BBC 6 Minute English 是 BBC Learning English 出品的英語學習節目。每周一期，每期約6分鐘，兩位主播圍繞某個話題展開對話，非常適合英音愛好者模仿學習。
Transcript
Note：This may not be a word-for-word transcript
Hello. This is6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.大家好。這裡是BBC教學英語的《六分鐘英語》。我是尼爾。In thisprogramme, we'll be asking looking at some of the many dangers facinghumanity, from climate change and global pandemics to asteroid impacts andnuclear war.在本期節目中，我們將探討人類面臨的一些危險，從氣候變化和全球流行病到小行星撞擊與核戰爭。We'll befinding out whether human civilisation can survive these risks, andlooking at some of the related vocabulary as well.我們將看看人類文明是否能承受住這些風險，並了解一些相關的詞彙。Do you reallythink humans could become extinct and end up as dead as the dodo?Ah, so ofcourse you've heard of the dodo?Yes, dodos werelarge, metre-high birds which died out in the 1600s after being hunted toextinction by humans.是的，渡渡鳥是一種1米高的大鳥，在17世紀被人類獵殺至滅絕後消失了。Dodos couldn'tfly and weren't very clever.They didn'thide when sailors with hunting dogs landed on their island.當水手們帶著獵犬登上它們所在的島嶼時，它們沒有躲藏起來。The species washunted so much that within a century, every single bird had died out.這個物種被獵殺的如此之多，以至於不到一個世紀，它們就都滅絕了。But do you knowwhich island the dodo was from, Sam?That's my quizquestion for today.Was it: a) TheGalapagos, b) Mauritius, or c) Fiji?是……a)加拉帕哥斯群島，b)模里西斯，還是c)斐濟？I'll guess theGalapagos, Neil, because I know many exotic animals live there.尼爾，我猜是加拉帕哥斯群島，因為我知道那裡生活著許多奇珍異獸。By the way,that's also cheered me up a bit because as humans we are much smarter than thedodo!順便說一句，那也讓我感到高興，因為作為人類，我們比渡渡鳥聰明多了！We're far too cleverto die out, aren't we?I'm not sure Iagree, Sam.Lots of theexistential risks - the worst possible things that could happen tohumanity, such as nuclear war, global pandemics or rogue artificialintelligence, are human-made.許多生存風險——人類可能遭遇的最糟糕的事情，如核戰爭、全球流行病或人工智慧異常，都是人為的。These threatscould have catastrophic consequences for human survival in the 21st century.But existentialrisks don't only threaten the survival of the human species.Instead, theycould destroy civilisation as we know it, leaving pockets of survivors tostruggle on in a post-apocalyptic world.相反，它們可能會摧毀我們所知的文明，讓一小部分倖存者在末日後的世界裡掙扎求生。And it wouldn'tbe the first time that has happened, as the BBC World Service programme TheInquiry found out.BBC全球服務節目發現，那種事情並不是第一次發生。Simon Beard ofthe Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge Universityexplains: The historical record suggests that about once every thousandyears an event occurs that wipes out about a third of the humanpopulation – so in the Middle Ages, this was the Black Death - huge plaguethat covered Eurasia, while there was also dramatic global cooling at thattime which many people think was related to volcanic eruptions, and abouta third of the global population died.劍橋大學生存風險研究中心的西蒙·比爾德進行了解釋：歷史記錄表明，大約每隔幾千年就會發生一個摧毀約三分之一人口的事件——所以在中世紀時是黑死病——覆蓋亞歐大陸的大瘟疫，而且當時全球也急劇變冷，許多人認為那和火山爆發有關，全球約三分之一的人口死亡。So, humanityhas been facing these risks throughout history, according to the historicalrecord – the collection of all written and recorded past events concerningthe human race.因此，根據歷史記錄，人類在整個歷史上一直面臨著這些風險——歷史記錄是指書面記錄下來的和人類有關的事件集合。Yes. Wars andplagues – infectious, epidemic diseases which spread between countries canquickly wipe out – or completely destroy, millions of people.是的。戰爭和瘟疫——在國家間傳播的傳染性流行病，可以迅速消滅——或完全摧毀數百萬人。