2023年考研英语二阅读 Text 2 原文翻译及答案解析

It's easy to dismiss as absurd the federal government's ideas for plugging the chronic funding gap of our national parks. Can anyone really think it's a good idea to allow Amazon deliveries to your tent in Yosemite or food trucks to line up under the redwood trees at Sequoia National Park?

很容易将联邦政府为填补我们国家公园长期资金缺口而提出的建议斥为荒谬。真的有人会认为允许亚马逊将货物送到你在约塞米蒂的帐篷里，或者在红杉国家公园的红杉树下排列食品卡车是个好主意吗？

But the government is right about one thing: U.S. national parks are in crisis. Collectively, they have a maintenance backlog of more than $12 billion. Roads, trails, restrooms, visitor centers and other infrastructure are crumbling.

但政府在一件事上是对的：美国国家公园正处于危机之中。总体而言，它们有超过120亿美元的维护积压。道路、步道、卫生间、游客中心和其他基础设施正在崩坏。

But privatizing and commercializing the campgrounds would not be a cure aH. Campgrounds are a tiny portion of the overall infrastructure backlog, and businesses in the parks hand over, on average, only about 5 % of their revenues to the National Park Service.

但是，将营地私有化和商业化并非万能药。营地只是整体基础设施积压的一小部分，而且公园内的企业平均只将其收入的约5%交给国家公园管理局。

Moreover, increased privatization would certainly undercut one of the major reasons why 300 million visitors come to the parks each year: to enjoy nature and get a break from the commercial drumbeat that overwhelms daily life.

此外，更多的私有化肯定会削弱每年3亿游客来公园的一个主要原因：享受自然并从压倒日常生活的商业喧嚣中得到休息。

The real problem is that the parks have been chronically starved of funding. We conducted a comprehensive survey examining how U.S. residents view their national parks, and we found that Americans place a very high value on them whether or not they actually visit them. The peer-reviewed economic survey of 700 U.S. taxpayers, conducted by mail and internet, also found that people would be wining to pay a significant amount of money to make sure the parks and their programs are kept intact. Some 81 % of respondents said they would be willing to pay additional taxes for the next 10 years to avoid any cuts to the national parks.

真正的问题是公园长期缺乏资金。我们进行了一项全面调查，研究美国居民如何看待他们的国家公园，我们发现美国人非常重视它们，无论他们是否实际参观。这项由邮件和互联网进行、针对700名美国纳税人的同行评审经济调查还发现，人们愿意支付一大笔钱来确保公园及其项目保持完整。大约81%的受访者表示，他们愿意在未来10年支付额外税款，以避免对国家公园的任何削减。

The national parks provide great value to U.S. residents both as places to escape as symbols of nature. On top of this, they produce value from their

国家公园为美国居民提供了巨大价值，既是逃离的地方，也是自然的象征。除此之外，它们还从其

programs, their positive impact on the climate through carbon sequestration, their contribution to our cultural and artistic life, and of course through tourism. The parks also help keep America's past alive, working with thousands of local jurisdictions around the country to protect historical sites-including Ellis Island and Gettysburg-and to bring the stories of these places to life.

项目、它们通过碳封存对气候的积极影响、它们对我们的文化和艺术生活的贡献，当然还有通过旅游业。公园还有助于保持美国历史的活力，与全国数千个地方司法管辖区合作保护历史遗址——包括埃利斯岛和葛底斯堡——并让这些地方的故事栩栩如生。

The parks do all this on a shoestring. Congress allocates only $ 3 billion a year to the national park system-an amount that has been flat since 2001 ( in inflation-adjusted dollars) with the exception of a onetirne boost in 2009 as part of the Obama stimulus package. Meanwhile, the number of annual visitors has increased by more than 50% since 1980, and now stands at 330 million visitors per year.

公园在预算紧张的情况下做到了这一切。国会每年只拨款30亿美元给国家公园系统——自2001年以来，这一数额（经通胀调整后）一直持平，除了2009年作为奥巴马刺激计划的一部分一次性增加。与此同时，自1980年以来，年游客数量增加了50%以上，现在每年达到3.3亿游客。