2011年9月中级口译阅读原文

Value of life forgotten in quest for affluence

I heard my train approaching. I ran up a two-story escalator and hopped on my train. I was relieved to make it onto my train, but my relief was short-lived. While catching my breath, I heard the announcement that the train would be stopped because of an accident. This was the same announcement I had heard just a week before. The number of train accidents is increasing in Japan, and it is thought that one-third of the accidents result from suicide attempts.

Japan's suicide rate is one of the highest in the world. More than 30,000 Japanese people take their lives every year, even though my country, Japan, is one of the richest and the most advanced countries in the world today.

Allow me to describe some factors of the sickly Japanese situation and to list some silver bullets which might cure the illness.

To find the causes of today's Japanese social problems, I looked back at history and realized that the way Japan dealt with the aftermath of World War II might have directly affected what Japanese society is today.

No other country except Japan could become a world leader just 20 to 30 years after losing a major war and achieve one of the world's highest GNPs. It would have been impossible without Japanese diligence. While I am amazed at Japan's development, I suspect that Japan also lost something important during the postwar boom era.

Japan is the only country that has suffered from the damage inflicted by atomic bombs. However, the nuclear attack is just a half-century-old story for most people now.

It seems that Japan moved too swiftly to put this pain behind us in order to grab immediate profits in business. While Japanese society has prospered, it has focused only on short-term gain. Therefore, it has neglected the dignity of human life.

Japanese seek material affluence and convenience, but in chasing these things, we have left behind richness of the mind and the heart. In compensation for this, people in Japan have no dreams and hope. Our society has become a cold and lonely place, which lacks life and spirit.

How should Japanese society overcome its unhealthy situation? When one does not do what one should do, he or she cannot come alive. It seems that Japan is in exactly the same situation.

To make our society vigorous, Japan should carry out its duties and responsibilities. For example, it is the duty of Japan to proclaim the importance of world peace. It is the responsibility of Japan to share with the entire world the technology it has developed which might help prevent global warming. To have a true happy and bountiful life, each of the people in Japan should rethink the value of life and the importance of caring for each other.

These things have been neglected because Japanese have been overzealous in their quest for money and material wealth. Only when Japanese people understand what true happiness is will Japanese society grasp the importance of human life.

Today, while our world is getting smaller and smaller, it constantly faces the risk of terrorism and nuclear war breaking out. With these problems to solve, now is the time for Japanese society to wake up to its duties and responsibilities.

Japan holds three great non-nuclear principles that prohibit the nation from producing or possessing nuclear weapons or even bringing them onto Japanese soil.

I dream that Japanese society will value each human's life and contribute to making our world

a better place for generations to come

阅读第二篇

出自https://www.360docs.net/doc/f24766450.html,

Hondurans face big fines for smoking at home

Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke.

A new law that took effect Monday banning smoking in most public and private spaces doesn't actually outlaw cigarettes inside homes, but it does have a provision allowing people to file complaints about secondhand smoke in homes.

Violations would bring a verbal warning on the first offense. After that could come arrest and a $311 fine — the equivalent of the monthly minimum wage in this Central American country.

Even some anti-smoking advocates suspect that part of the law may not work.

"It seems its intention is to educate by way of complaints, a move that I do not find very feasible," said Armando Peruga, a program manager at the World Health Organization's Tobacco-Free Initiative.

He did praise Honduras for adopting a broad anti-smoking law, noting it is only the 29th nation to adopt such a law out of WHO's 193 member states.

But Peruga said the clause allowing family members to call police on their smoker relatives is confusing. The clause "does not make much sense since the law clearly does not prohibit smoking at homes."

Six-foot exclusion zone

The law bans smoking in most closed public or private spaces and orders smokers to stand at least six feet away from nonsmokers in any open space.

The law explicitly bans smoking in schools, gas stations, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, buses, taxis, stadiums and cultural centers but it doesn't clearly ban smoking at home.

Still, one clause says that "families or individuals may complain to law enforcement authorities when smokers expose them to secondhand smoke in private places and family homes."

