說在前面
本文選自 經濟學人 2020.04.25的一篇文章。文章是關於疫情對世界地球日的影響以及對地球日的一些思考。在講解原文的同時我加入了一些考研中出現的句子以及外刊中的選段同時做了一些擴展，希望能幫助到大家！
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An Earth Day in the life of a plague
April 22nd was doubly disrupted. If it had not been messed up by the covid-19 pandemic, as all days now are, parts of it would have been brought to a halt by activism about the climate. This was the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a festival of demonstrations, marches and teach-ins that took place mostly in America and is widely seen as marking the birth of modern environmentalism. Organisers had hoped that this year’s would see hundreds of millions take to the streets around the world. A huge school strike of the sort pioneered by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist, was planned, as well as who-knows-what by way of direct action. A new generation of environmental activists intended to demand a better future more loudly than ever.
The pandemic means that this widespread and co-ordinated youthful passion, one of the most striking developments in recent climate politics, is instead being expressed indoors and online. This in itself will inevitably lead some to contemplate how climate change and covid-19 fit together. One of the slogans of the first Earth Day was what the pioneering environmentalist Barry Commoner called 「The first law of Ecology」—that 「Everything Is Connected With Everything Else」.
Both scourges bear this out. Some 200,000 deathbeds in 170 countries have been connected by an unbroken web of viral spread. So have bat caves in China and test tubes in California, as well as silent airports, deserted shops and crowded food banks all across the planet. The connections which underlie climate change are even more pervasive. They tie together almost all the 21st century’s means of transport, manufacture and growth, its buried geological past and its melting Arctic ice.
Covid-19 and climate change are both global problems, and proper responses to both require levels of co-operation that the countries of the world find hard. Responses to the effects of covid-19 on the coal industry, among others, or to the need for economic stimulus once the virus has abated, will offer opportunities to further or impede decarbonisation. And both have their origin in a strange mixture of human action and the unbiddable forces of nature, provoking contradictory feelings of culpability and a complete lack of control.
An Earth Day in the life of a plague
疫情下的地球日
①April 22nd was doubly disrupted. If it had not been messed up by the covid-19 pandemic, as all days now are, parts of it would have been brought to a halt by activism about the climate.
mess up 表「把~搞砸，陷入困境」（to spoil or damage something, or to do something wrong or badly）如：No matter your resume and talents, if you mess up a job interview you won’t get that position. 不管你有什麼樣的簡歷和才華，如果在面試上砸了，你就無法得到那個職位。If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. 你的一敗塗地與父母無尤，不要喋喋不休的抱怨個不停，應該汲取教訓，從中獲益。
mess /mes/ 做名詞表「混亂，髒亂」（Something or someone that is a mess, or is in a mess, looks dirty or untidy）如：He makes a terrible mess when he's cooking. 他做飯時把東西弄得一團糟。Jem's house is always in a mess. 傑姆的房子總是亂糟糟的。
譯文：4月22日受到了極大的幹擾。疫情已經使我們這些天的日子一團糟，如果那一天沒有被疫情所攪亂，那在這一天部分地區會由於氣候激進主義而陷入暫停。
②This was the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a festival of demonstrations, marches and teach-ins that took place mostly in America and is widely seen as marking the birth of modern environmentalism.
譯文：4月22日是第一個世界地球日的50周年紀念日。在這一天會發生示威、遊行和宣講會且它們主要發生在美國。第一個世界地球日被人們廣泛地認為標誌著現代環保主義的誕生。
③Organisers had hoped that this year’s would see hundreds of millions take to the streets around the world. A huge school strike of the sort pioneered by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist, was planned, as well as who-knows-what by way of direct action. A new generation of environmental activists intended to demand a better future more loudly than ever.
pioneer /paɪə'nɪə/作名詞，表「先鋒」（a person who is one of the first people to do something）如我們在經濟學人：公筷「革命」中學到的：In Hubei, the province worst affected by covid-19, schools are giving online lessons on how to be a good「communal-chopsticks pioneer」.
