PART 3

ROSIE: COLIN, I'm really struggling to think of a topic for our human geography assignment.

罗茜：科林，我真的很难为我们的人类地理作业想出一个主题。

COLIN: Me too, Rosie. I'll tell you what, let's think about the different aspects of human geography, and see if we can narrow the topic down a bit to help us decide.

科林：我也是，罗茜。这样吧，让我们考虑一下人类地理学的不同方面，看看我们能不能把主题缩小一些，帮助我们做出决定。

ROSIE: OK. So one aspect is population.

罗茜：好的，那么其中一个方面是人口。

That would be all about population density and migration and so on.

那就全是关于人口密度和迁移等等的问题了。

Lots of facts and statistics … Maybe a bit boring?

很多事实和统计数据...... 也许有点无聊？

COLIN: Yeah, but quite straightforward to find on the internet.

科林：是啊，不过在网上查起来很简单。

ROSIE: Suppose so. How about health?

罗茜：好吧，那么健康呢？

I'd never thought about the links between that and geography until Professor Lee gave us that lecture on cholera.

我从未想过这与地理之间的联系，直到李教授给我们上了那堂关于霍乱的课。

How in the nineteenth century a physician used street plans and plans of water supplies to find the source of a cholera epidemic.

在 19 世纪，一位医生如何利用街道规划和供水规划来寻找霍乱疫情的源头。

COLIN: Yes – fascinating, wasn't it? Or we could do something more general – like economies.

科林：是的 —— 很有趣，不是吗？或者我们可以做一些更普遍的事情 —— 比如经济学。

ROSIE: So how financial and commercial factors are linked to the physical environment?

罗茜：那么，经济和商业因素是如何与物理环境联系在一起的呢？

COLIN: Yeah.

科林：是的。

ROSIE: I thought that had been taken off the syllabus for this year.

罗西：我以为今年的课程大纲里已经把这一条删掉了。

COLIN: Has it?

科林：是吗？

ROSIE: I'm not sure. But it might be best to avoid it.

罗茜：我不确定。不过最好还是避开它。

COLIN: OK. Maybe we could do something on culture.

科林：好吧，也许我们可以在文化方面做点什么。

We had that lecture about culture and geography last week.

上周我们上了一堂关于文化和地理的课。

ROSIE: I didn't get much out of that.

罗茜：我没从中学到什么。

It was all so general and the lecturer didn't give any useful examples.

这一切都太笼统了，讲师也没有给出任何有用的例子。

COLIN: Yeah, I hardly took any notes, it didn't seem worth it.

科林：是啊，我几乎没做什么笔记，因为似乎不值得。

ROSIE: Me neither.

罗茜：我也是。

COLIN: We could focus on poverty.

科林：我们可以关注贫困问题。

That's something that's a global problem …

这是一个全球性的问题......

ROSIE: The trouble is, Dr Lee was saying, that you have to be careful with some of the figures relating to poverty – they're sometimes deliberately manipulated.

罗西：问题在于，李博士正在说，你必须小心处理一些与贫困相关的数据 —— 它们有时会被故意操纵。

COLIN: You mean the information gets changed for political reasons?

科林：你是说这些信息是出于政治原因而被篡改的？

ROSIE: That sort of thing, yes.

罗西：是的，差不多就是这样。

ROSIE: So what are we going to do our assignment on? I'll tell you what, one of the possibilities we haven't discussed is urbanisation.

罗西：那么我们的任务是什么呢？我来告诉你吧，我们还没有讨论过的一个可能性是城市化。

And now over half the world's population lives in cities, that's really important.

现在世界上超过一半的人口生活在城市里，这真的很重要。

COLIN: OK, good idea, Rosie. Let's do that.

科林：好的，好主意，罗茜。我们就这么做吧。

ROSIE: I love living in a big city, but of course there are problems.

罗茜：我喜欢住在大城市里，但当然也有一些问题。

COLIN: Things like theft and robbery?