"The law is clear and we will comply with it," said Rony Portillo, director of the Institute to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. "Authorities will intervene (at a home) when someone makes a complaint."

Some say the law will be almost impossible to enforce in a country of 8 million people with a rampant crime problem and only 12,000 police officers.

"Police won't be able to enforce it because they can barely keep up with the crime wave that has been overwhelming us to be able to go after those who are smoking at home," said Jose Martinez, a 38-year-old computer engineer who has smoked for 20 years.

The law also outlaws all advertising for tobacco products and requires photos of lungs affected by cancer to be placed on cigarette packs. Tobacco and cigarette companies have 60 days to comply with both requirements.

In Honduras, 30 percent of the people smoke, and nine out of 10 Hondurans suffering from acute bronchitis live in homes where there is a smoker, according to Honduran health authorities.

For every dollar that the tobacco industry makes in Honduras, the state spends $10 to fight smoking-related diseases, according to the Health Department.

The law says businesses, such as bars or restaurants, that allow smoking could be fined between $1,000 and $6,000 and repeat offenders could be shut down.

"The law is stupid because it bans smoking in bars or nightclubs, and everyone knows that people who go there smoke, and if they don't like it, they shouldn't come and that's that," said Gustavo Valladares, a bar manager and smoker.

Nonsmokers see it differently.

"It was about time that the government did something," said elementary school teacher Esteban Quijano, a nonsmoker. "I like to visit bars, but I hate the smoke of others. Most of my friends smoke and I know that it indirectly hurts me and now it will be different. I support the law."

第四篇

Only a few hundred people live in Yvoire, but the small village on the southern shores of Lake Geneva has a lot to offer.

It even enjoys the reputation of being one of the prettiest places in all of France - thanks to its medieval buildings, the unusually scenic view of the lake and its countless flowers which in the summer months decorate many of the town's houses.

Yvoire is no longer a secret tip. On the contrary, many visitors who have set up their quarters nearby either in France or Switzerland, come to the town. And for many vacationers travelling southwards, Yvoire is an ideal stopping-off point.

During some days of the main season the parking lots near the town center are filled up, while excursion boats bring in loads of tourists from across the lake.

Now, in autumn, the atmosphere is tangibly quieter and the visitors are no longer tripping over each others' feet.

For a tour around the town, one should set aside a bit of time. Many shops will be selling the usual tourist souvenirs ranging from coffee mugs to lapel pins.

But there are also a number of galleries offering paintings, sculptures and all kinds of hand-made artifacts, while in other shops there are high-quality porcelain items and clothing.

Those who during their stroll through the streets happen to look up will discover the entire glory of the flowers decorating the houses.

The grey of the natural stone of which the houses are built lets the riot of reds shine even more brightly.

Yvoire's gastronomy scene is a modest one, but on the road along the lakeshore visitors have a number of opportunities to find top-level cuisine.

Those seeking a bit of luxury will find what they are looking for in Evian-les-Bains, about a half-hour drive to the east. There, at the home of the world-famous mineral water of the same name, there is to this day the summer-residence flair of the nobility and upper classes.

In Yvoire the path quickly leads down to the shore, where in a small harbour yachts are bobbing in the water and a few fishermen are defending their space against all the tourists.

What is left of an erstwhile castle is quickly circled and leads to the docks for the excursion boats.

It can be crowded on the boats and there really isn't that much to see. So one quickly climbs the hill back up to town for a stroll again through the narrow streets.

They lead to a small, tree-lined square located in front of a pretty church, dedicated to St Pankratius and its construction dating back to the 11th century.

Just why precisely at the tip of the Leman Peninsula a strongly-fortified town was built back in the Middle Ages is easily explained.

The location on the transit point between the larger and smaller part of Lake Geneva was an ideal one for the ruler to secure his claim to power.

And so there evolved at the start of the 14th century a formidable fortification.

Over the course of time the ownership and power equations would change, and a few hundred years later the town sank back into military insignificance.

The historical architecture survived over time, until modern-day tourism after World War II woke Yvoire up from its slumber and lent it new importance again.

出自China Daily

第六篇