剑桥雅思19Test4Passage2阅读原文翻译 Deep-sea Mining 深海采矿
剑桥雅思19阅读第四套题目第二篇文章的主题为深海采矿。作者从一种可能作为药物的深海微生物出发，探索海底生物具备的医疗潜力，随后转向深海采矿对海底生态环境，尤其是热液喷涌区域的危害。整篇文章的逻辑结构虽然不难，但生词比较多，读起来不是很顺畅。下面是具体每个自然段的翻译。
段落A：
When Professor Mat Upton found that a microbe from a deep-sea sponge was killing pathogenic bugs in his laboratory, he realised it could be a breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which are responsible for thousands of deaths a year in the UK alone. Further tests confirmed that an antibiotic from the sponge bacteria, found living more than 700 metres under the sea at the Rockall trough in the north-east Atlantic, was previously unknown to science, boosting its potential as a life-saving medicine. But Upton, and other scientists who view the deep ocean and its wealth of unique and undocumented species as a prospecting ground for new medicines, fear such potential will be lost in the rush to exploit the deep sea’s equally rich metal and mineral resources.
当马特·阿普顿教授发现一种来自深海海绵的微生物在他的实验室中能杀死致病菌时，他意识到这可能是在对抗抗药性“超级细菌”方面的一项重大突破。这些超级细菌每年仅在英国就导致数千人死亡。进一步的测试证实，这种从海绵细菌中提取的抗生素在科学界尚属首次发现，这也让它作为一种潜在救命药物的希望大增。该细菌生活在大西洋东北部罗卡尔海槽（Rockall Trough）700多米深的海底。然而，阿普顿和其他将深海及其尚未记录的独特物种视为潜在新药来源的科学家们担心，随着人类争相开发深海丰富的金属和矿产资源，这些宝贵的医疗潜力可能会因此被永远埋没。
段落B：
‘We’re looking at the bioactive potential of marine resources, to see if there are any more medicines or drugs down there before we destroy it for ever,’ says Upton, a medical microbiologist at the University of Plymouth. He is among many scientists urging a halt to deep-sea mining, asking for time to weigh up the pros and cons. ‘In sustainability terms, this could be a better way of exploiting the economic potential of the deep sea,’ he argues. Oceanographers using remotely operated vehicles have spotted many new species. This article is from laokaoya website. Among them have been sea cucumbers with tails allowing them to sail along the ocean floor, and a rare ‘Dumbo’ octopus, found 3,000 metres under the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. Any one of these could offer lifesaving potential. Upton estimates it could take up to a decade or a newly discovered antibiotic to become a medicine – but the race towards commercial mining in the ocean abyss has already begun.
“我们正在研究海洋资源的生物活性潜力，想看看在我们彻底破坏它之前，那里是否还可以发现更多药物。”普利茅斯大学的医学微生物学家阿普顿说。他是众多呼吁暂停深海采矿的科学家之一，希望人类能先认真权衡利弊。“从可持续发展的角度来看，开发深海生物资源可能是一种更理性的经济利用方式。”他说。海洋学家使用遥控潜水器在深海中发现了许多新物种，其中包括拥有“尾巴”可以在海底滑行的海参，以及一种罕见的“邓波章鱼”（Dumbo octopus），它是在太平洋海底3000米、加州近海被发现的。这些新发现中的任何一个都有可能带来救命的医学突破。阿普顿估计，一种新发现的抗生素要真正成为药品，可能需要长达十年的时间——然而，深海商业采矿的竞赛已经悄然开始。
段落C：
The deep sea contains more nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals than all land reserves combined, according to the US Geological Survey. Mining corporations argue that deepsea exploration could help diversify the supply of metals and point to the fact that demand for resources such as copper, aluminium, cobalt for electric car batteries and other metals to power technology and smartphones, is soaring. They say that deep-sea mining could yield far superior ore to land mining with little, if any, waste. Different methods of extraction exist, but most involve employing some form of converted machinery previously used in terrestrial mining to excavate materials from the sea floor, at depths of up to 6,000 metres, then drawing a seawater slurry, containing rock and other solid particles, from the sea floor to ships on the surface. The slurry is then ‘de-watered’ and transferred to another vessel for shipping. Extracted seawater is pumped back down and discharged close to the sea floor.
据美国地质调查局称，深海中蕴藏的镍、钴和稀土金属的总量超过了全球陆地储量的总和。矿业公司则表示，开发深海资源有助于金属供应渠道的多元化，并指出，随着电动汽车电池、科技设备和智能手机的广泛使用，铜、铝、钴等金属的需求正在迅速增长。他们还声称，深海采矿可以获得比陆地开采更高品位的矿石，而且几乎没有废料。虽然深海采矿有多种方式，但大多数方法是利用改造自陆地采矿的机械设备，从海底（最深可达6000米）挖掘矿物。然后，将含有岩石和其他固体颗粒的海水混合物（矿浆）从海底输送到水面上的船只进行提取。这些矿浆会被“脱水”，随后再转运到另一艘船上运走。至于分离出来的海水，则会被重新泵送回海底附近排放。
段落D：
But environmental and legal groups have urged caution, arguing there are potentially massive and unknown ramifications for the environment and for nearby communities, and that the global regulatory framework is not yet drafted. ‘Despite arising in the last half century, the “new global gold rush” of deep-sea mining shares many features with past resource crambles – including a general disregard for environmental and social impacts, and the marginalisation of indigenous peoples and their rights,’ a paper, written by Julie Hunter and Julian Aguon, from Blue Ocean Law, and Pradeep Singh, from the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Bremen, argues. The authors say that knowledge of the deep seabed remains extremely limited. ‘The surface of the Moon, Mars and even Venus have all been mapped and studied in much greater detail, leading marine scientists to commonly remark that, with respect to the deep sea, “We don’t yet know what we need to know”.’
