水平开始回升,危险也最终消除。自推行该测试以来,AIS所有体育项目的运动员们都非常成功地保持着良好的健康状态。
E Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model’, based on what they expect will be the winning times.’ You design the model to make that time,’ says Mason.’ A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.’ All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.
E 数据资料的分析与应用十分复杂。在锦标赛开始之前,体育科学家和教练们就早早着手训练运动员, 为比赛做好准备。基于预期中将能夺冠的速度,他们力图使运动员进入“竞赛模式”。梅森说:“人们设计一种模式以达到预期的速度,该模式规定了出发时间的长短、每次划水的速率、一定的划频和划距、转身所需的时间等等。”因此,无论是针对比赛整体还是其每个组成部分,所有的训练都是为了使运动员达到这些目标。诸如此类的先进科技已使澳大利亚成为了一个当之无愧的世界体育强国。
F Of course, there’s nothing to stop other countries copying — and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists’ and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the ‘altitude tent’, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.
F 当然,许多国家都曾尝试着模仿,这是无法避免的。十几年前,AIS为进行耐力讲练的运动员设计出一款流线型散热运动服。在1996年举办的亚特兰大奥运会上,该运动服为自行车运动员和划艇选手们减少了2%的比赛时间。现在,所有的选手都在使用这种新型运动服。“高原帐篷”也是如此,这是AIS为了模仿在海平面髙度地点的训练效果而设计研发的。然而,澳大利亚的成功故事绝不仅仅是些可以机械复制的技术方案,这也是为何时至今日也没有任何国家能够效仿其包罗万象的训练系统。
TEST 1 PASSAGE 2 参考译文:
DELIVERING THE GOODS
The vast expansion in international trade owes much to a revolution in the business of moving freight
货物运输
国际贸易规模的巨大扩张应当归功于货运业的变革
A International trade is growing at a startling pace. While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3% a year, the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that. Foreign products, from meat to machinery, play a more important role in almost every economy in the world, and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation’s borders.
A 国际贸易正以惊人的速度不断发展。世界经济的年均增长率略高于3%,而贸易额的年均复合增长率则高达此数字的近两倍。外国产品几乎在各国经济中都扮演着愈加重要的角色,产品范围广及肉类制品到机械设备。国外市场也正在吸引着那些从来不曾关心其商品在国外销路的企业。
B What lies behind this explosion in international commerce? The general worldwide decline in trade barriers, such as customs duties and import quotas, is surely one explanation. The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another. But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed: the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market. Theoretically, in the world of trade, shipping costs do not matter. Goods, once they have been made, are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place. The real world, however, is full of frictions. Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America, but if delays in shipment tie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring, trade may lose its advantages.
B 国际贸易飞速发展的原因是什么呢?当然,其原因之一是贸易壁垒在全世界范围的普遍减少,比如关税的减免和进口配额的淡出。另一原因是为传统意义上贸易小国的经济开放。然而,在进出口贸易兴旺繁荣的背后,有一种力量一直被人们所忽视,那就是将货物运往市场所需费用的迅速下降。从理论上讲,运输费用在贸易往来中并不重要。人们认为,货物在制成成品之后就可以无需任何花费运往各地。但是,现实世界充满了矛盾。廉价劳动力可能使中国的纺织品在美国市场上极具竞争力,而一旦货运的延迟占用了流动资金,并导致冬大衣直至来春天才运达目的地,那么这笔交易将会失去其竞争优势。
C At the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere, accounting for about 70% of total output in Germany, Italy and France, and 40-50% in America, Britain and Japan. International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials, such as wheat, wood and iron ore, or processed commodities, such as meat and steel. But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.
C 在世纪之交,农业和制造业几乎曾是世界各地最重要的两大行业,其比重占德国、意大利和法国总产量的约70%,占美国、英国和日本总产量的40%~50%。因此,国际贸易以小麦、木材和铁矿石等为代表的原材料或者以肉类和钢铁等为代表的加工品为主。但这些商品重、体积大,从而运输费用也相对较髙。
D Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours. Over time, however, world output has shifted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight. Today, it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade, and, thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components, manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky. As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar’s worth of imports or exports.
D 至今为止,各国仍然将重点放在与邻国的贸易往来上。然而随着时间的推移,全世界范围的商品生产已经转向其价值与其尺寸、重量并不相关的商品。现今,制成品已在贸易往来中占据主体地位,而且像轻量级组件等科技进步成果使制成品变得愈加轻便、小巧。因此,进出口商品所需的运费也相应有所降低。
E To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world’s disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small and light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market. Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.
