1、UnitTextExcerpts from Silent SpringThe history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole s

2、pan of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.地球上生命的歷史一直是生物及其周圍環(huán)境相互作用的歷史。可以說(shuō)在很大程

3、度上，地球上植物和動(dòng)物的自然形態(tài)和習(xí)性都是由環(huán)境塑造成的。就地球時(shí)間的整個(gè)階段而言，生命改造環(huán)境的反作用實(shí)際上一直是相對(duì)微小的。僅僅在出現(xiàn)了生命新種人 類之后，生命才具有了改造其周圍大自然的異常能力。During the past quarter century this power has not only increased to one of disturbingmagnitude but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all manhe s assaults uenvironment is the contamina

4、tion of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and evenlethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable;在過(guò)去的四分之一世紀(jì)里，這種力量不僅在數(shù)量上增長(zhǎng)到產(chǎn)生騷擾的程度，而且發(fā)生 了質(zhì)的變化。在人對(duì)環(huán)境的所有襲擊中最令人震驚的是空氣、土地、河流以及大海受 到了危險(xiǎn)的、甚至致命物質(zhì)的污染。這種污染在很大程度上是難以恢復(fù)的。the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must s

5、upport life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world the very nature of its life. Strontium 90, released through nuc

6、lear explosions into the air, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. 它不僅進(jìn)入了生命賴以生存的世界，而且也進(jìn)入了生物組織內(nèi)。這一邪惡的環(huán)鏈在很 大程度上是無(wú)法逆轉(zhuǎn)的。在當(dāng)前這種環(huán)境的

7、普遍污染中，在改變大自然及其生命本性 的過(guò)程中，化學(xué)藥品起著有害的作用，它們至少可以與放射性危害相提并論。在核爆炸中所釋放出的鍶90，會(huì)隨著雨水和飄塵爭(zhēng)先恐后地降落到地面，停駐在土壤里，然后進(jìn)入其生長(zhǎng)的草、谷物或小麥里，并不斷進(jìn)入到人類的骨頭里，它將一直保留在那 兒，直到完全衰亡。Similarly, chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poi

8、soning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and, through the magical of air and sunlight, combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. As Albert Schweitzer has said, Man cahnardly e

9、ven recognize the devils of his owncreation. 同樣地，被撒向農(nóng)田、森林和菜園里的化學(xué)藥品也長(zhǎng)期地存在于土壤里，然后進(jìn)入生 物的組織中，并在一個(gè)引起中毒和死亡的環(huán)鏈中不斷傳遞遷移。有時(shí)它們隨著地下水 流神秘地轉(zhuǎn)移，等到它們?cè)俣蕊@現(xiàn)出來(lái)時(shí)，它們會(huì)在空氣和太陽(yáng)光的作用下結(jié)合成為新的形式，這種新物質(zhì)可以殺傷植物和家畜，使那些曾經(jīng)長(zhǎng)期飲用井水的人們受到不知不覺(jué)的傷害。正如阿伯特濟(jì)慈所說(shuō)：人們恰恰很難辨認(rèn)自己創(chuàng)造出的魔鬼。It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inha

10、bits the earth eons of time in which that developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The environment, rigorously shaping and directing the life it supported, contained elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Certain rocks

11、gave out dangerous radiation; even within the light of the sun, from which all life draws its energy, there were short-wave radiations with power to injure. Given time time not in years but in millennia life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. For time is the essential ingredient; but in the mo

12、dern world there is no time.為了產(chǎn)生現(xiàn)在居住于地球上的生命已用去了千百萬(wàn)年，在這個(gè)時(shí)間里，不斷發(fā)展、進(jìn)化和演變著的生命與其周圍環(huán)境達(dá)到了一個(gè)協(xié)調(diào)和平衡的狀態(tài)。在有著嚴(yán)格構(gòu)成和支配生命的環(huán)境中，包含著對(duì)生命有害和有益的元素。一些巖石放射出危險(xiǎn)的射線，甚 至在所有生命從中獲取能量的太陽(yáng)光中也包含著具有傷害能力的短波射線。生命要調(diào) 整它原有的平衡所需要的時(shí)間不是以年計(jì)而是以千年計(jì)。時(shí)間是根本的因素，但是現(xiàn) 今的世界變化之速已來(lái)不及調(diào)整。The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are cr

13、eated follow the rush and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of the sun that have existed before there was any life on earth; radiation is now the unnatural c