作動詞，表「開闢，創始」（to be the first person or organization to start work in a new area, introduce a new idea, etc.）如：Most major airlines have had to adopt many of the cost-saving innovations pioneered by their low-cost competitors. 大多數大型航空公司不得不採用許多由低成本競爭對手開創的節省成本的創新方法。這個詞可以取代我們常用的start；initiate；inaugurate
譯文：組織者原本希望今年的地球日能看到全球數億人走向街頭，瑞典活動家格蕾塔·桑伯格已經計劃好發起一場大規模的學校罷課，以及一些不清楚細節的直接行動。新一代的環保主義者計劃比以往任何時候都大聲地要求更美好的未來。
學習完講解後，我們再把第一段連起來再閱讀一遍：
April 22nd was doubly disrupted. If it had not been messed up by the covid-19 pandemic, as all days now are, parts of it would have been brought to a halt by activism about the climate. This was the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a festival of demonstrations, marches and teach-ins that took place mostly in America and is widely seen as marking the birth of modern environmentalism. Organisers had hoped that this year’s would see hundreds of millions take to the streets around the world. A huge school strike of the sort pioneered by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist, was planned, as well as who-knows-what by way of direct action. A new generation of environmental activists intended to demand a better future more loudly than ever.
譯文：4月22日受到了極大的幹擾。疫情已經使我們這些天的日子一團糟，如果那一天沒有被疫情所攪亂，那在這一天部分地區會由於氣候激進主義而陷入暫停。4月22日是第一個世界地球日的50周年紀念日。在這一天會發生示威、遊行和宣講會且它們主要發生在美國。第一個世界地球日被人們廣泛地認為標誌著現代環保主義的誕生。組織者原本希望今年的地球日能看到全球數億人走向街頭，瑞典活動家格蕾塔·桑伯格已經計劃好發起一場大規模的學校罷課，以及一些不清楚細節的直接行動。新一代的環保主義者計劃比以往任何時候都大聲地要求更美好的未來。The pandemic means that this widespread and co-ordinated youthful passion, one of the most striking developments in recent climate politics, is instead being expressed indoors and online. This in itself will inevitably lead some to contemplate how climate change and covid-19 fit together. One of the slogans of the first Earth Day was what the pioneering environmentalist Barry Commoner called 「The first law of Ecology」—that 「Everything Is Connected With Everything Else」.
inevitable/ɪn'evɪtəb(ə)l/是其形容詞形式。我們在時代周刊：疫情下的非洲有這麼一句話：We will be able to cushion our populations from the inevitable economic fallout, and we will be able to turn the tide against this pandemic, country by country. 我們將能夠加強非洲大陸的健康基礎設施和衛生系統，也能使我們的人民在面臨此次疫情的經濟下滑時能夠得到緩衝。我們將一個國家接著一個國家來扭轉這一流行病的趨勢。
contemplate /'kɒntempleɪt/表「沉思」（to spend time considering a possible future action, or to consider one particular thing for a long time in a serious and quiet way）如：Mr. Obama said Russian threats to southern and eastern Ukraine posed a serious risk of escalating the crisis, and that he was contemplating penalties against key sectors of the Russian economy. 歐巴馬說俄羅斯對烏克蘭南部和東部的威脅使得這場危機有可能升級，他正策劃對俄羅斯經濟的幾個重要行業進行懲罰。
學習完講解後，我們再把第二段連起來再閱讀一遍：
The pandemic means that this widespread and co-ordinated youthful passion, one of the most striking developments in recent climate politics, is instead being expressed indoors and online. This in itself will inevitably lead some to contemplate how climate change and covid-19 fit together. One of the slogans of the first Earth Day was what the pioneering environmentalist Barry Commoner called 「The first law of Ecology」—that 「Everything Is Connected With Everything Else」.
譯文：這場流行病意味著這種大規模且默契的年輕人的熱情只能在家裡和網絡上表達了。年輕人這種對氣候變化的熱情是最近氣候政治中最引人注目的發展之一。這件事本身會不可避免地使一些人思考氣候變化和這場流行病如何關聯起來。第一個世界地球日的口號之一是被環保先驅巴裡·康芒納稱為「生態學第一定律」的「萬物相連」。①Both scourges bear this out. Some 200,000 deathbeds in 170 countries have been connected by an unbroken web of viral spread.