E为了理解运费降低对于贸易的影响,让我们看看计算机磁盘驱动器的生产制造业。全世界大多数的磁盘驱动器制造业都集中在东南亚地区。磁盘驱动器价格昂贵(价值高)。但正是由于其重量轻、体积小而运输花费低,才使得制造业的集中成为可能。即使从新加坡进口磁盘驱动器而不是在国内市场购买,日本或美国得克萨斯州的计算机制造商们也不会面对花费高出很多的运费账单。因此,距离已不再是磁盘驱动器制造业的全球化进程的障碍。
F This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. Computer software can be ‘exported’ without ever loading it onto a ship, simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another, so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. Businesses can locate based on other considerations, such as the availability of labour, while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.
F在飞速发展的信息产业更是如此。即便用飞机运输,胶片和光盘也只需极低的运费。计算机软件的“出口”甚至不需要装运,仅仅通过电话线就可以在各国之间传输。因此,在选定制造地点时,货运费用和货物装卸表已成为无关紧要的因素。企业在选址时可以去考虑其他因素,例如劳动力的可获得性,而不必过分担心产品的运送费用。
G In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along. But, behind the scenes, a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and inter-modal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling. Forty years ago, the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling, which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way. The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship. By 1967, dual-purpose ships, carrying loose cargo in the hold* and containers on the deck, were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.
G在许多国家,管制的解除推动了国际贸易的发展。除此之外,一系列科技创新也间接地促进了货物装卸作业中生产率的迅速提高,其中包括广为人知的集装箱运输和多式联运。四十年前,进出口商品程序繁杂,这带来了部分货物在运送过程中被损坏或偷窃的危险。集装箱起重机的发明实现了集装箱的安全装卸,又不至于倾覆货运船只;而采用同一标准规格的集装箱则使所有船只都能够运载装箱运送的不同货物。到1967年,货舱中装运散装货物而甲板上装运集装箱的两用货轮已逐渐被淘汰,取而代之的是可以一次运载几千个集装箱的全集装箱船。
H The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient, intensely competitive business. But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story. National governments, by and large, kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight. This started changing, however, in the mid-1970s, when America began to deregulate its transportation industry. First airlines, then road hauliers and railways, were freed from restrictions on what they could carry, where they could haul it and what price they could charge. Big productivity gains resulted. Between 1985 and 1996, for example, America’s freight railways dramatically reduced their employment, trackage, and their fleets of locomotives — while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled. Europe’s railways have also shown marked, albeit smaller, productivity improvements.
H集装箱已将海上运输转变为一种效率极髙且竞争力强的行业,但将货物运往或者运离码头却绝非易 事。总体来说,相对于控制海上运输的费用,各国政府都更倾向于牢牢控制货车运输和铁路运输的运价。然而,这种情况从二十世纪七十年代中期,即美国解除对运输业的管制时便开始发生转变。继航运业率先获得管制解除之后,公路运输业和铁路运输业也相继摆脱了限制运载货物种类、装卸地点和货运费用规定的束缚。生产率的显著提高获得了巨大的成果。例如,1985年至1996年间,美国铁路运输业以惊人的方式在提高货运量的同时,减少了职工人数,缩短了运程,降低了机车队规模。虽然不及美国成就巨大,欧洲铁路运输业同样取得了成果显著的生产力的进步和生产率的提高。
I In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over, but in most countries the process still has far to go. State ownership of railways and airlines, regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices, such as cargo-handling monopolies, all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade. Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.
I 在美国,运输业生产率高速增长的时代或许已近尾声,但对于大多数国家来说,此过程依然任重而道远。许多因素导致了运输费用不必要地持续偏高并阻碍着国际贸易的发展,其中包括国家对于铁路业和航空业的所有权,限制运输费用的管理规定,以及对于反竞争行为的宽容。这些障碍的消除将有助于全球经济一体化的进程与发展。
TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 参考译文:
Climate Change and the Inuit
The threat posed by climate change in the Arctic and the problems faced by Canada’s Inuit people
气候变化与因纽特人
北极地区气候变化造成的威胁和加拿大因纽特人(亦称“爱斯基摩人”)面临的困境
A Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud, following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects — if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the ‘canary in the mine’ for global warming — a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.
A 据报导,罕见事件在北极各地不断发生。许多因纽特家庭在乘坐雪地汽车离开居住地去为夏季狩猎露营地做准备时,被大片因提早解冻而形成的泥沼隔断了回家的路。相关报道层出不穷,圆顶冰屋的雪砖在融化滴落后又再次冻结,损坏了大量绝缘物品;冻土层融化,使湖水流入海洋;海冰比往年提前破碎,漂流的碎冰将海豹带到了猎人们力所不及的狩猎范围之外。对我们中的大多数人来说,气候变化或许还是一个相当抽象的概念,但在北极地区这已经产生了巨大的影响。如果夏季海冰以现有的速度继续消融,不久之后浮冰就会在夏季的北冰洋上完全消失。气候变化的连锁效应还包括气温升高、云层增厚、降水量增加和海平面升高。科学家们致力于研究气候变化的原因,因为他们认为在全球变暖的进程中,北极是能够警示危险到来的“矿井里的金丝雀”警告着我们北极地区的现状就是全世界的未来。
B For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.
