环境保护口译实践:第二篇(英译汉)Passage 2 (E----C)

第二篇（英译汉）Passage 2 (E----C)

相关词语Related Words and Expressions

dump 倾倒

creation of value 创造价值

Worldwatch Institute 世界观察所

be afflicted by depression 患有忧郁症

incidence of depression 忧郁症病例

prematurely 提前地；过早地

boundless 无止境的

The modern industrial economy works like this: Resources are dug from a hole in the ground on one side of the planet, used for a few weeks, then dumped in a hole on the other side of the planet. This is known as the "creation of value." The creation of value improves our quality of life. Improvements in our quality of life make us happier. The more we transfer from hole to hole, the happier we become.

Unfortunately, we are not yet transferring enough. According to the Worldwatch Institute, we have used more goods and services since l950 than in all the rest of human history. But we still don't seem to be happy. Over the same period, 25-year-olds in Britain have become 10 times more likely to be afflicted by depression. One in four British adu1ts now suffers from a lack of sleep, and one fifth of school children have psychological problems. Over the past l3 years, mental health insurance claims have risen by 36 per cent.

American studies suggest that between 40 and 60 per cent of the population suffers from mental illness in any one year.

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2010 depression wi1l become the second most common disease in the developed world. Unless we start consuming in earnest, we'll never experience real joy.

At this time of year the rate of consumption rises dramatically. To make ourselves happier, we move resources from one hole to another as quickly as possible.

My local authority reports that the amount of rubbish people takes to the dump increases by 12 per cent in December and January. Curiously, however, the incidence of depression also seems to rise. Calls to a telephone help line increase by 8 per cent between Christmas and New Year's Day. But the figures are misleading. The more depressed we are, the more we spend on alcoho1. The more we spend, as any economist will explain to you, the happier we become.

British people are sure1y happier than people in poorer lands, because more of our needs are met. Indeed, advertisers help us to answer needs we never knew we had, by revealing that our lives are less satisfactory than we thought. When I was 18, male face creams came on the market. Until that point, we boys had no idea that our skin was ageing prematurely. Since then, men have been introduced to many of the improvements that women have enjoyed for so long. We have discovered that we are uglier, spottier, fatter and more inadequate than we could ever have imagined.

And, by moving more resources between holes in the ground, we can do something about it. The consumer society serves the poor better than anyone else, as it both exposes the unhappiness of their lives and kindly provides the means with which they can escape from it.

As the banks, manufacturers, shops and economists remind us, our quest for happiness is boundless. As always, and particularly at this time of year, someone tries to spoil the fun. Eco-systems are being poisoned and resources exhausted. The Earth is over-heating, because so much energy is required to move its components from one hole to another. But I would ask them this: isn't the death of the planet a price worth paying for the happiness we now enjoy?