经济学人274:模拟海啸 岛国的危险

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Modelling tsunamis²

　　模拟海啸

　　The dangers of insularity³

　　岛国的危险

　　Islands may amplify⁴ the biggest waves, not break them

　　岛屿可能会增强海啸，而不会减弱海啸

　　SURFERS shun⁵ beaches shielded by islands off the coast.

　　冲浪者不会去海中的岛屿的沙滩上去冲浪。

　　That, as generations of swarthy, golden-haired hulks will tell you, is because such islands create a natural breakwater.

　　一代又一代的金发肤色黝黑的冲浪者会告诉你，那是因为这类小岛形成天然的防波堤。

　　This dampens waves and makes for a boringly calm surf best left to sunbathers.

　　这类岛屿的沙滩海浪较小，海面很平静，最适合晒日光浴的人了。

　　The surfers’ reasoning is sound for the short-wave, wind-generated swells⁶ that they ride.

　　较短、由风产生浪比较适合冲浪，对于这种浪来说，这种解释很合理。

　　But Themistoklis Stefanakis, of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Cachan, France, warns it may not be true for the longer wavelengths⁸ of tsunamis.

　　但是，来自法国卡尚高等师范学校Themistoklis Stefanakis警告说，对于波浪较长的海啸来说，就不一样了。

　　As he and his colleagues show in a paper posted on arXiv, an online repository, littoral⁹ islands may actually exacerbate¹⁰, rather than diminish, the effects of these waves.

　　如Themistoklis Stefanakis跟他的同事在线数据库arXiv发表的文章中所描述的的那样：实际上沿海的岛屿可能会增强长波浪的强度，而不是减弱。

　　Anecdotal evidence for this counterintuitive assertion comes from episodes where the same tsunami¹ has battered¹¹ different types of coastal¹² topography.

　　这种违反直觉的判断的轶事证据来自很少见的现象—同一海啸会造成不同的海岸地貌。

　　In 2010, for instance, when one hit the Mentawai islands in Indonesia, areas of coastline directly behind islets bore the brunt of the damage, according to Costas Synolakis, a tsunami expert at the University of Southern California who is one of the study’s co-authors.

　　例如，2010年印度尼西亚明达威岛遭遇的海啸，明达威岛后的海岸区域的破坏的最为严重，南加州大学的海啸专家Costas Synolakis这样说道，他是这篇文章的作者之一。

　　Dr Synolakis, Mr Stefanakis and their colleagues decided¹³ to try to put numbers on their hunch¹⁴.

　　博士Synolakis Mr Stefanakis及他们的同事，决定验证这个设想。

　　Rather than valiantly¹⁵ staking out seafront locales, though, they tested the idea with a computer model.

　　他们想到用电脑模拟的方法来实验，而不是在海岸实验。

　　This is harder than it sounds.

　　实际做起来要比听起来难很多。

　　Simulating the way waves behave as they make landfall means taking account of, literally¹⁶, oceans of data.

　　要模拟当海浪到大陆地时海浪的运动就意味着要严格地考虑到海洋的信息。

　　To simplify the problem, the researchers looked at what happens when a computerised wave encounters a cone-shaped island on a smoothly¹⁷ sloping seabed in front of a straight cyber-coastline with a beach that continues to rise smoothly as it progresses inland.

　　为了简化问题，在带有海滩的笔直虚拟海岸线可平滑上升的情况下，研究人员观察当模拟的的海浪在平滑的斜海床上与锥形岛屿相遇时，会发生什么。

　　These approximations allow a computer to cope with the problem, yet are sufficiently¹⁸ similar to many real places for the conclusions drawn¹⁹ from them to, as it were, hold water.

　　电脑在处理这类问题时，这种近似可以忽略，然而这跟之前认为得减弱海浪的结论已经很相似了.

　　The team made their virtual islet jut²⁰ out of the ocean to an altitude of 100 metres, a typical height above sea level for such outcrops.

　　研究组将模拟的岛屿拉高到海平面100米的位置,许多岛屿超出海平面也就是100米。

　　They then looked at 200 combinations of gradients for the sides of the island, the seabed and the beach; the distance between the island and the beach; and the wavelength⁷ of the encroaching tsunami.

　　他们将岛屿、海床、沙滩的外围的倾斜度，岛屿和沙滩的距离，海啸的波长做了200种组合来实验观察。

　　In none of these did an island offer any succour to the coastline behind it. Instead, it acted as a lens, focusing the wave’s destructive power and amplifying²¹ its size by between 5% and 70%.

　　没有一类能有助于减弱海啸。实际上，它好比一个透镜，将海浪的破坏力聚集起来，并且扩大5%-70%。

　　The upshot is that, far from shielding a coastline, offshore²² islands can make things worse—information that should be incorporated into tsunami evacuation plans.

