Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over-industrialized planet. When you come to think about it, there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish: dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, attempt to produce less of it. We keep trying all four methods, but the sheer volume of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us.
污染是我们为这个人口过密、过度工业化的星球所付出的代价。当你开始考虑垃圾问题时，只有四种应对之策：倾倒、焚烧、再利用、减少生产。我们一直用这四个办法，但是我们在世界范围内仅仅产生的垃圾的量就能把我们埋了。
PS: turn A into B, 把A转化为B
PS++: sheer volume of rubbish, 仅仅是垃圾的量，sheer表程度
Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. The need to produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food leads to a different kind of pollution. Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork and chicken. The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables.
然而，垃圾只是我们这颗星球面临的污染问题之一。对于无休止的廉价食物的需求导致了另外一种污染。工业化牧业产生了大量的廉价肉类：牛排、猪肉、鸡肉。农药和化肥的使用也产出了大量廉价的粮食和蔬菜。
PS: ever, 形容比较级 同样形容比较级的词还有much
The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high: Mad Cow Disease(BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and listeria in dairy products. And if you think you’ll abandon meat and become a vegetarian, you have the choice of very expensive originically-grown vegetables or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think you’re eating fresh salads and vegetables, or just having an innocent glass of water!
然而我们为这些廉价食物付出的代价也太高了—牛肉中的疯牛病，鸡蛋和鸡肉中的沙门氏菌，奶制品中的利斯特杆菌。如果你觉得您能放弃吃肉而做个素食主义者，你就得选择更贵的纯天然蔬菜或者当你认为你吃的是新鲜的沙拉和蔬菜或者饮用一杯无害的水的时候，实际上你每次都在吃农药催出来的蔬菜。
However, there is an even more insidious kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise. Burglar alarms going off at any time of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle. Car alarms constantly scream at us in the street and are a source of profound irritation.
然而，还有一种更隐蔽的污染，特别是在城市，总是侵入你的日常生活，这就是噪声。防盗报警器总是不分昼夜地响，把路人弄烦躁，方便小偷去偷窃。汽车报警器在街道上持续不断地对着我们嘶鸣，是我们持续烦躁的源头。
PS: go off, 响起
A recent survey of the effects of noise revealed(surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest from of noise pollution on a scale ranging from 1 to 7. The survey revealed a large number of sources of noice that we really dislike. Lawn mowers whining on a summer’s day, late-night parties in apartment blocks, noisy neighbours, vehicles of all kinds, especially large container trunks thundering through quite villages, planes and helicopters flying overhead, large radios carries round in public places and played at maximum volumn.
最近一份关于噪音影响的报告惊异地指出，夜间持续不断的狗叫声，在一个从1级到7级的刻度表上应列为最高等级的噪声污染。这份报告支持大量的噪音源都不被人所喜欢。夏天嗡嗡作响的割草机，深夜公寓中的趴体声，吵闹的邻居，各种车辆的声音，特别是大卡车疾驰过安静乡村的声音，飞机和直升机飞过头顶的声音，公共场所开最大喇叭的广播的声音。
New technology has also made its own contribution to noise. A lot of people object to mobile phones, especially when they are used to in public places like restaurants or in public transport. Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat. The noise pollution survey revealed a rather surprising and possibly amusing old-fashioned source of noise. It turned out to be snoring! Men were found to be the worst offenders. It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. This figure rises to a staggering 60% of men in their sixties. Against these figures, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners. Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.
新的技术也对噪声污染做出了贡献。一些人反对使用移动电话，特别是在公共场所，像餐厅和公交站等地方听到。大声的电话交谈侵入我们的思考或者打断我们和朋友安静对话的好心情。这封噪音污染报告也指出了一种令人惊诧和发笑的老式噪音源。是打呼噜！男人们通常是罪魁祸首。它指出20%的男人会在30多岁时打呼噜，但在他们60多岁时，这个数字会提升到60%。与之相反的是，女人们只有5%经常打呼噜，剩下的不是被经常被打呼噜的伴侣吵醒，就是再也无法入睡。无论噪音的来源是什么，有一件事是肯定的：似乎，安静已经是种奢侈的回忆了。
PS: make contribution to, 捐助、供稿、做贡献
PS++: object to, 反对
PS++++: Against these figures, 与之相反
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