2017 考博英语 阅读题源经济学人文章每日精析（六十三）

考博英语阅读大部分博士研究生招生院校都使用《经济学人》杂志文章作为题源，考博信息网|http://www.kaoboinfo.com教育考博频道为考博生们将其中的文章进行深度分析，希望能提高大家的考博英语阅读水平，读懂长难句。

The Anthropocene: Dawn of a new epoch

人类世：一个新时代的开端

People may have propelled Earth into a novel episode of geological time

人类活动可能促使地球进入了一个全新的地质时代

从地质年代(Geological Epoch)上看，目前所处的年代属于"全新世"(Holocene)，大约已经有11000年的历史。但是，许多证据都表明，在1950年以后的几十年中，地球的一些地质特征发生了明显变化。科学家们说，人类活动很可能引发了一个新的地质年代----人类世(Anthropocene)。

Epoch：n. 时代Propelled...into... : 推动...进入...episode: n. 插曲;情节Anthropocene： n. 人类世

The start of something new新的开始

ONE way to think of science is as a series of painful demotions. In the 1500s Nicolaus Copernicus kicked Earth from its perch at the centre of the universe. Later, Charles Darwin showed that humans are just another species of animal. In the 20th century geologists found that all human history amounts to less than an eye-blink in the span of a planet that they discovered is 4.6 billion years old.从另一方面看科学就像是一系列痛苦递减的事件。16世纪尼古拉·哥白尼把地球从宇宙的中心的位置上赶了下来。后来，查尔斯·达尔文发现，人类只不过是动物中的一类。20世纪的地质学家发现，人类历史在地球46亿岁的寿命面前不过是眨眼一瞬。

Demotions： n. 降级Perch: n. 高位;栖息;就位an eye-blink：adj. 一眨眼的

Now, though, those geologists’ spiritual descendants may give humans an unexpected promotion—to the status of geological movers and shakers. On August 29th Colin Waters, the secretary of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), an ad hoc collection of geologists, addressed the International Geological Congress in Cape Town. He told his colleagues that there was a good case for ringing down the curtain on the Holocene—the present geological epoch, which has lasted for 12,000 years—and recognising that Earth has entered a new one, the Anthropocene.但现在，这些地质学家的后代可能使人类地位得到提升——提升到一个可以改变地质地位。8月29日，人类世工作组(AWG)和地质学家特设收集秘书Colin Waters在开普敦国际地质大会上发表演讲。他告诉他的同事们，有充分的证据表明目前已经持续12000年的地质时代全新世落下帷幕了，地球已经进入一个新时代——人类世。

Descendants：n. 后羿Movers and shakers: n. 呼风唤雨;运筹帷幄;有权势的人ringing down the curtain: 降下帷幕Holocene: adj. 全新世的

As its name suggests, the point of this new epoch would be to acknowledge that humans, far from being mere passengers on the planet’s surface, now fundamentally affect the way it works. That sounds hubristic. But it is not a new idea. It was first promulgated in 2000 by Eugene Stoermer, now deceased, and Paul Crutzen.顾名思义，这个新时代要承认的一个关键点是：人类远不是这个星球上曾经的单纯过客了。现今人类从根本上影响着地球的运作。乍一听很狂妄自大，不过这一说法早前就已经有了，它最初是由现今已经去世的Eugene Stoermer和健在的Paul Crutzen于2000年提出的。

Hubristic：adj. 傲慢的promulgated ：v. 公布;发布Deceased：adj. 已故的;去世的

Dr Crutzen is an atmospheric chemist, and the growth of carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere is perhaps the most familiar symptom of the Anthropocene. For instance, acidity in oceans caused by extra CO2 affects the make-up of creatures whose shells will form Earth’s future limestones. Nitrogen, too, is affected. The process by which this vital element cycles through the air, the soil and living organisms has been turbocharged by human use of artificial fertilisers. One consequence is the expansion of food production. In 1750 about 5% of the Earth’s surface was farmed. That figure is now around 50%, and the transformation from wilderness to agricultural land leaves lasting changes in the nature of the soil. On top of this, dams hold back billions of tonnes of silt. As a result, river deltaseverywhere are shrinking.Crutzen博士是一个大气化学家。大气层中二氧化碳浓度的升高可能是人类世这个时代最为人熟知的表现形式。例如，过多的二氧化碳所造成的海洋酸度升高，进而影响了某些生物的结构。这些生物的外壳以后将变成地球的石灰岩。同样地，氮也会受到影响。由于受到人类使用人工肥料的影响，这一重要元素在空气、土壤和有机生物中循环的过程中急速增长。这就造成粮食产业扩张。1750年，种植面积约占地球表面的5%。这一数字现在上升到50%左右，并且从荒地到农业用地的转化使得土壤性质发生了持久的变化。除此之外，大坝拦住了数十亿吨淤泥。致使所有的河流三角洲都在萎缩。

carbon-dioxide concentrations：二氧化碳浓度Limestones：n.石灰岩Nitrogen: n.氮Turbocharged: vt.用涡轮增压，快速增长wilderness : n.荒地river deltas : n.三角洲Shrinking: vi.萎缩

