雅思写作实用背诵素材

　　我们所看到的一个模糊不清的小圆块，据说那便是一个从几千英里以外看到的星球。我们最后的收获将是一点月尘和几块石头，把它们放在某个博物馆的玻璃后面展览。

　　This is hardly value for money when you think that our own earth can provide countless sights which are infinitely more exciting and spectacular.

　　为这些东西花钱实在不徝得，因为你知道，我们自己的地球就可以提供无数比这更壮观、更激动人心的景观。

　　The space race is not simply the objective search for knowledge it is often made out to be.

　　太空竞争的目的不单单是客观地探求知识，虽然它常常自命如此。

　　It is just an extension of the race for power on earth. Only the wealthiest nations can compete and they do so in the name of pure scientific research.

　　它其实是在地球上进行的权力竞争延伸。只有那些最富裕的国家才能参与竞争，并且他们总是打着纯科学研究的旗号。

　　But in reality, all they are interested in is power and prestige. They want to impress us, their spectators, with a magnificent show of strength.

　　实际上，他们感兴趣的惟有权力和威望。他们希望他们对自己的力量所做的壮观的展示会给我们，他们的观众，留下深刻的印象。

　　Man has played the power game ever since he appeared on earth. Now he is playing it as it has never been played before.

　　人类自从在地球上出现以后就开始玩权力游戏。现在他们更是把这种游戏玩得史无前例。

　　The space race is just another aspect of the age-old argument that ‘might is right’.

　　太空竞争只是“强权即公理”这一古老论点的另一方面。

　　We are often told that technological know-how, acquired in attempting to get us into orbit, will be utilized to make better on earth. But what has the space race done to relieve the suffering of the earth’s starving millions? In what way has it raised the standard of living of any one of us?

　　我们被告知，我们在努力进入空间轨道的时候所获得的技术窍门将有助于我们在地球上生活得更好。但是太空竞争又做了些什么来救济地球上千百万在饥饿中挣扎的人们呢?它在哪一方面提高了我们中间任何一个人的生活水平呢?

　　As far as the layman is concerned, the practical results of all this expenditure of money and efforts are negligible.

　　照我们这些门外汉看，我们耗费那么多金钱和努力所取得的成就是微乎其微的。

　　Thanks to space research, we can now see television pictures transmitted live half-way across the globe and the housewife can use non-stick frying-pans in the kitchen. The whole thing becomes utterly absurd when you think that no matter what problems man overcomes, it is unlikely that he will ever be able to travel even to the nearest star.

　　供助于太空研究，我们现在得以看到越过全球现场直播的电视画面，厨房里的家庭主妇也用上了不粘锅。但是不管人类征服了多少困难，他也不可能去最近的星球上旅行。想想这个，你就会觉得整个这件事情荒谬绝伦了。

　　Poverty, hunger, disease and war are man’s greatest enemies and the world would be an infinitely better place if the powerful nations devoted half as much money and effort to these problems as they do to the space race.

　　人类最大的敌人是贫穷、饥饿、疾病和战争。如果世界上的强国把他们用于太空竞争的金钱和努力的一半用来解决这些问题，这个世界不知要变得比现在好多少。

　　For the first time in his history, man has the overwhelming technological resources to combat human suffering, yet he squanders them on meaningless pursuits.

　　人类在自己的历史上第一次拥有了和人类不幸作战的强大技术力量，可是却把它们浪费在毫无意义的追求上。

　　If a man deprived himself and his family of food in order to buy and run a car, we would consider him mad.

　　要是一个人为了买车、驾车而让他自己和家人饿肚子，我们会认为他是个疯子。

　　Individuals with limited budgets usually get their priorities right: they provide themselves with necessities before trying to obtain luxuries. Why can’t great nations act in the same sensible way? Let us put our house in order first and let space look after itself.

　　预算有限的个人通常会分清轻重缓急：先保障生活必需品，然后才希图奢侈品。那些大国为什么就不能同样明智地行事呢?我们还是先考虑我们的房子，让宇宙空间自己一边儿呆着吧。

　　Now people in growing numbers are enjoying the benefits at dinner table from the application of the new scientific advances to agriculture.

　　现在，越来越多的人从餐桌上就能感受到新科技应用到农业方面所带来的好处。

　　They appreciatively attribute what they eat every day, from different kinds of new vegetables to new fish varieties, to the efforts of scientists.

　　人们总是对科学家的工作充满感激，因为是他们的努力才使得自己能吃到各种各样的新品种蔬菜或是新的鱼类。

　　However, can further scientific advance help the world solve the problem of future food supplies?

　　但是，人类是否能进一步借助科技进步来解决世界未来的粮食供应问题呢?

　　Some people stand to it that the advance in science will keep staying ahead of the food crisis of the world and provide a needed relief for the future supplies.

　　有些人坚信，科技进步将会始终超前于粮食危机而发展，并为未来的粮食供应提供必要的技术支持。

　　They base their belief on such ground as science has effected the tripling of food yields since the green revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

　　其中他们提出的依据之一就是：科技进步已使世界的粮食产量，相对于60年代和70年代绿色革命时期增加了3倍。

　　Accordingly, they believe that more money for agricultural research can lead to another green revolution. Will their expectation come true?

