Australia2

Class A

吴柔昭

0919111024

Australia: Land of superlatives

澳大利亚：最佳之地

In the 1960s, Australia was dubbed "the lucky country" -- though not without some irony, the author implying that its prosperity owed more to luck than good judgment. That luck has not yet run out, although by the nineteen nineties, Australia was facing a slightly more difficult period, with relatively high unemployment, a drop in overseas demand for its export commodities, and a weakened currency. But in spite of these problems, Australia is still a fortunate country, by almost any criterion, with many assets, and most of its eighteen million people enjoy a life of affluence and freedom matched in few other parts of the world. 在20世纪60年代，澳大利亚被称之为“幸运的国家”--虽然有点讽刺的意味，作者暗示着比起良好的判断，它的繁荣更多地归功于运气。澳大利亚至今还得益于于这份运气，尽管在20世纪90年代，澳大利亚面临着一场更艰难的时期，高失业率，海外出口需求缩减和外汇的疲软。但是尽管有这些问题，澳大利亚还是一个幸运的国家，几乎以任何标准来看，丰富的资源以及和世界上少数国家相比，其大多数一千八百万人能享受富裕自由的生活。

The good fortune stems from abundant mineral resources and an agricultural sector that in most years, produces a large surplus of food to export. The wealth created by these primary industries is spread among a relatively small population and supports an easy-going life style that contains many echoes of European and North American (particularly Californian) ways but has also developed a distinctive flavour of its own. Most recently, a decidedly Asian flavour has started to emerge, with the arrival of significant numbers of Asian immigrants. However, the affluence and freedom have largely bypassed one group of Australians: the Aborigines who inhabited the country for at least 50,000 years before the first Europeans settled there in 1788, and whose rich and varied culture has the longest continuous history in the world. 这种幸运源于丰富的矿产资源和在大多数年份产出大量剩余出口食品的农业部。由这些主要行业创造的财富分布于相对较小的人口，并且促成了一种包含许多欧洲和北美（尤其是加利福尼亚）特点的一种随和的生活方式，但也形成了自己独有的特色。近年来，随着大量亚洲移民的迁入，很显然一种亚洲特征开始显现了。然而，富裕和自由很大程度上已绕过一群澳大利土著民：在第一批欧洲人于1788年定居前已在这个国家居住了至少5万年，其财富和丰富多彩的文化在世界上有最悠久的历史。

Whether you consider Australia -- "the South land" - to be the world's largest island, or the world's smallest continent, it is undoubtedly a land of superlatives. Despite its great size and reliance on rural production, it is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world, with more than seventy per cent of the population living in the eight biggest cities. All but one of these cities -- the federal capital, Canberra -- are situated on the coast. Altogether, 85 per cent of

Australians live in urban areas -- an unusually high percentage by world standards. 不管你有没有把澳大利亚--“南部的土地”-当成世界上最大的岛屿，或者是世界上最小的大陆，它都毋庸置疑是个最高级的土地。尽管它有辽阔的面积和依赖农产品，澳大利亚是世界上城市化程度最高的国家，有着超过70%的人口居住在最大的八个城市。这些城市中除了联邦首都--堪培拉以外，都位于海岸地区。总共85%的澳大利亚人居住在市区--按照世界标准，这是一个不寻常的高比例。

It is difficult for most foreigners to appreciate the size and emptiness of Australia. Perth, the capital of Western Australia, probably qualifies as the most isolated city in the world. It is more than 2,100 km (about 1,305 miles) from its closest neighbour, Adelaide, capital of South Australia -- farther than from London to Moscow. 对外国人来说很难理解澳大利亚的面积范围和空旷。珀斯，西部澳大利亚的首都，可能是世界上最偏远的城市。它与距离它最近的南部澳大利亚的首都阿德莱德有2100Km（大约1305米），比伦敦与莫斯科的距离还要远。

Superlatives apply to the climate, too. In the interior, and even in parts of the temperate south-east- inland from the Great Dividing Range - droughts are commonplace, and years can pass without a drop of rain. Other years bring huge downpours that can cause extensive flooding. In the north and north-west, such flooding is an annual occurrence, during the summer "wet", any time between October and May; then roads may be impassable, and tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may batter coastal settlements --like Cyclone Tracey, which devastated Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974. Only in relatively restricted areas, notably along the south-east coast, is rainfall at all reliable. 最高级也适用于天气。在澳大利亚的腹地，甚至在大分水岭东南部一些温和的内陆--旱灾是很常见的，并且常年不降雨。其他年份却带来引起洪灾泛滥的大降雨。在北方和西北方，逢夏天潮湿时，在十月到次年的五月之间，这样的洪灾是每年必发的；道路会变得无法通行，热带飓风袭击沿海地区--比如飓风特雷西，在1974年的圣诞节那天袭击达尔文。仅仅在相对限制区，特别是沿着东南沿海，降雨很充沛。