B 对因纽特人来说,形势非常紧迫,问题亟待解决。他们生活在地球上最艰苦的地方与周围环境保抟着不稳定的平衡。无论造成何种影响,气候变化都是他们生活方式的直接威胁。当地居民比任何人都更加了解北极,因此他们不会简单地满足于自己袖手旁观而让外国专家们告知他们北极的现状。努纳武特地区是加拿大最新成立的特别行政区,当地的因纽特人一直努力维护来之不易的自治权。他们认为在不断变化的环境中,生存的最大希望在于将先人的智慧与先进的现代科学相结合。但这本身就是一个巨大的挑战。
C The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.
C 加拿大北极区是一片广袤荒芜的极地荒漠,一年中多半时间都被冰雪所覆盖。踏上这片土地,你就会明白以此为家的人们的处境有多么艰苦。农耕种植绝不可能,而可供采摘的食物也寥寥无几。四千五百年前,人类首次在北极地区定居,并且以捕捉海洋哺乳动物和鱼类为生。环境的考验将他们生存的潜力逼迫到了极限:有时他们成功幸存,而有时则遭受失败并灭亡。然而,大约一千年前出现了一个种族,他们以独一无二的方式很好地适应了北极地区的环境。这些图勒人从阿拉斯加迁至北极,并带来了皮艇、雪橇、狗、 陶器和铁质工具。他们是现今因纽特人的祖先。
D Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing. Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer. It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and for many people state benefits are their only income.
D 对图勒人的子钵后代来说,生活依然残酷而艰苦。努纳武特地区包括一百九十万平方公里被岩石和冰雪覆盖的陆地,以及此极点附近的几个岛屿。现在,除了少数几个人之外,该地区两千五百名居民几乎均为因纽特原住民。在过去的四十年中,大多数人都放弃了游牧生活而定居在该地区二十八个相互独立的社区,但他们仍旧主要依赖于大自然来获取食物与衣服。当地商店出售的日常必需品是通过世界上运费最昂贵的航线之一进行运输,或是通过只有在夏季不结冰的几个星期里才能航行的供应船运送进努纳武特地区的。一个家庭每年大约要花费七千英镑才能用进口的肉食来取代他们自己猎取的肉类。在这里,经济机遇极少,政府补助金是许多人唯一的收人来源。
E While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people’s health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In Nunavut’s ‘igloo and email’ society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land, there’s a high incidence of depression.
E 即使气候变化阻碍了狩猎和诱捕,因纽特人或许也不会真的挨饿受冻,但气候变化的确影响了人们的健康。人们开始患上肥胖症、心脏病和糖尿病,而这些疾病曾经根本不会对因纽特人的健康构成威胁。随着狩猎、诱捕和剥皮等传统手艺的失传,人们面临着严重的身份危机。在努纳武特地区“圆顶冰星加电子邮件”的社会中,父母出生在冰屋之中,而其子女们或许从来没有到野外狩猎的经历,忧郁症频繁发生。
F With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as ‘Intelligence Quotient’, or IQ. ‘In the early days scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’ says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’ In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests, or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.
F 在情况危急之下,因纽特人决定在解开北极地区气候变化之谜的过程中发挥关键作用。因纽特人在当地生活了几百年,他们相信传统知识的财富对于这项任务的完成至关重要。西方的科学家们也开始逐渐吸收借鉴传统知识,并将其称为“因纽特智慧”或IQ。因纽特首领兼政治家约翰?阿玛高利克说:“在科学家们来到这里展开研究工作的初期,他们忽视我们的存在。他们或许这样认为:反正因纽特人懂得的知识也不多,我们为什么要向他们请教呢?但是近年来,IQ已经逐渐显示出其可信度和重要性。”事实上,现在任何人若想得到在努纳武特地区开展科学研究的许可,都必须咨询当地社区,而社区则会协助安排研究日程,并在日程安排中反映出其关心的重要问题。他们可以拒绝可能损害社区利益的科研申请,或者否决可能严重影响当地居民日常生活和传统活动的科研项目。
G Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.
G 某些科学家质疑传统知识的价值,认为因纽特人在北极地区居住的时间太短。除此之外,另一些人指出北极地区第一批气象站也仅仅是五十年前才建立的。现今,我们的环境知识还很匮乏,即使以科学的发展为依据,许多预测也不过是大胆的猜测而巳。IQ能够填补我们现有环境知识的空白,并且能够解决一个巨大的疑问,即我们所见的现象是自然环境的反复无常还是人类活动的必然后果。