評論
打印
Weather Forecasting
天氣預報
It is the material for the conversation of board chairman and bored cleaning woman,of young and old, of the bright, the dull, the rich and the poor.
天氣是董事會主席和無聊的清潔女傭之間閑聊的話題，也是年輕人和老人，聰明人和笨蛋，窮人和富人的談資。
As if this basic coin of conversation needed to be gilded,
這個基本的聊天話題仿佛需要點亮色，
the average American constantly reads about the weather in his newspapers and magazines,listens to regular forecasts of it on the radio and watches while some TV prophet milks it for cuteness on the evening news.
于是普通美國人一直在報刊上閱讀有關天氣的消息，用收音機收聽定期的天氣預報，或在電視晚間新聞觀看天氣預報，而一些天氣預報員利用這個節目買弄聰明伶俐。
Since the weather is to man what the waters are to fish,his preoccupation with it serves a unique purpose,constituting a social phenomenon all its own.
由于天氣對人來說就想水對魚兒一樣重要，人們對天氣的癡迷起到了獨特的影響，造就了一種獨有的社會現象。
Far from arising merely to pass the time or bridge a silence,"weathertalk," as it might be called, is a sort of code by which people confirm and salute the sense of community they discover in the face of the weather's implacable influence.
所謂的“談論天氣”，遠不只是為消磨時間或打破沉默而開始的話題，而是一種代碼，通過這個代碼人們確認并迎接社區歸屬感，而人們在面臨天氣難以撼動的影響時發現了這種歸屬感。
Inspired by exceptional weather,otherwise immutable strangers suddenly find themselves in communion.
受反常天氣的刺激，在其他情況下毫不相干的陌路人，也會突然感到彼此心靈交匯。
As victims, people hate to cancel a picnic on account of rain,and yet they often cheer when the weather brings human activity to an abrupt stop.
作為天氣的受害者，人們討厭因為下雨而取消一次野餐活動，然而，他們還是常常會在天氣使日?；顒油蝗煌Ｖ箷r歡呼雀躍。
Most feel that the weather indeed affects their moods.
大多數人覺得，天氣的確會影響心情。
If man sees the weather differently according to his circumstance,healthy fear works at the hub of his obsession with it.
如果人們根據他們心情的變化而以不同的方式看待天氣，健康的恐懼直接引起了他對天氣的癡迷。
Through human history,weather has altered the march of events and caused some mighty cataclysms.
縱觀人類歷史，天氣改變了歷史的進程，并導致了一些歷史劇變。
Every year brings fresh reminders of the weather's power over human life and events in the form of horrifying tornadoes,hurricanes and floods.
每一年，各種可怕的龍卷風，颶風和洪水都在時刻提醒人們，天氣對人類的生活和活動具有巨大的影響力。
No wonder, then,that man's great dream has been some day to control the weather.
因此，控制天氣在未來成了人類最大的夢想也就不足為奇了。
With computers on tap and electronic eyes in the sky,modern man has thus come far in dealing with the weather,alternately his enemy and benefactor,
現代人身邊有電腦，天上有電子眼，在應對天氣方面已取得了長足的進步—天氣一會兒是人類的敵人，一會兒是恩人；
yet man's difficulty today is not too far removed from that of his remote ancestors.
但人類目前面臨的困難與遙遠的祖先相比卻沒有少到哪里去。
For all the advances of scientific forecasting,in spite of the thousands of daily bulletins and advisories that get flashed about,the weather is still ultimately unstable and unpredictable.
盡管人類在科學預報方面取得了進步，每天有數以千計滾動播出的天氣狀況報告，但天氣終究還是變幻無常，難以預測。
Man's dream of controlling it is still just that-a dream.
人類控制天氣的夢想仍然只是—一個夢想。
The very idea of control, in fact,raises enormous and troublesome questions.
而事實上，控制天氣這個想法本身就提出了十分棘手的問題。
The vision of scheduled weather also raises ambiguous feelings among the world's billions of weather fans and poses at least one irresistible question:
全世界幾十億天氣迷對按日程排定天氣的預想拿捏不定，同時這一設想至少提出了一個無法回避的問題:
If weather were as predictable as holidays and eclipses,what in the world would everyone talk about?
如果天氣像節日假期和日蝕，月蝕一樣可以預知，那么我們還能聊點什么呢？
