Text 1 

(资料图片仅供参考)

The occasional drought can be dealt with by recourse to reservoirs or groundwater. When droughts become prolonged and/or frequent, such alternatives dry up. As a result, some modelling suggests that at 3℃ of global warming, more than a quarter of the world’s population would be exposed to extreme drought conditions for at least one month a year.

偶发性干旱可通过调用水库水或地下水得到解决。若遭遇长期和/或频发性干旱，水库水或地下水等备用水资源也会耗尽。因此，某模型显示，在全球温度升高3摄氏度的情况下，会有超过四分之一的全球人口遭受每年至少一个月的极端干旱气候。

California’s megadrought, which has affected the water supply for consumption, sanitation and irrigation as well as fueling record-breaking fires, gives a glimpse into what this could look like for large swathes of the planet, almost all of which face far higher hurdles to adaptation than one of America’s richest states (albeit one with a high number of poor people).

加利福尼亚州（California）的特大干旱已对该地区日常用水、卫生用水以及灌溉用水的供应造成影响，并导致火灾频发，受灾规模屡破记录。

后面一段两个译法：

译法1：

加州的情况给世界上大量的其他地区提供了前车之鉴，况且加州还是美国最为富庶的州之一（虽然贫困人口数量也居高位），相比之下，世界其他地区要应对此类干旱状况，要面临的困难恐怕会大得多。

译法2：

加州作为美国数一数二的富庶之地尚且如此（虽然该州贫困人口也很多），可想而知，换做世界上任何一个地方，恐怕都难以承受这样的旱灾。

译法一和译法二都有一定的语言脱壳，译法二的脱壳程度更大，表达本土化程度也更高。

This does not necessarily mean that every crop is at risk of heatwaves, or that the world will face a structural food shortage. Some arable land will be blessed with a useful increase in rain, and the fields farmed by Goldilocks may be spared a concomitant increase in flood risk. Temperate climates will benefit from longer growing seasons, and some crops will also benefit from higher carbon-dioxide levels, since it is the raw material of photosynthesis. Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that cereal prices might be 29% higher under 3℃ of warming, putting 183m people at additional risk of hunger, it also sees it as possible that they might hardly shift at all. (232 words)

这并不意味着高温天气一定会威胁到所有的农作物生产，也不意味着一定会出现全球结构性粮食短缺。一方面，某些耕地所获得的降水量会增加，从而有利于农业生产；另一方面，降水适中的农田也可以得济，避免随之而来的洪涝风险。作物生长期延长，温带地区会因此受惠。因为二氧化碳是光合作用的原材料，所以升高的二氧化碳浓度又会利于某些作物增产。政府间气候变迁专门委员会（IPCC）估测，在全球升温3摄氏度的背景下，谷物价格可能提高29%，这将使1.83亿人面临更大的饥饿风险，尽管如此，政府间气候变迁专门委员会依然声称，全球粮食价格可能基本没有什么变化。

Text 2 

The continued pursuit of economic growth by western societies is more likely on balance to reduce rather than increase social welfare. Technological innovations may offer to add to men’s material opportunities. But by increasing the risks of their obsolescence it adds also to their anxiety. Swifter means of communications have the paradoxical effect of isolating people; increased mobility has led to more hours commuting; increased automobilization to increased separation; more television to less communication. In consequence, people know less of their neighbors than ever before.

西方社会不断追求经济增长，总体而言，非但不会改善社会福利水平，反而有恶化趋势。技术创新或许可以丰富人们的物质生活，但由于被淘汰的风险加大，人们会倍加焦虑。通讯工具变得更快捷的同时，也使人与人之间变得愈发孤立。社会流动性变强了，人们的通勤时间却变得更长。汽车数量越来越多，人与人之间却越发彼此疏远；电视机数量越来越多，人与人之间的交流却越来越少。这些技术创新带来的后果就是，人们对自己的左邻右舍所知之少，已到了前所未有的地步。

Virtually every economist agrees that these concerns are valid, though many question whether economic growth is their major cause. Nevertheless, they all emphasize that pollution of air and water, noise and congestion, and the mechanization of the work process are very real and very serious problems. There is every reason for society to undertake programs that grapple with these problems. (145 word）

几乎每个经济学家都认同，这些担忧并非空穴来风。虽然他们中有不少人都不认为经济增长就是罪魁祸首，但他们一致强调，空气污染、水污染、噪音问题、交通堵塞问题以及工序机械化问题都真实存在，且十分严峻/都的确是很严重的现实问题。社会没有理由不尽一切努力来解决这些问题。

Text 3

我在一本散文里看到过这样一句话：有文化的地方，才会有美食，才配有美食。

Once I bumped into a sentence in a prose book that says, “Only a city with a rich intellectual life has and deserves gourmet food.”

有文化的地方，不能处理成cultural place, 因为cultural place可以指文化景点，如博物馆，故宫一类，这些地方并不会经营美食。

可以处理成： culturally enriched city/place, a city/place with a rich intellectual life

美食是 gourmet food; good food勉强可以，不如gourmet准确，但是考虑到问题是散文，用语可以不用那么严谨。

言下之意就是文化和斯文息息相关，而文化的来源就是读书，如果一个人再有钱，要是没文化那也是一个暴发户而已，如果一个人有钱有文化，那么人们对其称呼描述就不一样了。所以，读书对于任何人来说都很重要。

It implies that culture, which is derived from reading, has a lot to do with gentility. However rich a person is, without culture, mere a parvenu/ a nouveau riche is he/she called by others. In contrast, a rich and cultivated man is addressed and described by others in a different way. Therefore, reading is of great significance to everyone.

暴发户：upstart/ parvenu / nouveau riche

息息相关：have a lot ot do / is closely combined/linked/related with/to

读书不仅仅是为了赚钱，更重要的是为了增加智慧，提升自我修养，提升个人魅力，开阔眼界，增加精神能量。

It matters not only for the sake of making more money, but for acquiring wisdom, for cultivating yourself, boosting your personal charm, broadening your horizon, and making your mind stronger.

个人魅力： personal charm/ charisma 

一个有文化有灵魂的读书人自然比一个有钱有势的暴发户更有气质，在精神层面来说，一个有文化的读书人其精神境界更比其他人高一些，主要体现在其待人接物、为人处世方面。（259字）

Since a well-read person is both culturally and spiritually enriched, he/she naturally boasts of an aura much better than that of a privileged upstart. 

后边的两个译法：

译法1：

Usually, well-read people base their living on a higher plane of spiritual existence than that of average people, and this is mainly manifested in their manners of treating others and conducting themselves. 

译法2：

In a spiritual context, a well-cultivated man is superior to others in his morals, which you can tell from his manners of treating others and conducting himself.

译法1按原文保留了比较抽象的说法，译法2把精神层面具体化为了“morals” 道德。