2021年北京卷高考英语C篇及译文

2021年北京卷高考英语C篇及译文

Hundreds of scientists, writers and academics sounded a warning to humanity in an open letter published last December: Policymakers and the rest of us must engage openly with the risk of global collapse. Researchers in many areas have projected the widespread collapse as “a credible scenario(情景) this century”.

A survey of scientists found that extreme weather events, food insecurity, and freshwater shortages might create global collapse. Of course, if you are a non-human species, collapse is well underway.

The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world’s most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.

The international scholars’ warning letter doesn’t say exactly what collapse will look like or when it might happen. Collapseology, the study of collapse, is more concerned with identifying trends and with them the dangers of everyday civilization. Among the signatories(签署者) of the warning was Bob Johnson, the originator of the “ecological footprint” concept, which measures the total amount of environmental input needed to maintain a given lifestyle. With the current footprint of humanity, “it seems that global collapse is certain to happen in some form, possibly within a decade, certainly within this century,” Johnson said in an email.

Only if we discuss the consequences of our biophysical limits, the December warning letter says, can we have the hope to reduce their “speed, severity and harm”. And yet messengers of the coming disturbance are likely to be ignored. We all want to hope things will turn out fine. As a poet wrote,

Man is a victim of dope(麻醉品)

In the incurable form of hope.

The hundreds of scholars who signed the letter are intent(执着) on quieting hope that ignores preparedness. “Let’s look directly into the issue of collapse,” they say, “and deal with the terrible possibilities of what we see there to make the best of a troubling future. ”

此文难度很大，为帮助理解，尝试翻译如下，欢迎批评指正！（说明：翻译过程中借助了机器翻译）

译文：

数百名科学家、作家和学者在去年12月发表的一封公开信中向人类发出警告：决策者和我们其他所有人必须正面应对全球崩塌的风险。许多领域的研究人员预测，本世纪之内绝对会见到大范围的崩溃场面。

科学家的一项调查发现，极端天气事件、粮食安全危机和淡水短缺可能会导致全球崩塌。当然，如果你是动物或者植物，那么崩溃已经“渐入佳境”。

当今世界面临着即使是技术最先进的国家仍未能控制住的流行病和经济危机，此时此刻，呼吁公众参与应对这难以想象的大崩塌尤其重要。很难想象，就在不久前一个小小病毒会让一个国家停摆；安全网会被证明如此灾难性地缺乏灵活性，这也是不可想象的。

国际学者的警告信没有确切地说崩塌会是什么样子，也没有说什么时候可能发生。崩塌学，也就是对崩塌的研究，作为一门学问，它更关心的是识别趋势以及随着而来的日常文明所面临的危险。该警告信的签名者之一是Bob Johnson，他是“生态足迹”概念的创始人，该概念用以衡量维持特定生活方式所需的环境投入总量。Johnson在一封电子邮件中说，根据人类目前的足迹判断，“全球崩塌肯定会以某种形式发生，也许就在十年内，肯定在本世纪内。”

去年12月的这封警告信称，只有当我们正面讨论人类的生物物理极限的后果时，我们才能有希望降低它们的“速度、严重性和危害”。然而，给我们传递崩塌即将到来这一信息的信使很可能被会忽视。因为我们大家都希望事情会好起来。正如一位诗人所写，

人类是麻醉品的受害者；

沉迷于幻想，无可救药。

签署这封信的数百名学者都致力于平息这一幻想，因为幻想会让人们忽视为大崩塌做好必要的准备。“让我们直接关注大崩塌的问题吧，”他们说，“真正去解决我们看到的、可能的糟糕情况吧，为了让我们的未来没那么糟。”