剑桥雅思10test2passage1阅读原文翻译

剑桥雅思10test2passage1阅读原文翻译

段落A

Alan Macfarlane,professor of anthropological science at Kings College,Cambridge,has,like other historians,spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution.Why did this particular Big Bang–the world-changing birth of industry–happen in Britain?And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?

剑桥大学国王学院的人类学教授艾伦·麦克法兰，也像其他史学家一样，数十年来一直致力于探索工业革命之谜。为什么这种特殊的“大爆炸”（改变世界的工业的诞生）在英国发生？为什么它在18世纪末出现？

段落B

B Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock,‘There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,’he says.For industry to take off,there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories,large urban populations to provide cheap labour,easy transport to move goods around,an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects,a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen.While this was the case for England,other nations,such as Japan,the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising.‘All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution,’says Macfarlane.‘After all,Holland had everything except coal,while China also had many of these factors.Most historians are convinced there are one or two missing factors that you need to open the lock.’

麦克法伦将这一谜题与密码锁相比较，他说：“大约有20种不同的因素。而在革命发生之前，所有这些因素都必须存在”。为了使工业腾飞，需要文有技术和动力来驱动工厂，大量的城市人口提供廉价劳动力，便利的交通系统方便货物运输，富裕的中产阶级愿意购买大量生产的物品，以及市场驱动的经济和允许这种情况发生的政治制度。虽然英国就是这种情况，但日本，荷兰和法国等其他国家也符合其中一些标准，不过它们并未实现工业化。“所有这些因素都十分必要，但并不足以引发革命”，麦克法兰说，“毕竟，荷兰拥有除了煤炭之外的一切条件，而中国也有许多因素。大多数历史学家相信，解开谜题仍然缺失一两个因素。”

段落C

The missing factors,he proposes,are to be found in almost every kitchen cupboard.Tea and beer,two of the nation’s favourite drinks,fuelled the revolution.The antiseptic properties of tannin,the active ingredient in tea,and of hops in beer–plus the fact that both are made with boiled water–allowed urban communities to flourish at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne diseases such as dysentery.The theory sounds eccentric but once he starts to explain the detective work that went into his deduction,the scepticism gives way to wary admiration.Macfarlane’s case has been strengthened by support from notable quarters–Roy Porter,the distinguished medical historian,recently wrote a favourable appraisal of his research.

他提出，我们可以在每家每户的橱柜中发现缺失的因素。茶和啤酒是该国最受欢迎的两种饮料。它们推动了这场革命。茶中的活性成分单宁和啤酒中啤酒花的防腐特性-以及二者均用开水制成的事实-使城市社区能够在狭小的范围内蓬勃发展，而不会屈从于痢疾等水源性疾病。这个理论听起来有些古怪，但是一旦他开始解释具体的推理过程，这种怀疑就让位于钦佩。麦克法兰的说法得到其他著名学者的支持-罗伊·波特，著名医学历史学家，最近赞扬了他的研究。

段落D

Macfarlane had wondered for a long time how the Industrial Revolution came about.Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation.Between about 1650 and 1740,the population in Britain was static.But then there was a burst in population growth.Macfarlane says:‘The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years,and this happened in both rural areas and cities,and across all classes.People suggested four possible causes.Was there a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria around?Unlikely.Was there a revolution in medical science?But this was a century before Listers revolution*.Was there a change in environmental conditions?There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria,but these were small gains.Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century.The only option left:is food.But the height and weight statistics show a decline.So the food must have got worse.Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.’

