2024年4月4日发(作者：周碧春)
英译汉
As I mentioned last week, I‟ve recently returned from Australia. While I was
there, I visited a eucalyptus forest that, in February, was the scene of an appalling
wildfire. Perhaps naively, I had expected to find that many trees had been killed.
They hadn‟t. They had blackened bark, but were otherwise looking rather well,
many of them wreathed in new young leaves. This prompted me to consider fire
and the role it plays as a force of nature.
Fossil charcoals tell us that wildfires have been part of life on Earth for as long
as there have been plants on land. That‟s more than 400 million years of fire. Fire
was here long before arriviste plants like grasses; it pre-dated the first flowers. And
without wanting to get mystical about it, fire is, in many respects, a kind of animal,
albeit an ethereal one. Like any animal, it consumes oxygen. Like a sheep or a slug,
it eats plants. But unlike a normal animal, it‟s a shape-shifter. Sometimes, it merely
nibbles a few leaves; sometimes it kills grown trees. Sometimes it is more deadly
and destructive than a swarm of locusts.
The shape-shifting nature of fire makes it hard to study, for it is not a single
entity. Some fires are infernally hot; others, relatively cool. Some stay at ground
level; others climb trees. Moreover, fire is much more likely to appear in some parts
of the world than in others. Satellite images of the Earth show that wildfires are
rare in, say, northern
Europe, and common in parts of central Africa and Australia. (These days many
wildfires are started by humans, either on purpose or by accident. But long before
our ancestors began to throw torches or cigarette butts, fires were started by
lightning strikes, or by sparks given off when rocks rub together in an avalanche.)
Once a fire gets started, many factors contribute to how it will behave. The
weather obviously has a huge effect: winds can fan flames, rains can quench them.
The lie of the land matters, too: fire runs uphill more readily than it goes down. But
another crucial factor is what type of plants the fire has to eat.
It‟s common knowledge that plants regularly exposed to fire tend to have
features that help them cope with it — such as thick bark, or seeds that only grow
after being exposed to intense heat or smoke. But what is less often remarked on is
that the plants themselves affect the nature and severity of fire.
The shape-shifting nature of fire makes it hard to study, for it is not a single
entity. Some fires are infernally hot; others, relatively cool. Some stay at ground
level; others climb trees. Moreover, fire is much more likely to appear in some parts
of the world than in others. Satellite images of the Earth show that wildfires are
rare in, say, northern
Europe, and common in parts of central Africa and Australia. (These days many
wildfires are started by humans, either on purpose or by accident. But long before
our ancestors began to throw torches or cigarette butts,fires were started by
lightning strikes, or by sparks given off when rocks rub together in an avalanche.)
2024年4月4日发(作者：周碧春)
英译汉
As I mentioned last week, I‟ve recently returned from Australia. While I was
there, I visited a eucalyptus forest that, in February, was the scene of an appalling
wildfire. Perhaps naively, I had expected to find that many trees had been killed.
They hadn‟t. They had blackened bark, but were otherwise looking rather well,
many of them wreathed in new young leaves. This prompted me to consider fire
and the role it plays as a force of nature.
Fossil charcoals tell us that wildfires have been part of life on Earth for as long
as there have been plants on land. That‟s more than 400 million years of fire. Fire
was here long before arriviste plants like grasses; it pre-dated the first flowers. And
without wanting to get mystical about it, fire is, in many respects, a kind of animal,
albeit an ethereal one. Like any animal, it consumes oxygen. Like a sheep or a slug,
it eats plants. But unlike a normal animal, it‟s a shape-shifter. Sometimes, it merely
nibbles a few leaves; sometimes it kills grown trees. Sometimes it is more deadly
and destructive than a swarm of locusts.
The shape-shifting nature of fire makes it hard to study, for it is not a single
entity. Some fires are infernally hot; others, relatively cool. Some stay at ground
level; others climb trees. Moreover, fire is much more likely to appear in some parts
of the world than in others. Satellite images of the Earth show that wildfires are
rare in, say, northern
Europe, and common in parts of central Africa and Australia. (These days many
wildfires are started by humans, either on purpose or by accident. But long before
our ancestors began to throw torches or cigarette butts, fires were started by
lightning strikes, or by sparks given off when rocks rub together in an avalanche.)
Once a fire gets started, many factors contribute to how it will behave. The
weather obviously has a huge effect: winds can fan flames, rains can quench them.
The lie of the land matters, too: fire runs uphill more readily than it goes down. But
another crucial factor is what type of plants the fire has to eat.
It‟s common knowledge that plants regularly exposed to fire tend to have
features that help them cope with it — such as thick bark, or seeds that only grow
after being exposed to intense heat or smoke. But what is less often remarked on is
that the plants themselves affect the nature and severity of fire.
The shape-shifting nature of fire makes it hard to study, for it is not a single
entity. Some fires are infernally hot; others, relatively cool. Some stay at ground
level; others climb trees. Moreover, fire is much more likely to appear in some parts
of the world than in others. Satellite images of the Earth show that wildfires are
rare in, say, northern
Europe, and common in parts of central Africa and Australia. (These days many
wildfires are started by humans, either on purpose or by accident. But long before
our ancestors began to throw torches or cigarette butts,fires were started by
lightning strikes, or by sparks given off when rocks rub together in an avalanche.)