　　据此，他们相信，给农业科研投入更多的资金必然会出现另一次“绿色革命”。他们的这种希望会实现吗?

　　In fact, the rapid population growth and environmental pollution are changing the basis of agricultural resources for the use of new technologies.

　　实际上，人口的快速增长以及环境污染正在改变着技术应用所需要的农业资源。

　　According to a recent report, for example, the spreading cry for protein is straining limited agriculture land and draining tight fresh water supplies around the world.

　　比如，根据最近的一份报告，世界对蛋白质急剧增加的需求，已使有限的耕地资源变得贫瘠，加剧了淡水资源的短缺。

　　If man’s attention is only put on the potential of scientific achievements, the earth’s limited economic resources will give up along with the increasing mouths to feed.

　　如果人类的注意力仍然只放在技术开发上，那么，地球上有限的资源将无法再供养不断增多的人口。

　　As is pointed out in the report, future food supplies will depend as much on family planners as on fishermen and farmers.

　　正如那份报告所指出的，未来的粮食供给既取决于农业耕作者，又取决于计划生育的决策者。

　　I think that the reduction in population growth and the protection of resources and environment take the same responsibility for feeding the world as any big scientific advance does.

　　我认为，在保障人类粮食供给方面，采取措施降低人口出生率，保护土地资源和环境，将与任何重大科技成果一样，有着同等重要的作用。

　　This materialistic outlook has seriously influenced education.

　　这种物欲观严重地影响到我们的教育。

　　Fewer and fewer young people these days acquire knowledge only for its own sake. Every course of studies must lead somewhere: i.e. o a higher wage packet.

　　仅仅为了知识本身而去获取知识的人已经越来越少了。每一门课程都必须有所回报：即将来能拿到更高的薪水。

　　The demand for skilled personnel far exceeds the supply and big companies compete with each other to recruit students before they have completed their studies. Tempting salaries and ‘fringe benefits’ are offered to them. Recruiting tactics of this kind have led to the ‘brain drain’, the process by which highly skilled people offer their services to the highest bidder. The wealthier nations deprive their poorer neighbors of their most able citizens.

　　技术人员供不应求，以至大公司竞相招募未完成学业的学生，向他们提供诱人的薪水和福利待遇。这种招聘策略导致人才流失，因为在招募过程中高技术人才都去出价最高的公司工作了。比较富裕的国家则把他们邻国最能干的公民挖走。

　　Whiles Mammon is worshipped as never before, the rich get richer and the poor, poorer.

　　当财神比以往任何时候都更受崇拜的时候，穷者愈穷，富者愈富。

　　Some count the material a pursuit worth devoting their lives to. In their eyes, the art of living means holding fast to as enormous fortune as possible and then passing away in vast wealth as a proof of his worth. By their standard, therefore, the greatness of a person can be only ranked according to how much wealth he has accumulated before his death.

　　有人认为物质是值得他们献出生命的追求。在他们看来，生活的艺术就是抓住尽可能多的财富，尔后在作为证明其身价的财富中谢世。依照他们的标准，一个人的伟大只能根据其生前所积攒财富的多少去排定座次。

　　“The value of human life consists in its constant charm of endless pursuit”, once a motto of some great minds, is now being echoed by more and more working people. But this echo ceases to continue when it comes to what to pursue in life.

　　“人类生命的价值在于其不断追求的恒定魅力”，这曾是一些大思想家的座右铭，现正在被越来越多的劳动者所共识。然而，当论及生活中要追求什么时，这一共识就不复存在了。

　　But others contend that the spiritual rather than the material is the only lofty ideal they are born to follow. In their minds, it is bad taste to waste one’s life amassing objects that will only turn to dung and dirt, while, on the other hand, it is of enduring worth to pursue the spiritual that distinguish man from animals. So in the light of their principles, one’s pursuit of an ideal should be so persistent that it is in vain to make him live the life of the mortal.

　　另一些人认为他们生来追求的崇高理想是精神而不是物质。在他们的心里，浪费一生的时光去积聚终将变为粪土的东西是一种低级趣味，而追求使人类有别于动物的精神财富才具有永恒的价值。故此，按照他们的准则，一个人对理想的追求应坚持不懈，直至使其不食人间烟火。

　　I can give my consent to neither of the extreme opinions, for I believe that the material is the basis for the spiritual whereas the pursuit of the latter invests that of the former with noble meaning.

　　我对两种偏激的观点都不赞同，因为我坚持：物质是精神的基础但精神追求又使物质追求变得高尚。

　　In other words, the spiritual wealth is exploited on the basis of the material wealth, and the latter, in turn, is revalued upward under the guidance of the former.

　　换句话讲，精神财富的挖掘基于物质财富，而物质财富的升华又受益于精神财富的指导。

　　Any undue emphasis on either of the two will do a disastrous threat to a society.

　　任何对两者之一的片面性强调，都将给社会造成灾难性的威胁。

　　As countless facts have proved, the progress of society results from the interaction of both.

　　正如无数事实所证实的那样，社会的进步来自于物质与精神的相互作用。