2010年英译汉试题全文译文
One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value. Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community and, if its stability depends on its integrity, they are entitled to continuance.
完全基于经济动机的保护系统有一个根本的弱点，即陆地群落的大部分成员不具备经济价值。但这些物种是生物群落的一部分；如果生物群落的稳定性取决于其整体性，那么这些物种就有权利生存下去。
When one of these noneconomic categories is threatened and, if we happen to love it, we invent excuses to give it economic importance. At the beginning of century songbirds were supposed to be disappearing. 46)Scientists jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence to the effect that insects would eat us up of birds failed to control them. The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid. It is painful to read these round about accounts today. We have no land ethic yet, 47)but we have at least drawn near the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of intrinsic right, regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us.
当一种没有经济价值的物种受到威胁，如果我们碰巧喜欢它，我们就会想方设法赋予它经济价值。本世纪初，燕雀原本正在逐渐消失。科学家们急忙赶来挽救这种局面，他们使用的证据明显站不住脚：如果没有鸟类来制衡昆虫，昆虫会把一切都吃光。证据要有说服力，就必须和经济价值挂钩。如今，读这些绕弯子的解释叫人很痛苦。我们还没有土地伦理观，但至少我们趋向于承认——无论鸟类对我们来说是否具有经济价值，它们自有生存的权利。
A parallel situation exists in respect of predatory mammals and fish-eating birds. 48)Time was when biologists somewhat overworked the evidence that these creatures preserve the health of game by killing the physically weak, or that they prey only on “worthless species.”
肉食性哺乳动物和食鱼的鸟类身上也存在类似的情况。有证据表明，这些动物通过猎杀弱者来保持猎物群落的健康状态，或者说它们捕杀的只是“毫无价值的物种”；曾几何时，生物学家或多或少滥用了这个证据。
Some species of tree have been read out of the party by economics-minded foresters because they grow too slowly or have too low a sale value to pay as timber crops. 49)In Europe, where forestry is ecologically more advanced, the non-commercial tree species are recognized as members of native forest community, to be preserved as such ,within reason.
一些看重经济利益的护林员已不再种植某些树种，因为它们生长太过缓慢，或是作为木材的价值过低。在林业更注重生态的欧洲，没有经济价值的树种被视为原始森林群落的一部分，同样得到了合理的保护。
To sum up: a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. 50)It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial value, but that are essential to its healthy functioning. It assumes, falsely, I think, that the economic parts of the biotic clock will function without the uneconomic parts. It tends to relegate to government many functions eventually too large, too complex, or too widely dispersed to be performed by government.
总之，一个仅仅建立在经济利己主义上的保护系统是非常不平衡的。它倾向于忽视陆地群落中的许多物种，并最终导致它们的灭绝。那些物种虽然缺乏商业价值，却对保证陆地群落的健康运作至关重要。这个系统假定，即使少了缺乏经济价值的物种，这套生态机制也能够运作。我认为其实不然。它将许多功能移交给机制本身来运作，这些功能最终会变得太庞大、太复杂或太分散，以至于超出机制本身的运作范围。