然而，环保组织和法律团体纷纷呼吁要谨慎行事。他们认为，深海采矿可能会对环境和周边社群造成巨大且未知的影响，而且目前全球还没有建立起相关的法律监管框架。由“蓝海法律事务所”的朱莉·亨特（Julie Hunter）和朱利安·阿贡（Julian Aguon）以及不来梅海洋环境科学中心的普拉迪普·辛格（Pradeep Singh）撰写的一篇论文指出：“虽然深海采矿这一‘新的全球淘金热’是近半个世纪才出现的，但它与以往的资源争夺战有许多相似之处——例如对环境和社会影响的普遍忽视，以及对原住民及其权益的边缘化。”作者们还指出，人类对深海海底的了解仍极为有限。“相比之下，月球、火星甚至金星的表面都已经被详细绘制和研究。因此，海洋科学家们常说：‘对于深海，我们甚至还不知道我们应该知道些什么。’”
段落E：
Scientific research – including a recent paper in Marine Policy journal – has suggested the deep seabed, and hydrothermal vents, which are created when seawater meets volcanic magma, have crucial impacts upon biodiversity and the global climate. The mineral-rich vents and their surrounds are also home to many well-known animals including crustaceans, tubeworms, clams,slugs, anemones and fish. ‘It is becoming increasingly clear that deep sea mining poses a grave threat to these vital seabed functions,’the paper says. ‘Extraction methods would produce large sediment plumes and involve the discharge of waste back into the ocean,significantly disturbing seafloor environments,’the paper continues. ‘On deep sea vents, scientists are clear,’ says Dr Jon Copley of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton: ‘we don’t want mining on them.’
包括《海洋政策》（Marine Policy）期刊最新研究在内的科学研究表明，深海海底以及海底热液喷口——即海水与火山岩浆接触后形成的地热结构——对生物多样性和全球气候具有至关重要的影响。这些富含矿物质的热液喷口及其周边区域还是许多著名海洋动物的栖息地，包括甲壳类动物、管虫、蛤蜊、海蛞蝓、海葵和鱼类。文章来自老烤鸭雅思。“深海采矿对这些关键的海底生态功能构成严重威胁，这一点正变得越来越明显。”研究论文指出，“采矿过程将产生大量的沉积物羽流，并将废弃物重新排放到海洋中，从而对海底环境造成重大干扰。”“对于深海热液喷口，科学界的态度非常明确。”英国南安普敦国家海洋中心的乔恩·科普利博士表示：“我们不希望在这些区域进行采矿。”
段落F：
The oceans occupy around 70% of the planet and are relatively unexplored,says Mike Johnston, chief executive of Nautilus, a Canadian underwater exploration company: ‘It makes sense to explore this untapped potential in an environmentally sustainable way, instead of continually looking at the fast depleting land resources of the planet to meet society’s rising needs.’Those leading the global rush to place giant mining machines thousands of metres below the sea surface say the environmental impacts will be far lower than on land. But critics say exotic and little-known ecosystems in the deep oceans could be destroyed and must be protected. ‘Mining will be the greatest assault on deep-sea ecosystems ever inflicted by humans,’ according to hydrothermal vent expert Verena Tunnicliffe, at the University of Victoria in Canada. She argues that active vents must be off-limits for mining to protect the new knowledge and biotechnology spin-offs they can deliver, and that strict controls must be in place elsewhere.
加拿大深海勘探公司 Nautilus 的首席执行官迈克·约翰斯顿指出，海洋覆盖了地球约70%的面积，至今的探索十分有限：“我们应当以环保可持续的方式开发这片尚未被利用的资源，而不是不断依赖正在迅速枯竭的陆地资源来满足人类日益增长的需求。”推动全球将大型采矿设备布置在几千米深海之下的企业们认为，与陆地采矿相比，深海采矿对环境的影响将小得多。但批评者警告说，深海中那些奇特而鲜为人知的生态系统可能会被彻底破坏，因此必须加以保护。加拿大维多利亚大学的热液喷口专家维雷娜·图尼克利夫（ Verena Tunnicliffe）表示：“深海采矿将成为人类对深海生态系统施加的最大破坏。”她主张，所有活跃的热液喷口都应禁止采矿，以保护这些区域所能带来的科学发现和生物技术发展潜力，并且在其他区域也必须实施严格的管控措施。
