2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：钚与米奇鼠

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Plutonium and Mickey Mouse钚与米奇鼠

　　Japan’s nuclear crisis drags on, exposing profoundfailures both at the company and in national energypolicy

　　日本核危机悬而未决，暴露出公司和国家能源政策的深刻失败

　　IT IS daylight, but the darkness inside theheadquarters of the world’s biggest privately ownedelectricity company is sepulchral. Officials, headsbowed, apologise in whispers for the trouble TokyoElectric Power (TEPCO) has caused. Their 66-year-old boss, Masataka Shimizu, went intohospital on March 30th, suffering from hypertension; he has been absent for much of the pastthree weeks. In the gloom TEPCO’s logo on the walls of the building resembles a mutant MickeyMouse.

　　外面晴空万里，世界上最大的私有电力公司总部里却是阴云密布。管理人员低着头小声为东京电力公司(TEPCO)造成的事故而道歉。东京电力公司66岁的总裁清水正孝由于高血压于3月30日入院，过去的三个多星期里他一直不在公司。而挂在大楼墙上阴沉的东京电力公司商标就像是一只发生突变了的米奇鼠。

　　About 250km away, at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant, hundreds of TEPCOemployees and some subcontractors are trying to prevent further leaks of radioactive materialfrom three damaged nuclear reactors and various sources of spent fuel. Their conditions areclose to intolerable. At times, they have been exposed to more radiation in a few hours thanthey are supposed to endure in a year. Their rations are biscuits and canned food. They have ablanket each, and sleep on the floor. Some have lost homes and families to the tsunami thatleft 27,690 dead or missing. TEPCO sees them as soldiers. “We don’t think they are heroes.They are doing what they should,” an official says.

　　250公里之外的福岛第一核电站，成百上千的东京电力公司雇员和一些转包商正试图阻止由三个损坏的核反应堆和各种来源的废燃料产生的放射性物质的进一步泄露。他们的工作环境非常的糟糕。有时，他们在暴露的几小时内所承受的辐射量就超过了他们理应一年承受的量，配给的食物是饼干和罐装食品，人手一张毯子，睡觉就打地铺。部分工作人员已经在造成了27,690人死亡或失踪的海啸中失去了房屋和家庭。东京电力公司把他们视作战士：一位高层说：“我们不认为他们是英雄，他们正在做自己该做的事。”

　　TEPCO is getting most of the blame for Japan’s nuclear disaster. For much of the past threeweeks, the authorities have held out hopes that they could regain control by reconnectingcooling systems damaged by the tsunami. These are supposed to prevent fuel from meltingand rupturing the protective steel case of the reactor vessels.

　　东京电力公司受到了源于日本核灾难的大多数指责。在过去的三个多星期里，当局提出希望通过重新连接在海啸中损坏的冷却系统来重新控制局势。他们要阻止燃料融化和破坏反应堆容器的保护性外铁壳。

　　This week the discovery of large pools of highly radioactive water and raised levels of radiationin seawater near the plant has shown how far the authorities really are from regaining control.Previous releases of radioactive iodine and caesium had shown that material from the core ofat least one reactor has been released. The new findings suggest that the systems designed tocontain such releases may have been badly compromised. The tanks into which contaminatedwater is being pumped will eventually fill up. And conditions for workers are getting moredangerous, which means that fixing up the cooling systems and hooking up vital measuringinstruments takes longer.

　　本周发现的大量高放射性水以及核电站附近水域中升高的辐射水平都显示了：对于重新控制局势当局还有很长的路要走。过去泄露的放射性碘量和铯量已经说明至少有一个反应堆核心有放射性物质泄露。最新的发现证明被设计用于盛放这些泄露物的容器已经严重损坏。抽出的污染水最终将填满这些贮水池。作业环境对于工人来说正在变得越来越危险，这意味着修复冷却系统以及挂接重要的测量仪器将花费更长的时间。

　　The plant is so woefully damaged that TEPCO officialscannot say when the crisis will be over. Levels ofradiation have mostly been subsiding, thoughunevenly spread. But reports on March 31strevealed that radiation in a village 40km awayexceeded criteria for evacuation and the UN’snuclear watchdog suggested the government mightwiden the 20km evacuation zone. All this hascompounded worries that the area round the plantmay remain unsafe for years.

　　核电站被破坏的非常严重，东京电力公司当局不能说明危机什么时候能结束。尽管辐射在不均衡扩散，大多辐射水平还是稳定了下来。但是3月31日的报告显示：40公里外的辐射量超过了疏散标准，联合国的国际原子能机构建议日本政府应当将疏散区扩大20公里。这些都加剧了核电站附近区域可能在接下来的数年内都不会安全的忧虑。

　　There is plenty of blame to go around. TEPCO wrongly measured radiated waters in one of theturbine halls at 10m times normal level, rather than the still-alarming 100,000 times.Subcontractors working for TEPCO reportedly complained about the safety of their workers onsite. Three electricians accidentally stepped into a dangerous puddle on March 24th. In one signof unpreparedness, the gauge that measured the radioactivity of water afterwards could notgo higher than 1,000 millisieverts an hour, about the level at which radiation becomes animmediate threat to health.

　　对于东京电力公司的指责不绝于耳。东京电力公司错误地测量了其中一个汽机房中的放射性水的辐射水平是正常水平的10,000,000倍，而不是仍在警戒的100,000倍。根据传闻，为东京电力公司工作的转包商抱怨他们在工地的工作人员的安全问题。3月24日，三名电工误入了一个危险的水坑。在准备不足的一个迹象中，测量完水中的放射性之后的测量器无法显示比1，000毫西弗特更高的数值，而在这一水平下辐射会直接影响到人的健康。

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