Markers of the Anthropocene will surely be visible in the fossil record. On present trends, numerous species will vanish from that record—exterminated by human activity. Meanwhile, “technofossils” will appear. A favourite for long-term preservation, for example, is the porcelain water closet. New types of mineral may come into existence as a result of things like the deposition of elemental aluminium in the soil (the stuff is unknown in nature) and the settling to the sea bed of zillions of plastic scraps now littering the ocean. Beds of fly ash from power stations may get consolidated into novel rocks. And who knows what refuse tips will look like when buried, compressed and metamorphosed人类世一定会在化石记录中留下的可见的印记。按照目前的趋势来看，无数物种会从这些印记中消失——人类活动消除了它们。同时，“科技化石”将出现。例如，一个可以长期保存的新宠——瓷器抽水马桶。新类型的矿物可能会被人发现。它们就像土壤中沉积的铝(在自然界里不被人所知)和现在被人们扔到海里在海床沉积的不计其数的塑料垃圾一样。发电厂的粉煤灰床可能会形成新的岩石。谁知道当垃圾被埋、被压缩、变质后是怎样的呢

Fossil: n/adj. 化石(的)Exterminated: vt. 消除Porcelain: n/adj. 瓷器Deposition: n. 沉积zillions of: adj.无限数量的;不计其数的Scraps: n.垃圾Compressed: vi.压缩Metamorphosed: vi.变质

The AWG, then, believes that the Anthropocene is real. The next question is how to define it. The traditions of geology demand a clear and sudden change, visible in the rocks. There are several contenders, including the appearance of plastics in the 1950s and the exchange of species between the New and Old Worlds in the 1600s. But most of the AWG’s membersplumped for the high point of nuclear-weapons testing, in 1964. Fallout from those tests scatteredplutonium, an element vanishingly rare in nature, far and wide across the planet. Future geologists, depending on precisely how much time has passed and therefore how much radioactive decay has occurred, will be able to see a layer ofplutonium, or of uranium, or (eventually) of lead in the rocks. At the congress, the AWG’s members voted for this “bomb spike” to be the marker. That makes the Anthropocene more than half a century old already.人类世工作组(AWG)认为人类世的确到来了。接下来的问题是如何定义它。由于地质学的传统，想要定义它需要在岩石上有清晰和突然的变化。备受争议的定义有好几个，包括在20世纪50年代塑料的出现和17世纪新旧世界之间的物种变更。但大多数AWG的成员支持的是1964年的核武器试验。(读者试译)在此次大会上，AWG的成员投票赞成这个“炸弹高峰”就是地球进入到人类世的标记。这就意味着地球进入到人类世已超过半个世纪了。

Contenders: n.竞争者plumped for:支持Scattered:adj.分散的Vanishingly: adj.难以察觉的;消失殆尽的Decay：v.衰退a layer of ：一层...Plutonium：n.(化学元素)钚Uranium: n.铀Lead: n.铅

The next step will be to point to a single piece of the geological record (an ice core, perhaps, or samples from lake sediments) that can serve as the officially accepted reference point. Then the proposal must make its way through several strata of geologicalbureaucracy, any of which could scupper it. The last step will be a vote at a meeting of the International Union of Geological Sciences. If that passes, then geological time, whose passage is famously slow, will have ticked perceptibly on.下一步的焦点就是一条地质记录(关于冰核，又或许仅仅是湖泊沉积物)。它是官方所能接受的参考数据。随后所提出的建议还必须通过官方地质机构的层层认可，任何一个环节都可能使此提议前功尽弃。最后一步将是在地质科学国际联盟会议上进行表决。如果顺利通过——其通过过程是出了名的龟速，则代表正式进入了这个地质时代。

Sediments：n. 沉积物Strata: n.阶层 ，stratum的复数Bureaucracy: n. 官僚Scupper:vt. 突袭;使船沉没