Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
1、 One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value. Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community and, if its stability depends on its integrity, they are entitled to continuance. When one of these noneconomic categories is threatened and, if we happen to love it, we invert excuses to give it economic importance. At the beginning of century songbirds were supposed to be disappearing. (46)【Scientists jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence to the effect that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them. The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid.】 It is painful to read these roundabout accounts today. We have no land ethic yet, (47)【but we have at least drawn nearer the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of intrinsic right, regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us.】 A parallel situation exists in respect of predatory mammals and fish-eating birds. (48)【Time was when biologists somewhat overworked the evidence that these creatures preserve the health of game by killing the physically weak, or that they prey only on “worthless” species.】 Here again, the evidence had to be economic in order to be valid. It is only in recent years that we hear the more honest argument that predators are members of the community, and that no special interest has the right to exterminate them for the sake of a benefit, real or fancied, to itself. Some species of trees have been “read out of the party” by economics-minded foresters because they grow too slowly, or have too low a sale vale to pay as timber crops. (49)【In Europe, where forestry is ecologically more advanced, the non-commercial tree species are recognized as members of the native forest community, to be preserved as such, within reason.】 Moreover, some have been found to have a valuable function in building up soil fertility. The interdependence of the forest and its constituent tree species, ground flora, and fauna is taken for granted. To sum up: a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. (50)【It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial value, but that are essential to its healthy functioning.】 It assumes, falsely, that the economic parts of the biotic clock will function without the uneconomic parts.
正确答案：
参考译文
46. 科学家们迅速出手拯救它们，并提出了不可信的证据，声称如果鸟儿不能控制昆虫的数量，昆虫就会把我们吃光。
47. 但我们至少近乎承认，不论鸟类对我们是否有经济利益，它们都应该持续存在，这是一个自身固有权利的问题。
48. 曾几何时，生物学家们总是滥用这一证据：这些生物通过捕食体弱的生物来维系健康的生物链，或者说它们仅仅捕食“无价值”的物种。
49. 在欧洲，生态林业较为发达，那些没有商业价值的树种被视为本地森林群落的成员，应该得到合理保护。
50. 这种保护系统往往忽视并因此最终消灭那些缺乏商业价值，但对其健康运转至关重要的物种。
答案解析：
生词本
jump to 赶快，立即
shaky adj. 不牢靠的
to the effect 大意是
eat sth. up 吃光
intrinsic adj. 本质的，固有的
overwork v. 过度工作
prey on 捕食
forestry n. 林业学
ecologically adv. 生态学地
eliminate v. 消除
表达难点
46. ①jumped to the rescue表示“迅速救援”。②shaky evidence表示“可疑的证据；站不住脚的证据”。③to the effect that…表示“大意是”，是evidence的后置定语。④that引导的同位语从句修饰the effect，其中嵌套了if引导的条件状语从句，最后部分的failed to control them并不能直接翻译成“不能控制它们”，需译为“不能控制它们的数量”。
47. ①draw near表示“临近，接近”，故draw nearer the point of admitting意为“近乎承认”。②that引导的宾语从句可直接作为“承认”的宾语，顺译即可。③intrinsic right意为“固有权利”。④regardless of …为让步状语，按照汉语习惯，翻译时将其前置。the presence or absence of economic advantage意思为“有无经济利益”。
48. ①Time was when表示“曾几何时”。overwork原本表示“过度工作”，这里可译为“滥用”。③or连接的两个that引导的句子为evidence的同位语从句，由于从句过长，翻译时可以用冒号将evidence和从句分开。
49. ①where引导的定语从句修饰Europe，既可以将其前置译成“在生态林业较为发达的欧洲”，也可以按原英文语序翻译成“在欧洲，生态林业较为发达”。②non-commercial意为“无商业价值的”。③插入语as members of the native forest community修饰的是the non- commercial tree species。④within reason表示“合理的；在合理范围内”。
50. ①本句主干为it tends to ignore and to eliminate many elements. ②elements原意指“元素，成分”，结合语境可知，此处应该是指“物种”。③but连接两个that引导的定语从句，修饰elements，翻译时可以前置翻译。land community可意译为“陆地群落”
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