譯文：這兩大災難都證明了這一點。170個國家的20萬張臨終病榻被一個完整的病毒傳播網絡連接起來。
②So have bat caves in China and test tubes in California, as well as silent airports, deserted shops and crowded food banks all across the planet.
cave /keɪv/做名詞表「山洞」（a large hole in the side of a hill, cliff, or mountain, or one that is underground）
做動詞，表「屈服」（to agree to something that you would not agree to before, after someone has persuaded you or threatened you）如：After protests from customers, the company caved and removed the item from its stores. 在顧客的抗議之後，該公司屈服了，並將該商品從商店中移除。
常用短語：carve in塌落（If a ceiling, roof, or other structure caves in, it breaks and falls into the space below）如：Because of the explosion, the roof of the building caved in, trapping several people. 由於爆炸，建築物的屋頂塌了下來，困住了幾個人。
譯文：中國的蝙蝠洞、加州的檢測試管以及全球各地寂靜的機場、空蕩蕩的商店和擁擠的食品銀行也被連接起來。（註：食品銀行主要為經濟有困難人士提供暫時性膳食支援，食物來源主要由團體及私人捐助）
③The connections which underlie climate change are even more pervasive. They tie together almost all the 21st century’s means of transport, manufacture and growth, its buried geological past and its melting Arctic ice.
譯文：導致氣候變化的聯繫甚至更加普遍。它們將21世紀幾乎所有的運輸、製造和發展手段、被掩埋的地質歷史和正在融化的北極冰層聯繫在一起。
學習完講解後，我們再把第三段連起來再閱讀一遍：
Both scourges bear this out. Some 200,000 deathbeds in 170 countries have been connected by an unbroken web of viral spread. So have bat caves in China and test tubes in California, as well as silent airports, deserted shops and crowded food banks all across the planet. The connections which underlie climate change are even more pervasive. They tie together almost all the 21st century’s means of transport, manufacture and growth, its buried geological past and its melting Arctic ice.
譯文：這兩大災難都證明了這一點。170個國家的20萬張臨終病榻被一個完整的病毒傳播網絡連接起來。中國的蝙蝠洞、加州的檢測試管以及全球各地寂靜的機場、空蕩蕩的商店和擁擠的食品銀行也被連接起來。（註：食品銀行主要為經濟有困難人士提供暫時性膳食支援，食物來源主要由團體及私人捐助）導致氣候變化的聯繫甚至更加普遍。它們將21世紀幾乎所有的運輸、製造和發展手段、被掩埋的地質歷史和正在融化的北極冰層聯繫在一起。
①Covid-19 and climate change are both global problems, and proper responses to both require levels of co-operation that the countries of the world find hard. Responses to the effects of covid-19 on the coal industry, among others, or to the need for economic stimulus once the virus has abated, will offer opportunities to further or impede decarbonisation.
abate /ə'beɪt/表「減輕」（to become less strong, or to make something less strong）如考研中出現過的：Nothing can abate the force of that argument. 什麼也不能減輕那場辯論的影響力。As more casual filmgoers sign up, losses should abate. 隨著更多影迷的註冊，損失會有所減少。
譯文：新冠病毒和氣候變化都是全球性的問題，要對這兩個問題作出恰當的反應，需要世界各國取得難以達到的合作水平。一旦這次疫情的情況減輕，人類需要對新冠病毒對煤炭等行業的影響以及經濟刺激的需要做出反應，這將為進一步推進或阻礙脫碳（註：即限制CO2的排放）提供機會。
②And both have their origin in a strange mixture of human action and the unbiddable forces of nature, provoking contradictory feelings of culpability and a complete lack of control.
譯文：這兩個全球性問題都起源於一種奇怪的混合：人類的行為和不可抗拒的自然力量，這種混合引起了相互矛盾的罪責感和完全的失控感。
學習完講解後，我們再把第四段連起來再閱讀一遍：
Covid-19 and climate change are both global problems, and proper responses to both require levels of co-operation that the countries of the world find hard. Responses to the effects of covid-19 on the coal industry, among others, or to the need for economic stimulus once the virus has abated, will offer opportunities to further or impede decarbonisation. And both have their origin in a strange mixture of human action and the unbiddable forces of nature, provoking contradictory feelings of culpability and a complete lack of control.
譯文：新冠病毒和氣候變化都是全球性的問題，要對這兩個問題作出恰當的反應，需要世界各國取得難以達到的合作水平。一旦這次疫情的情況減輕，人類需要對新冠病毒對煤炭等行業的影響以及經濟刺激的需要做出反應，這將為進一步推進或阻礙脫碳（註：即限制CO2的排放）提供機會。這兩個全球性問題都起源於一種奇怪的混合：人類的行為和不可抗拒的自然力量，這種混合引起了相互矛盾的罪責感和完全的失控感。