很久以来，麦克法伦一直想知道工业革命是如何发生的。历史学家在18世纪中叶发现了一个有趣的需要解释的因素。大约在1650年和1740年之间，英国人口保持静止不变。但随后其人口突然经历爆发性的增长。麦克法伦说：“婴儿死亡率在20年内减少了一半，这在农村和城市以及所有阶层中都发生了。人们提出四个可能的原因。是因为周围的病毒和细菌突然发生了变化吗？不太可能。医学界发生了革命吗？但这距离李斯特斯革命还有一个世纪的时间。环境条件有变化吗？农业方面确实有所提升消除了疟疾。但这些都是微不足道的改进。直到19世纪，卫生设施才开始普及。剩下的选择只有食物了。但是身高和体重的统计数据反而有所下降。所以食物肯定变糟了。解释这种儿童死亡人数突然减少的努力似乎一无所获。

段落E

This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labour for the Industrial Revolution.‘When you start moving towards an industrial revolution,it is economically efficient to have people living close together,’says Macfarlane.‘But then you get disease,particularly from human waste.’Some digging around in historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of water-borne disease at that time,especially dysentery.Macfarlane deduced that whatever the British were drinking must have been important in regulating disease.He says,‘We drank beer.For a long time,the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops,which were added to help preserve the beer.But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt,the basic ingredient of beer.The poor turned to water and gin and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again.Then it suddenly dropped again.What caused this?’

人口爆炸似乎恰好发生在为工业革命提供劳动力的时候。麦克法伦说：“当你开始进行工业革命时，人们住在一起可以实现经济上的高效率。但是那样你就会染上疾病，尤其是那些来自人类废弃物的疾病。”历史记录中的一些发现表明，当时水生疾病（尤其是痢疾）的发病率有所变化。麦克法兰推断，无论英国人当时喝什么东西，它对疾病控制一定十分重要。他说：“我们喝啤酒。长期以来，英国人受到啤酒花中强力抗菌剂的保护。它被添加以帮助保存啤酒。但是在17世纪后期，对啤酒的基本成分麦芽开始征税。穷人转向喝水和杜松子酒，在18世纪20年代，死亡率再次开始上升。然后却突然又下降了。是什么原因造成的呢？

段落F

Macfarlane looked to Japan,which was also developing large cities about the same time,and also had no sanitation.Water-borne diseases had a much looser grip on the Japanese population than those in Britain.Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture?Macfarlane then noted that the history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates.Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started a direct clipper trade with China in the early 18th century.By the 1740s,about the time that infant mortality was dipping,the drink was common.Macfarlane guessed that the fact that water had to be boiled,together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been.No other European nation sipped tea like the British,which,by Macfarlane’s logic,pushed these other countries out of contention for the revolution.

麦克法兰将目光转向日本。日本在同一时间也出现了大型城市，而且也没有卫生设施。与英国相比，水生疾病对日本人口的影响要小很多。难道是因为他们文化中所盛行的茶吗？麦克法兰随后注意到，英国茶饮的历史提供了非同寻常的时间巧合。在18世纪初期英国开始与中国进行直接快船贸易之前，茶叶相对昂贵。到了18世纪40年代，大约在婴儿死亡率下降的时候，这种饮料就很普遍了。麦克法兰猜测，必须将水煮沸，再加上茶具有净化胃的特性，使得母亲提供的母乳比以往任何时候都更健康。没有其他欧洲国家像英国人那样饮茶。按照麦克法伦的逻辑，正是这一因素使得其他国家丧失了革命的机会。

段落G

But,if tea is a factor in the combination lock,why didn’t Japan forge ahead in a tea-soaked industrial revolution of its own?Macfarlane notes that even though 17th-century Japan had large cities,high literacy rates,even a futures market,it had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution by giving up labour-saving devices such as animals,afraid that they would put people out of work.So,the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced entered the 19th century having‘abandoned the wheel’.

但是，如果茶是解开谜题的因素，那么为什么日本没有率先在茶起重要作用的工业革命中取得进展呢？麦克法兰指出，即使17世纪的日本拥有大型城市，较高的识字率，甚至是期货市场，但它因担心失业，而放弃了诸如动物这样节省劳动力的装置，从而违背了以工作实践为基础的革命的核心。因此，我们如今认为的作为技术最先进的国家之一的日本在进入19世纪的时候放弃了革命的机会。

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