科林：比如偷窃和抢劫之类的事情？

ROSIE: Yes, but where I come from, that's linked to another more serious issue, which is that a lot of people don't have jobs.

罗茜：是的，但在我来的地方，这与另一个更严重的问题有关，那就是很多人没有工作。

That's getting worse and worse.

情况正在越来越糟糕。

And we also still have quite a lot of people who are homeless, though that's not quite so bad as it was.

我们仍然有相当多的人无家可归，尽管这并不像以前那么糟糕。

COLIN: It'd be nice to talk about some positive developments.

科林：要是能谈谈一些积极的发展就好了。

Like some of the new developments on the outskirts of cities.

就像城市郊区的一些新发展一样。

ROSIE: Yeah. They've opened some massive new shopping centres outside my city.

罗茜：是的，他们在我们城市外开设了一些大型新购物中心。

COLIN: Yeah, the same with mine – but it's meant a lot of the shops in the city centre are closing down.

科林：是的，我的也是这样 —— 但这意味着市中心的许多商店正在关闭。

But the outskirts are ideal for buildings that need a lot of space, like for conferences.

但是郊区对于需要大量空间的建筑来说是理想的，比如用于会议。

They've opened a couple of big ones.

他们开了几家大店。

ROSIE: Yes, we've got some too.

罗茜：是的，我们也有一些。

It'd be nicer to have more facilities for things like football too.

如果能有更多像足球这样的设施就更好了。

But that's not happening where I live.

但在我住的地方，这种情况并不常见。

COLIN: Same in my area.

科林：在我的地区也是如此。

ROSIE: We could include something about developing disused industrial sites.

罗茜：我们可以加入一些关于开发废弃工业场地的内容。

It seems like a good idea, because you're not doing any harm to the natural environment.

这似乎是个好主意，因为你不会对自然环境造成任何损害。

COLIN: Yeah, but aren't the buildings architecturally significant?

科林：是的，但这些建筑难道不具有建筑学意义吗？

ROSIE: Not really. And what people forget is that they often used quite dangerous materials – chemicals and things – which haven't been properly cleared away, so the whole site has to be made safe.

罗茜：不完全是。人们忘记的是，他们经常使用相当危险的材料 —— 化学品和其他东西 —— 这些东西还没有被妥善清理，所以必须确保整个场地的安全。

COLIN: Mm. That can't be cheap. And I bet it's often not budgeted for.

科林：嗯，那可不便宜。而且我敢打赌，这通常不在预算之内。

ROSIE: You're right.

罗西：你说得对。

COLIN: Have you read about Masdar City?

科林：你读过马斯达尔市的资料吗？

ROSIE: In Abu Dhabi? Yes, it was designed to be a green city, wasn't it?

罗西：在阿布扎比？是的，它被设计成一个绿色城市，不是吗？

That might be a good example of a city which set out to depend entirely on renewable energy.

这可能是一个完全依赖可再生能源的城市的典型例子。

COLIN: Yes, we should say something about that.

科林：是的，我们应该对此说点什么。

It was designed to be totally pedestrianised too, wasn't it, with the transport underground.

它也被设计成完全步行化的，不是吗？交通工具都在地下。

ROSIE: Yes, and they had big plans for recycling to reduce waste to the lowest possible level.

罗茜：是的，他们还制定了大规模的回收计划，旨在将废物减少到尽可能低的水平。

But let's stick to talking about power sources.

但让我们继续谈论电力来源。

COLIN: Then there's that ecotown in England, Greenhill Abbots.

科林：然后是英格兰的那个生态小镇，格林希尔修道院。

It set out to conform to the usual principles – sustainability and so on.

它开始遵循常规原则 —— 可持续发展等等。

A lot of people were against it at first; they said the plans were unrealistic.

起初，很多人都反对；他们说这些计划不切实际。

I'm not sure how far they've got with it – I'll check.

我不确定他们在这方面进展如何 —— 我会去查看的。

ROSIE: Right. So it looks as …

罗茜：好的。所以看起来......