And there's notmuch we can do to stop disasters like that!True, Sam, butwhat about individuals who actively work to bring about the end of theworld, like apocalyptic terrorists, rampage shooters and fundamentalistcults, like those who organised the poisonous gas attack on the Tokyosubway.沒錯，薩姆，但是那些想要造成世界末日的人呢？比如製造災難的恐怖分子，瘋狂的槍擊者和原教旨主義邪教，比如組織用毒氣襲擊東京地鐵的人。Those arepeople who want to end human life on Earth and bring about Doomsday -another word for the final, apocalyptic day of the world's existence.那些人想要結束地球上人類的生命，導致世界末日——世界的最後一天，世界的末日的另一種說法。Right. Andthings got even scarier in modern times with the invention of nuclear weapons.During theCuban Missile Crisis between America and the USSR for example, riskexperts estimated a 41% probability that human life would be completely wipedout!例如，在美蘇之間的古巴飛彈危機期間，風險專家估計人類生命被徹底摧毀的可能性為41%。Seth Baum ofNew York's Global Catastrophic Risk Institute explains how human error almostbrought about Doomsday:紐約全球災難風險研究所的塞思·鮑姆解釋了人為因素是如何幾乎導致世界末日的。There are someways that you could get to a nuclear war without really intending to, andprobably the biggest example is if you have a false alarm that is mistaken as anuclear attack, and there have been a number of, maybe even very seriousfalse alarms over the years, in which one side or the other genuinelybelieved that they were under nuclear attack, when in fact they were notat all under nuclear attack.在沒有真的打算引發核戰爭的情況下有一些方法可能會引發核戰爭，可能最典型的例子就是當你得到一個誤認為是核襲擊的假警報時，而且多年來有很多甚至是非常嚴重的假警報，一方或另一方真的覺得自己要遭到核襲擊，而事實上他們並沒有遭到核襲擊。One such falsealarm - an incorrect warning given so that people wrongly believe somethingdangerous is about to happen, came about in 1995, when the US sentmissiles up into the Earth's atmosphere to study the aurora borealis, thenorthern lights.這樣的一個假警報——給出的錯誤警告，讓人們錯誤地相信危險的事情即將發生——發生在1995年，當時美國將飛彈發射到地球大氣層中來研究北極光。Soviet radarspicked up the missiles, thinking they were nuclear warheads and almostretaliated.蘇聯雷達發現了這些飛彈，認為它們是核飛彈彈頭，差一點進行反擊。NuclearArmageddon was only averted by the actions of one clear-thinking Russiangeneral who decided not to push the red button.一名思路清晰的俄羅斯將軍決定不按下紅色按鈕進行反擊，他的行為避免了核對峙。Well, Neil, allthis doomongering has made me want to just give it all up and live on a desertisland!好吧，尼爾，所有這種末日言論讓我想放棄一切，去荒島上生活！So, whichisland would that be?If youremember, today's quiz question asked where the dodo was from.And I'm afraidto say it was b) Mauritius.So, to recap,in this programme we've been discussing Doomsday – the final day of life onEarth, and other existential threats - dangers threatening the survival ofhumans on the planet.總而言之，在這個節目中，我們一直在討論世界末日——地球上生命的最後一天，以及其它生存威脅——威脅到地球上人類生存的危險。We looked backthroughout the historical record - all recorded human history, to seeexamples of threats which have wiped out, or killed millions of people in thepast, including wars and plagues which spread epidemic diseases betweenpopulations.我們回顧了所有歷史記錄——所有記載下來的人類歷史，來看看一些關於威脅的例子，它們在過去已經毀掉或殺死了數百萬人，這些威脅包括戰爭以及在人口之間傳播流行病的瘟疫。And we've seenhow modern dangers, like nuclear war and climate change, further reduce theprobability of human survival.我們已經看到了像核戰爭和氣候變化這樣的現代危險是如何進一步降低人類生存可能性的。But Sam, it'snot all doom and gloom!The samescientific intelligence which spilt the atom could also find solutions to ourhuman-made problems in the 21st century, don't you think?原子方面的相同科學智慧也可以找到21世紀人為問題的解決方法，你不這樣認為嗎？So, the end ofthe world might be a false alarm – or unfounded warning – after all!所以，世界末日可能終究是虛驚一場——或毫無根據的警告！Let's hopewe'll all still be here next time for another edition of 6 Minute English.