2016年5月翻译资格英语三级笔译实务真题及答案
【Section 1】English-Chinese Translation (50 points)
Translate the following passage into Chinese.
Old people in Widou Thiengoly say they can remember when there were so many trees that you couldn’t see the sky. Now, miles of reddish-brown sand surround this village in northwestern Senegal, dotted with occasional bushes and trees. Dried animal dung is scattered everywhere, but hardly any dried grass is.
Overgrazing and climate change are the major causes of the Sahara’s advance, said Gilles Boetsch, an anthropologist who directs a team of French scientists working with Senegalese researchers in the region. “The local Peul people are herders, often nomadic. But the pressure of the herds on the land has become too great,” Mr. Boetsch said in an interview. “The vegetation can’t regenerate itself.”
Since 2008, however, Senegal has been fighting back against the encroaching desert. Each year it has planted some two million seedling trees along a 545-kilometer, or 340-mile, ribbon of land that is the country’s segment of a major pan-African regeneration project, the Great Green Wall. First proposed in 2005, the program links Senegal and 10 other Saharan states in an alliance to plant a 15 kilometer-wide, 7,100-kilometer-long green belt to fend off the desert. While many countries have still to start on their sections of the barrier, Senegal has taken the lead, with the creation of a National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
“This semi-arid region is becoming less and less habitable. We want to make it possible for people to continue to live here,” Col. Pap Sarr, the agency’s technical director, said in an interview here. Colonel Sarr has forged working alliances between Senegalese researchers and the French team headed by Mr. Boetsch, in fields as varied as soil microbiology, ecology, medicine and anthropology. “In Senegal we hope to experiment with different ways of doing things that will benefit the other countries as they become more active,” the colonel said. Each year since 2008, from May to June, about 400 people are employed in eight nurseries, choosing and overseeing germination of seeds and tending the seedlings until they are ready for planting. In August, 1,000 people are mobilized to plant out rows of seedlings, about 2 million plants, allowing them a full two months of the rainy season to take root before the long, dry season sets in.
After their first dry season, the saplings look dead, brown twigs sticking out of holes in the ground, but 80 percent survive. Six years on, trees planted in 2008 are up to three meters, or 10 feet, tall. So far, 30,000 hectares, or about 75,000 acres, have been planted, including 4,000 hectares this summer. There are already discernible impacts on the microclimate, said Jean-Luc Peiry, a physical geography professor at the Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France, who has placed 30 sensors to record temperatures in some planted parcels.
“Preliminary results show that clumps of four to eight small trees can have an important impact on temperature,” Professor Peiry said in an interview. “The transpiration of the trees creates a microclimate that moderates daily temperature extremes.” “The trees also have an important role in slowing the soil erosion caused by the wind, reducing the dust, and acting like a large rough doormat, halting the sand-laden winds from the Sahara,” he added. Wildlife is responding to the changes. “Migratory birds are reappearing,” Mr. Boetsch said.
The project uses eight groundwater pumping stations built in 1954, before Senegal achieved its independence from France in 1960. The pumps fill giant basins that provide water for animals, tree nurseries and gardens where fruit and vegetables are grown.
【参考译文】
在蒂昂戈利(Thiengoly)，老人们常说起过去树木繁多、遮天蔽日的景象。而现在，这座塞纳加尔西北部的村庄已经被棕红色的沙土包围，剩下的只有星星点点的灌木和树木。干燥的动物粪便四处散落，枯草却难觅踪迹。
人类学家吉勒斯·博尔特斯(Gilles Boetsch)说，撒哈拉沙漠情况恶化加速，主要原因是过度放牧和气候变化。目前，他正在这一区域指导法国科学家团队和塞内加尔籍的探索者进行合作研究。 “当地的珀尔(Peul)族以放牧为生，有时也过游牧生活。但牧群对于这片土地的压力已大得让其无力承受，”博尔特斯先生在一次采访中说，“这样植被无法自己再生。”
自2008年，塞内加尔已经开始对沙漠侵蚀宣战。过去的每年，该国都会沿着长545公里长(约合340英里)的带状区域种植 200 万株幼苗，这片区域就是“绿色长城”在塞内加尔境内的部分。“绿色长城”是泛非洲主义者的绿植再生项目，该项目最初在 2005 年提出，现在联合了塞内加尔和其他十个撒哈拉国家一同建设，这条绿化带宽 15 千米，长 7100 千米，旨在防止沙漠侵袭。当许多国家着手准备自己国家所负责的绿化带区域时，塞内加尔已经率先为“绿色长城”项目设立了国家级机关。
“这片半干旱的区域已经越来越不适宜居住了。我们希望让人类在这里居住成为可能”，萨拉上校致力于塞内加尔当地研究者和博尔特斯带领的法国团队在包括土壤微生物学，生态学，药剂学和人类学等领域通力合作。“在塞内加尔，我们希望试行各种方法让其他国家也能获益，这样他们也会更加活跃”，上校先生说道。自2008年来，每年从五月到六月，该项目的八个护林所招募了约 400 人，他们的工作主要是挑选并繁育种子，并在八月份左右，将其育成幼苗。届时，该项目会动员1000人去植树约 200 棵，让它们能在旱季之前，有两个月的雨季落地生根。
第一次的旱季过后，这些树苗看起来已半死不活，棕色的树枝从地面支出来。但却有 80% 的树苗成活。六年来，2008 年种下的树植长到了 3 米高(约合10英尺)。到现在，算上今年种的 4000 公顷，已经累计种树 3 万公顷(约合 7.5万亩)。
法国克莱蒙特(Clennot-Ferrand)地区帕斯卡尔大学的地理学教授简·吕佩里说，在微气候学上，已经有了一些可见的变化。在该项目中，他放置了30个温度记录仪。佩里教授在一次采访中提出，“树木的呼吸作用创造了一个微气候，这样的微气候可以减缓日常的极端气温。这些树木在减慢刮风造成的土壤侵蚀，减少尘土有着重要作用，就像门垫一样，阻止从撒哈拉沙漠来的沙尘暴。”他补充说。野生动物也发现了环境的变化。博尔特斯先生说，“候鸟又出现了。”
该项目所使用的八个地下水泵站均建于 1954 年，在1960年塞内加尔从法国独立出来之前。水泵为动植物存活依赖的大盆地提供水源，滋养水果和蔬菜生长。
