【英译汉】
Along a rugged, wideNorth Sea beach here on a recent day, children formed teams of eight to 10,taking their places beside mounds of sand carefully cordoned by tape. They hadone hour for their sand castle competition. Some built fishlike structures,complete with scales. Others spent their time on elaborate ditch and dikelabyrinths. Each castle was adorned on top with a white flag.
Then they watched thesea invade and devour their work, seeing whose castle could with stand the tidelongest. The last standing flag won.
It was no ordinary dayat the beach, but a newly minted, state-sanctioned competition forschoolchildren to raise awareness of the dangers of rising sea levels in a countryof precarious geography that has provided lessons for the world about watermanagement, but that fears that its next generation will grow complacent.
Fifty-five percent ofthe Netherlands is either below sea level or heavily flood-prone. Yet thanks toits renowned expertise and large water management budget (about1.25 percent ofgross domestic product), the Netherlands has averted catastrophe since aflooding disaster in 1953.
Experts here say thatthey now worry that the famed Dutch water management system actually works toowell and that citizens will begin to take for granted the nation’s success instaying dry. As global climate change threatens to raise sea levels by as muchas four feet by the end of the century, the authorities here are working tomake real to children the forecasts that may seem far-off, but that will shapetheir lives in adulthood and old age.
“Everything works sosmoothly that people don’t realize anymore that they are taking a risk indeveloping urban areas in low-lying areas,” said Raimond Hafkenscheid, the leadorganizer of the competition and a water expert with the Foreign Ministry.
Before the competition,the children, ages 6 to 11, were coached by experts in dike building and watermanagement. Volunteers stood by, many of them freshly graduated civilengineers, giving last-minute advice on how best to battle the rising water.
A recently releasedreport by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on watermanagement in the Netherlands pointed to an “awareness gap” among Dutchcitizens. The finding did much to get the sand castle contest off the ground.
【参考译文】
近日，北海沿岸崎岖而宽广的海滩上，孩子们八人一组，十人一队，在用隔离带精心围起来的沙堆旁各就各位。他们要在一个小时内完成堆沙堡的比赛。有些人打造鱼形的主体建筑，再配上鳞片。其余的人修建复杂的沟渠和迷宫式的堤坝。每个沙堡的顶部都插有一面白旗。
然后，孩子们等待着大海涨潮，吞没沙堡，看谁的沙堡在潮水中持续的时间最久。白旗最后倒下的沙堡获胜。
孩子们在海滩上度过的这一天意义非凡。荷兰地理环境不稳定，海平面不断上升，因此，当地政府决定，为小学生们举办一次别开生面的比赛，以此来提高孩子们的危险意识。尽管荷兰一直是世界各国仿效的水利大国，仍然担心下一代会因此变得骄傲自大。
（责任编辑:admin）
