2020年考研英语二阅读 Text 3 原文翻译及答案解析

Madrid was hailed as a public health beacon last November when it rolled out ambitious restrictions on the most polluting cars. Seven months and one election day later, a new conservative city council suspended enforcement of the clean air zone, a first step toward its possible demise.

马德里在去年十一月因推出针对污染最严重汽车的雄心勃勃的限制措施而被誉为公共卫生灯塔。七个月后，又过了一个选举日，新的保守派市议会暂停了清洁空气区的执法，这可能是其终结的第一步。

Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida made opposition to the zone a centrepiece of his election campaign, despite its success in improving air quality. A judge has now overruled the city's decision to stop levying fines, ordering them reinstated. But with legal battles ahead, the zone's future looks uncertain at best.

市长何塞·路易斯·马丁内斯-阿尔梅达将反对该区域作为其选举活动的核心，尽管它在改善空气质量方面取得了成功。一名法官现在已经推翻了该市停止征收罚款的决定，命令恢复罚款。但随着法律斗争的继续，该区域的未来充其量是不确定的。

Among other weaknesses, the measures cities must employ when left to tackle dirty air on their own are politically contentious, and therefore vulnerable. That's because they inevitably put the costs of cleaning the air on to individual drivers — who must pay fees or buy better vehicles — rather than on to the car manufacturers whose cheating is the real cause of our toxic pollution.

在其他弱点中，当城市自行应对空气污染时必须采取的措施在政治上存在争议，因此容易受到影响。这是因为它们不可避免地将清洁空气的成本转嫁给个体司机——他们必须支付费用或购买更好的车辆——而不是转嫁给汽车制造商，后者的欺骗才是我们有毒污染的真正原因。

It's not hard to imagine a similar reversal happening in London. The new ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) is likely to be a big issue in next year's mayoral election. And if Sadiq khan wins and extends it to the North and South Circular roads in 2021 as he intends, it is sure to spark intense opposition from the far larger number of motorists who will then be affected.

不难想象伦敦也会发生类似的逆转。新的超低排放区（Ulez）可能成为明年市长选举的一个重大议题。如果萨迪克·汗获胜，并按计划在2021年将其扩展到北环路和南环路，这肯定会引发更多受影响的驾车者的强烈反对。

It's not that measures such as London's Ulez are useless. Far from it. Local officials are using the levers that are available to them to safeguard residents' health in the face of a serious threat. The zones do deliver some improvements to air quality, and the science tells us that means real health benefits — fewer heart attacks, strokes and premature births, less cancer, dementia and asthma. Fewer untimely deaths.

并不是像伦敦超低排放区这样的措施毫无用处。远非如此。地方官员正在利用他们可用的手段来保障居民的健康，以应对严重威胁。这些区域确实带来了一些空气质量的改善，科学告诉我们这意味着真实的健康益处——更少的心脏病发作、中风和早产，更少的癌症、痴呆症和哮喘。更少的过早死亡。

But mayors and councilors can only do so much about a problem that is far bigger than any one city or town. They are acting because national governments — Britain's and others across Europe—have failed to do so.

但市长和议员们对于一个远大于任何单个城市或城镇的问题只能做这么多。他们行动是因为国家政府——英国和欧洲其他国家——未能这样做。

Restrictions that keep highly polluting cars out of certain areas — city centres, "school streets", even individual roads — are a response to the absence of a larger effort to properly enforce existing regulations and require auto companies to bring their vehicles into compliance. Wales has introduced special low speed limits to minimise pollution. We're doing everything but insist that manufacturers clean up their cars.

限制高污染汽车进入某些区域——市中心、“学校街道”，甚至个别道路——是对缺乏更大努力来正确执行现有法规和要求汽车公司使其车辆合规的回应。威尔士已经引入了特殊的低速限制以减少污染。我们正在做一切事情，除了坚持让制造商清洁他们的汽车。