14、reation of man s interfere with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make its adjustment are no longer merely the calcium and silica and copper and all the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in rivers to the sea; they are the synthetic creations of man s inventive

15、mind, brewed in his laboratories, and having no counterparts in nature.新情況產(chǎn)生的速度和變化之快已反映出人們激烈而輕率的步伐勝過(guò)了大自然的從容步態(tài)。放射性遠(yuǎn)在地球上還沒(méi)有任何生命以前就已經(jīng)存在于巖石放射性本底、宇宙射線爆炸和太陽(yáng)紫外線中了；現(xiàn)在的放射性是人們干預(yù)原子時(shí)的人工創(chuàng)造。生命在本身調(diào) 整中所遭遇的化學(xué)物質(zhì)再也遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不僅是從巖石里沖刷出來(lái)的和由江河帶到大海去的鈣、 硅、銅以及其他的無(wú)機(jī)物了，它們是人們發(fā)達(dá)的頭腦在實(shí)驗(yàn)室里所創(chuàng)造的人工合成物， 而這些東西在自然界是沒(méi)有對(duì)應(yīng)物的。To adjust to these che

16、micals would require time on the scale that isnature itsw; ould require not merely the years of a man s life but tghenlieferaotifons. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost five hundred annually

17、find their way into actual use in the United States alone. The figure is staggering and its implications are not easily grasped 500 new chemicals to which the bodies of men and animals are required somehow to adapt each year, chemicals totally outside the limits of biologic experience. 在大自然的尺度來(lái)看，去適應(yīng)

18、這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)是需要漫長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的：它不僅需要一個(gè)人的 終生，而且需要許多代。即使借助于某些奇跡使這種調(diào)整成為可能也是無(wú)濟(jì)于事的， 因?yàn)樾碌幕瘜W(xué)物質(zhì)像涓涓溪流不斷地從我們的實(shí)驗(yàn)室里涌出，單是在美國(guó)，每一年幾 乎有 500 種化學(xué)合成物付諸應(yīng)用。這些數(shù)字令人震驚，并且其未來(lái)含義也難以預(yù)測(cè)。想象一下人和動(dòng)物的身體每年都要千方百計(jì)地去適應(yīng) 500 種這樣的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，而這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)完全都是生物未曾經(jīng)驗(yàn)過(guò)的。Among them are many that are used in man s war against nature. Sinc-1e9t4h0esmoivder 200 basic chemica

19、ls have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vernacular as pests ; aundethr esyevaererasl oldthousand different brand names.這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)中，有許多曾應(yīng)用于人對(duì)自然的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中，從19 世紀(jì) 40 年代中期以來(lái)，200 多種基本的化學(xué)物品被創(chuàng)造出來(lái)用于殺死昆蟲、野草、嚙齒動(dòng)物和其他一些用現(xiàn)代俗語(yǔ)稱之為 “害蟲 ”的生物。這些化學(xué)物品是以幾千種不同的商品

20、名稱出售的。These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and the bad , to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly

21、 film, and to linger on in soil all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called insecticides , but biocides .這些噴

22、霧器、藥粉和噴灑藥水現(xiàn)在幾乎已普遍地被農(nóng)場(chǎng)、果園、森林和家庭所采用，這些沒(méi)有選擇性的化學(xué)藥品具有殺死每一種“好的”和“壞的”昆蟲的力量，它們使得鳥兒的歌唱和魚兒在河水里的歡躍靜息下來(lái)，使樹(shù)葉披上一層致命的薄膜，并長(zhǎng)期滯留在土壤里造成這一切的本來(lái)的目的可能僅僅是為了少數(shù)雜草和昆蟲。誰(shuí)能相 信在地球表面上撒放有毒的煙霧彈怎么可能不給所有生命帶來(lái)危害呢？它們不應(yīng)該叫 做“殺蟲劑”，而應(yīng)稱為“殺生劑”。The whole process of spraying seems caught up in an endless spiral. Since DDT was released for civili

23、an use, a process of escalation has been going on in which ever more toxic materials must be found. This has happened because insects, in a triumphant vindication of Darwin s principle of thseurvival of the fittest, have evolved super races immune to the particular insecticide used, hence a deadlier

24、 one has always to be develope dand then a deadlier one than that. It has happened also because, for reasons to be described later, destructive insects often undergo a flareback , or resurgencespraying, in numbers greater than before. Thus the chemical war is never won, and all life is caught in its