At present the EEC spends about $2.6 millions a year on solar research at Ispra, one of the EEC’s official joint research centres, and another 3 millions a year in indirect research with universities and other independent bodies.
　　Passage Four
　　The black robin （知更鳥）is one of the world’s rarest birds. It is a small, wild bird, and it lives only on the island of Little Mangere, off the coast of New Zealand. In 1967 there were about 50 black robins there; in 1977 there were fewer than ten. These are the only black robins left in the world. The island has many other birds, of course, of different kinds, large and small; they seem to multiply very happily.
　　Energetic（有力的，積極的）steps are being taken to preserve the black robin-to guard those remaining and to increase their number. Detailed studies are going on, and a public appeal for money has been made. The idea is to buy another island nearby as a special home, a “reserve”, for threatened wild life, including black robins. The organizers say that Little Mangere should then be restocked with the robin’s food-it eats only one kind of seed-and so renewed for it. Thousands of the required plants are at present being cultivated in New Zealand. The public appeal is aimed at the conscience of mankind, so that the wild black robin willl not die out and disappear from the earth in our time at least.
　　In the earth’s long, long past hundreds of kinds of creatures have evolved, risen to a degree of success-and died out. In the long, long future there will be many new and different forms of life. Those creatures that adapt themselves successfully to what the earth offers will survive for a long time. Those that fail to meet the challenges will disappear early. That is Nature’s proven method of operation.
　　The rule of selection-“the survival of the fittest” is the one by which man has himself arrived on the scene.
　　Life seems to have grown too tough for black robins.　　
　　參考譯文:
　　1. 時裝設計者很少關心衣服的暖和、舒服、耐用這些至關重要的問題。設計者在只對衣服的外觀感興趣的同時，利用了這樣一個事實：即女人只要（穿上衣服）顯得好看，就會忍受任何巨大的不舒適。
　　2. 巴帕薩克推斷，根本不是光源信號點使這些嬰兒感到欣喜，而是在解決難題、掌握技巧中所取得的成功令他們高興，因而斷定人類具有認識世界和有意識地控制世界的基本欲望。
　　3. 但他說，隨著歐共體對這一研究工作所提供的資金數量在現有基礎上適度增加，這種能源的供給在下一個十年后期是有可能取得突破的。
　　4. 那些能成功地適應地球所給予的一切的生物將長久地生存下來。那些不能適應生活挑戰的生物在世界上將會很快滅絕。這是被證實了的大自然運行的方法。