　　结果是。沿海的岛屿不会保护海岸区域不受破坏，反而会让其更糟。这在海啸救援中应当将其考虑在内。

　　For if a big wave is coming, running from it is not enough. You also have to know how far to run before it is safe to stop.

　　如果海啸来临，跑是不够的。还应该知道跑多远才是安全的。

　　1.make for 走向；前往；冲向

　　That could make for a fractious party.

　　这将会导致一个乖张固执的政党。

　　U. s. politics and volatile²³ financial markets make for strange times for the yuan.

　　美国的政治局势和动荡的金融市场使人民币的日子有些不好过。

　　2.rather than 而不…，与其…倒不如

　　His film is propaganda rather than documentary.

　　说他的影片是政治宣传而不是纪录片。

　　He is an explorer rather than a sailor.

　　与其说他是一个海员，不如说他是一个探险者。

　　3.come from 来自某处；出生于

　　Where does the study come from?

　　这项研究来自什么地方？

　　The findings come from a report compiled by 700 experts over five years.

　　上述发现出自于一份由700位专家历时5年编写的报告。

　　4.according to 根据，按照；据…所说

　　Again this is according to recently declassified²⁴ information.

　　这也还是根据最近解密的信息得知的。

　　It did not go according to plan.

　　这个妥协方案并没有按计划执行。

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 tsunamis   

n.海啸( tsunami的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our oceans are alive with earthquakes, volcanoes, and more recently, tsunamis. 海中充满着地震、火山，包括最近发生的海啸。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• Please tell me something more about tsunamis! 请您给我讲讲海啸吧！ 来自辞典例句

3 insularity   

n.心胸狭窄；孤立；偏狭；岛国根性

参考例句：

• But at least they have started to break out of their old insularity.但是他们至少已经开始打破过去孤立保守的心态。
• It was a typical case of British chauvinism and insularity.这是典型的英国沙文主义和偏狭心理的事例。

4 amplify   

vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说

参考例句：

• The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
• Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。

5 shun   

vt.避开，回避，避免

参考例句：

• Materialists face truth,whereas idealists shun it.唯物主义者面向真理，唯心主义者则逃避真理。
• This extremist organization has shunned conventional politics.这个极端主义组织有意避开了传统政治。

6 swells   

增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The waters were heaving up in great swells. 河水正在急剧上升。
• A barrel swells in the middle. 水桶中部隆起。

7 wavelength   

n.波长

参考例句：

• The authorities were unable to jam this wavelength.当局无法干扰这一波长。
• Radio One has broadcast on this wavelength for years.广播1台已经用这个波长广播多年了。

8 wavelengths   

n.波长( wavelength的名词复数 )；具有相同的/不同的思路；合拍；不合拍

参考例句：

• I find him difficult to talk to—we're on completely different wavelengths. 我没法和他谈话，因为我们俩完全不对路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sunlight consists of different wavelengths of radiation. 阳光由几种不同波长的射线组成。 来自辞典例句

9 littoral   

adj.海岸的；湖岸的；n.沿（海）岸地区

参考例句：

• We should produce the littoral advantage well.我们应该把海滨的优势很好地发挥出来。
• The reservoir sandstone was believed to have been deposited in a littoral environment.储集层砂岩就被认为是近海环境的沉积。

10 exacerbate   

v.恶化，增剧，激怒，使加剧

参考例句：

• WMO says a warming climate can exacerbate air pollution.世界气象组织说，气候变暖可能会加剧空气污染。
• In fact efforts will merely exacerbate the current problem.实际上努力只会加剧当前的问题。

11 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

12 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 hunch   

n.预感，直觉

参考例句：

• I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉，他并不真正想去。
• I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。

15 valiantly   

adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳

参考例句：

• He faced the enemy valiantly, shuned no difficulties and dangers and would not hesitate to lay down his life if need be. 他英勇对敌，不避艰险，赴汤蹈火在所不计。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Murcertach strove valiantly to meet the new order of things. 面对这个新事态，默克塔克英勇奋斗。 来自辞典例句

16 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

17 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

18 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

19 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

20 jut   

v.突出；n.突出，突出物

参考例句：

• His mouth started to jut out,and his jaw got longer.他的嘴向前突出，下巴也变长了。
• His teeth tend to jut out a little.他的牙齿长得有点儿凸出。

21 amplifying   

放大，扩大( amplify的现在分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• Often they use borrowed funds, amplifying their gains and losses. 他们通常会用借贷的资金交易，从而放大收益或损失。
• An amplifying type (or analog) device, as opposed to digital device. 放大器类（或模拟）器件，相对于数字器件而言的。

22 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

23 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

24 declassified   

adj.解密的v.对（机密文件等）销密( declassify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thousands of classified documents have now been declassified. 数以千计的保密文件现在被解密了。
• The software used for Siemens S7-300 encryption logic block declassified. 此软件用于对西门子S7-300加密逻辑块解密。